20 February 2007 19:21
(continuation)"negril" is actually a somewhat vague term due to the strung out nature of the town. Negril in the popular mindset extends from North Negril Point (which is actually in Hanover and not really part of the township of Negril, Westmoreland) all the way south to a couple miles past South Negril Point. south of the north point is Bloody Bay and then the star of the show, the four miles of white sand beach in Long Bay. the south terminus of Long Bay is the mouth of the South Negril River, which is drainage for The Great Morass, a rather large swamp covering the areas east of Long and Bloody Bays (mosquitoes anyone?). the topography on the opposite banks of the Negril River is quite different. to the north is the Great Morass, a flatland swamp. To the south then is a low ridge--less than a thousand feet high, but more than enough to ensure adequate drainage. the difference is also noticed on the coast itself. the white sand changes to cliffs as high as fifty feet facing the water.
we eventually wound up at south negril point, home of the negril lighthouse. the cliffs at that point are a little lower than they are at ricks cafe just down the road. the highest near the lighthouse was probably thirty feet. while the girls sat on the wall along the top, drew and i climbed down the provided ladder and messed around on the rocks at the base. in that particular area the cliff had crumbled in at some point in the past, but as we edged our way along the water's edge we came to a place where the water was deep right up to the sheer face of the cliff. seeing a spot about 12 feet off the water that was accessible from the top, we climbed back up the ladder and headed for it overland in search of that great chemical known as adrenaline.
one thing led to another and i found myself standing next to drew in the far corner of the lighthouse property, eying twenty-five feet of air between my toes and the water. we'd already swam around the base and checked the depth, and of course the clear caribbean water held no secrets despite being quite deep. i told drew in unconditional terms that I wasn't going first, so he went and I followed--it was merely a matter of accidentally running off a cliff. our next step was agreed on immediately. "let's talk laurel into doing it!" (we're wonderful peers to have). we also agreed that there was no use in trying to talk elizabeth into jumping.
five minutes later the four of us were peering over the edge. the girls were asking impertinent questions like "how deep is it" and "how do you get back up?". (the last was actually a problem for them since it involved twenty-odd feet of rock climbing). to everyone's profound surprise (including elizabeth's) she was agreeing to go if laurel went. jump laurel did, leaving elizabeth little choice in the matter.
across the small cove we were jumping into was a vacant resort (closed until tourist season). we made free with our use of their stairs and jumping platform for it allowed a much quicker turnaround time than climbing the cliff face. average drop time was around 1.3 seconds. since i morbidly found myself spending the last fifteen feet of every fall thinking about how much this would hurt if i was dropping onto concrete instead of water, one and a quarter seconds was long enough.
after we finished, we wandered back onto the lighthouse property just in time to catch the tail end of a tour group leaving the lighthouse. we immediately presented ourselves to the lightkeeper who gave us a very tired spiel before leading us to the top. not much to see that i hadn't seen before (the view is actually much better another thousand feet higher from an airplane), but nevertheless something to climb because it's there.
we were now getting on towards lunchtime, so we headed back into town while keeping our eyes peeled for a place to eat. we wound up at a small joint called "serious chicken" and had a look at the menu. unimpressed we opted for drinks all ordered limeaids. she of course had to grow the lime tree first, but when they finally came they definitely hit the spot. granted, all we'd had to drink for the last four hours was bottled water that had been sitting in a hot car, but those limeaids immediately shot to the exalted position of "best limeaid ever". in fact, when we returned the next day for more of the same, it was still the best limeaid ever. although that time, not only did they have to grow the tree, but the guy making them actually had to run down the street to buy some of the ingredients.
back in negril proper we headed to juici patties for an actual lunch. it was like being back in our "normal" places in jamaica, since we were definitely the only non-locals there. can't imagine why, since there were plenty of tourists eating over at the burger king.
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for the afternoon we returned to the beach. things were now a good bit livelier than they'd been at seven in the morning, but two in the afternoon was still a far cry from "bustling". a number of places were shut down completely, or sported only two or three patrons lounging among dozens of beach chairs. we spent some time in the water, some time lounging around, and some time walking the beach. the only time all four of us got together at once was towards four o'clock when we spent thirty minutes shopping for a sarong for drew.
the evening brought us all together again at sunset. we decided that it was a crying shame that the water trampoline a quarter mile up the beach at margaritaville was lying unused. marching purposefully along the water front, except when we stopped to avoid interrupting photographs of two sets of newlyweds being photographed against the sunset, we made it to the edge of margaritaville's swimming area before diving into the water and making an all out race of it. the trampoline lay well out in the water and was anchored to their swimming boundary cable. (if you've never seen one, it's twenty foot innertube with a regular trampoline in the middle). i was rather disappointed to discover how much energy the tube and the water absorbed, trying to get enough altitude to do anything required tremendous amounts of effort. after five minutes of failure i turned my attentions to the innertube bit and spent the next twenty minutes alternating between sliding off it backwards and upside down with trying to get on top of it without using the ladders (no mean feat with slippery rubber and slippery skin).
rather exhausted by that somewhat frenzied activity, swimming back to shore in the dark was trying but i eventually wound up far enough in to touch bottom. we headed back down to roots for the rest of the night.
a quiet evening ensued, culminating in a late-night swim that didn't last very long (apparently the water cools off a lot faster than it warms up). we headed for bed, but somehow wound up with all four of us in drew and mine's cabin discussing a far-ranging array of topics surrounding a central theme of "the condition of the world". i make fun of jamaican's for always talking about what's wrong with jamaica and never actually doing anything, but this conversation was suspiciously similar in nature. i did however, learn a few things about my worldview and discovered a number of other ideas that i'd never contemplated before so i consider the discussion a success. it wrapped up around two and we headed to bed (again).
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