We got up a little after 9 and met up with our friends for breakfast. We walked up the road to Jackie’s place, but it appeared to be closed even though there weas a breakfast menu on the wall. We hung around for a bit to see if anyone showed up.

Nobody seemed to be around, so we walked up the hill a little way to look around.

There were a few people up working, and guys passing on motorcycles. Mostly it was just us and the wild dogs, though.

I decided I wanted to own the Hype Bar:

We went back to the main road and kept going toward another place they’d been before. It was the first time I noticed the huge castle overhanging the cliffs, too.

Jenny’s Cakes had a full breakfast selection, plus cakes. A ton of them. It was also billed alternately as the Country Bar (businesses in Negril seem to have multiple interchangeable names, as far as we could tell). I wanted to cry a little when I heard “Chicken Fried” coming from inside the building.

We got a picnic table out in the yard and ordered a cake plate for the kids. We got super-strong coffee with condensed cream. Delicious. Also, our server was hilarious. We loved her a lot.

I had a callaloo omelet, and Matt got this feast with saltfish, ackee, and four different starches:

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped in at Pee Wees for a rum punch. They made them different than most places, more like a smoothie. We hung out at the bar there overlooking the ocean for a while.

We stopped at the convenience store again and talked to Pila while the menfolk went inside for beer, rum, and ice. We took all that back to the hotel and sat in the wading pool with our refreshments while the kids swam. The sea was much calmer than the previous day.

Kris gave us a tour of the cliffs on the Samsara property. We saw blue crabs scrambling around the rocks, and a stairway and ladder down to a good snorkeling spot. There’s also a big hole in the cliffs that forms a natural Jacuzzi, and it was pretty full from the waves. We then headed to the main pool to swim for a while, followed by the hot tub. Then we headed to the room to shower and change.

They dropped off a coconut at our room, so Bally hung out with his new pal:

Kris headed to Hi-Lo, the big grocery store in town, and Matt and I took some beers to a table on the patio where we could play dominoes. We had Red Stripe Bold (which is delicious), a ton of water (I was very grateful to the bar there for always having a giant cooler of ice water available), and ate some plantain chips. Matt won, but just that once.

Kris and Orsi showed up, and we went to the Samsara bar to take advantage of 2-for-1s. We hung out at our table waiting for sunset, because it was the first clear day we’d had there. While we were sitting there, we heard a loud SPLAT and found half a needlefish laying on the ground a few feet away, where a bird had dropped it.

Sunset did not disappoint. We went down to our end of the hotel grounds to watch, along with several other guests.

Matt insisted I call this “The Old Man and the Sea”, obviously:

After sunset, we crossed the street to Pablo’s for dinner. While we waited for food, everyone practiced their Usain Bolt.

Matt had hot wings, salad, conch soup, and curry goat. I had a huge vegetarian platter with callaloo and rice and peas.

After dinner, Orsi took the kids to the hotel and we headed back to No Limit with Kris, of course. I had rum punch, and we watched curling on TV with a guy from Saskatchewan. I was entertained by the resident wild dog who circled the bar constantly.

Kris and I played Jenga, and I won. He left around 10:30, so Matt and I went across the street to Pee Wee’s. There was a band playing there, and the bar was pretty crowded. We ended up playing Jenga there, too, because apparently that’s the thing you do at bars in Negril. (Note to self: buy Jenga.) We had a whole bunch of rum punches and stayed too late, but it was nice to see a place that was still hopping late at night.