Friday was supposed to be our day to go to Floyd’s Pelican Bar, but with the weather there was no way one could possibly take a tiny boat to an offshor bar on stilts. It was crazy.

The hotel had half the grounds roped off so people couldn’t get within 30 feet of the edge of the cliffs. The waves were so big they’d occasionally splash up over the roof of the two-story spa building.

We walked to Pablo’s for breakfast. Up on the road it was a least a little calmer, but you’d still feel sea spray even at that distance. Across the street, Sastick was standing in the door of his little produce market wearing jeans and an Aran fisherman’s sweater. It was cold in Jamaica!

While we were sitting there eating, a Canadian drove by on a motorscooter and crashed it a few doors down. He laid in the road for a good long time with a big crowd around him before getting up. We thought he was seriously injured, but apparently he was just embarrassed. (There’s no way in hell I’d ride a scooter up on the cliffs. Those taxis drive like maniacs around the curves.)

After breakfast, we ran to Lance’s for snacks and beer. I had to take a picture of it, since I’m pretty sure we’ve been in this store 20 times.

We went back to the hotel and hung out on Kris and Orsi’s porch, watching the waves crash. Kris smashed up fruit and made delicious rum punches. A little after 1pm, Matt and I walked over to the bar to use their free wifi and check in for our flight the next day.

The kids were invited to a birthday party with one of Byron and Nav’s friends, so we walked down to No Limit to drop them off. We played dominoes on the street, and the sun even came out for a little bit.

A bit later, we crossed the street to PeeWees and had a beer there, and then went up to get a cab to the Rockhouse. At that point, we were sick to death of beer and wanted proper cocktails. The Rockhouse excels at that.

We got seats at the bar, and got to know the bartenders, who were hilarious. One of them set up elaborate tricks with toothpicks, both for the purpose of making dirty jokes and as brain-teasers. We had a couple appetizers, and the ackee dip was incredible. We need to go back there again for dinner sometime.

After a couple drinks, we decided to go get food at 3 Dives. Kris had called ahead with our order, because the wait at that place can be ridiculous. (The last time we were there, it was beyond packed in the middle of a rainstorm.) We paid our tab and headed off down the road in that direction. A cab came by honking, and it turned out to be their friend Champion, who hangs out at No Limit all the time. We all piled into the back of his cab, and he dropped us the restaurant.

The place was nearly deserted, which was strange. We thought it might have been the weather, but learned later that it was because of a big show down on the beach. People had crowded in early, and then headed that way. We had a gigantic awesome meal including jerk chicken, red snapper, and curry conch (I had steamed veg and callalloo), covered in their many varieties of hot sauce.

We got a cab back to No Limit, where Matt and I had to set about the business of saying bye to everyone. (It helped that we’d already made plans to revisit Negril in two years, which will be Kris and Orsi’s 10th anniversary.) Kris ‘helped’ Jason by hiding his shoes above the door, though he managed to find them himself.

They’d made arrangements for us to get a ride to the airport with Champion the next day. As we walked out the door, we saw him nearly passed out on the domino table. Everyone goes hard in Jamaica.

We headed back to the hotel to have a last Appleton on Kris and Orsi’s patio, and then went to the room to finish packing up our stuff for the trip.