Negril – Day Three (1.24.10)

After the usual breakfast of French toast, omelet, fresh fruit and lots of coffee, we took a stroll down West End Road (also called the Cliff Road, the Lighthouse Road or the One Love Road depending who you ask, but there's only one road).

Lunch was at Alice’s, a restaurant across the street from Tensing Pen. It was a great meal of grilled lobster (for me) and curried goat (for Husband).

Afternoon was spent relaxing by the sea and reading.

Before dinner, we watched the beautiful sunset.

Dinner was at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. Why? Because of the NFC championship game between the Saints and the Vikings that Husband had to watch. The food and service were surprisingly great. The overzealous Vikings fans did annoy me a little though.

Unfortunately, Margaritaville was our only trip to Seven Mile Beach, and it was at night, so I did not see much. Central Negril is divided into two distinct areas: Seven Mile Beach and West End, where we stayed. Seven Mile Beach is supposedly a long, beautiful stretch of public beachfront with scores of bars and restaurants. All buildings must be shorter than palm trees per local ordinance. Hopefully, I will return to Negril one day to further explore this area.

Negril – Day Two (1.23.10)

The day started with breakfast at Tensing Pen’s restaurant, where items such as fruit, fresh juice, coffee, bread and jam are included in the room rate. Additional items like omelets, bacon, and French toast are available for order (for $3 to $4). Everyday, I had the delicious banana French toast.

After breakfast, we walked around the the hotel, which is situated on its own secluded and pristine cove. Tensing Pen faces the ocean. But as with other resorts in Negril's West End, it does not have a traditional sandy beach.

Guests can climb down the cliffs and swim from a handful of ladders built into the cliffs. Those that are brave can jump off the skinny, 20-foot wooden bridge over the hotel’s cove.

A pool is set below the restaurant and overlooks a view of the ocean.

The crystal-clear, snorkel-perfect water provides an environment for open water swimming.

Both the pool and cliffs are unsupervised. Signs are posted in a few places warning guests to swim at their own risk.

Yoga classes are held in the open-air studio every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 11 AM (for a fee).

A gift shop is located near the lobby (where free Wi-Fi is available).

There is also a spa hut. Spa services, skin treatments and massages can be arranged through the front desk.

The hotel owns the most beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs that were so calm and friendly. One was named Tensing and the other Sugar.

The restaurant has an open floor plan and views of the pool and sea. It serves mostly Jamaican food and its service was consistently pleasant. 

Though it feels private and secluded, guests are a few steps away from a handful of great restaurants, bars, and food stalls along West End Road. Additionally, it is just a short walk or cab ride away from must-see attractions like Rick's Café (a Negril icon since 1974), Negril Lighthouse, and Seven Mile Beach.

Cottages are spread out over the large property, and all are unique. Several types of bungalows, rooms, and studios are available, so the room and furniture configurations differ widely. Some of the thatched cottages are “pillar houses,” which is an architectural style associated with the West End.

For lunch that day, we walked to Rockhouse where we had the conch fritters as a starter and jerk chicken sandwich (for husband) and lobster wrap (for me) as our entrées. The food was delicious and the service was perfection. Best of all, the view from the restaurant was beyond amazing.

Post-lunch, we relaxed by the pool and did lots of reading.

We chose to have dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was another satisfying meal—polenta with mushrooms as a starter and escoveitch pork and curried shrimp as entrees.

Negril – Day One (1.22.10)

It was not easy to wake up at 4 AM for our 6:30 AM flight. But we were going to Jamaica after all, so I took it like a champ!



We arrived at Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport just 3 hours later and after immigration and customs, we immediately made the 1.5 hour-drive to Negril. Our driver, Carlton from Reggae Tours offered a wealth of knowledge about Jamaica and pointed out important sights during the drive. The highlight for me was driving through Lucea, a bustling city between Montego Bay and Negril, where you can watch the locals go about their day.



Our accommodations for the next 6 days is Tensing Pen, which is a 22-room (divided among 17 cottages) hotel set in the rugged but beautiful cliffs of Negril's West End. It opened in the 1970s as a tiny hippie hangout. Now, Tensing Pen is where people come to unplug--no TVs, phones, internet or radios in the rooms.

Upon arrival at Tensing Pen, we were greeted with a refreshing complimentary drink.



Then we had lunch at Tensing Pen’s superb open-air restaurant. I had the callaloo fritters. It was the first time I had callaloo, a spinach-like vegetable used throughout the Caribbean. Husband had escoveitched fish wrap. Escoveitched fish is a traditional Jamaican dish introduced by the Spanish settlers in the early 16th century. Whole or sliced fish is fried and then covered with a spicy marinade (which acts as a natural preservative). It was a convenient dish in the days before electricity as it could be left for over a day without refrigeration.



After lunch, a hotel staff took us to our room, the Garden Studio.

We unpacked and because we were exhausted, we spent the late afternoon taking a nap. We woke up just in time for dinner. After consulting our Lonely Planet guidebook, we decided to go to LTU Pub for dinner. LTU Pub is a small restaurant just a short walk from Tensing Pen and provides an awe-inspiring cliff-face setting. We had the crab balls and pumpkin soup as starters and Husband had jerk chicken while I had the seafood pasta for our entrée. Both were delicious and the service was superb. So far, the trip was exactly what we hoped for.

Photo of the Week

New linen scarf (from Love Quotes purchased from Tobi.com)

Steve McCurry

One photographer I deeply admire is Steve McCurry, a photojournalist mostly known for his National Geographic photographs. And one of my favorite photography book is his Portraits, a small (5x7) book of about a hundred unforgettable and beautiful street portraits of people all over the world.  The book hardly contains any words, just remarkable photos worth a thousand words that I look at over and over again.  To put it simply, he and this book inspire me.

I know that chances are, I will not be famous photojournalist like Steve. But I do enjoy photography as a creative outlet. A wish for myself is that once in awhile, I take a photo that speak to people, similar to Steve's body of work.

One of my favorite portraits that I have taken so far (my friend's adorable son):

Photo of the Week

My read-soon pile of books:

Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs

One of the items on my travel wish-list is to travel to a spa destination for a weekend of relaxation. When I get this chance, the Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs is where I will be. This resort is located about one hour north of Santa Fe and offers a gorgeous setting (it is nestled in the New Mexico hills), inspiring adobe architecture, rejuvenating yoga classes, calorie-burning hikes, relaxing spa treatments, and of course, hot-spring pools, which contain different types of mineral water--iron soda, lithia and arsenic. The pools were also considered sacred by the early Pueblo inhabitants of the plateau above the resort. This place sounds like bliss!

image/Sunset Magazine