Negril revisited

As a child, I visited Negril in Westmoreland, Jamaica many times with my parents, brother and cousins, as it has the most beautiful white sand beaches and cool, clear, warm water and on the west end, people were having fun jumping off various rocks into the clear blue waters. 

You see, where we lived in the neighboring parish of St. Elizabeth, had nothing comparable.

At that time, Negril was a little sleepy fishing village.

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Somehow in the 1960's, rich hippies from the nearby USA, heard about it and propelled by the thought of being able to freely enjoy some top quality ganja (marijuana) while lounging on the beach or jumping off 40 foot high cliffs into the clear water below, started to visit. 

The  Negril lighthouse

People from all over the world are still enjoying themselves, jumping off the high cliffs into the clear blue waters today.

Then they were accommodated in nothing but thatch huts, offered by extremely hospitable people.

  The existence of this new hot spot near the USA spread rapidly  and soon people from all over the world started to find their way to the exotic village. 

That was the genesis of tourism in this most prized section of Jamaica and today, almost all the land on the 7 mile section of the beach is lined with bars, hotels, restaurants while the cliff side is abuzz, offering everything including high end accommodation, non-stop music, partying and fun for people of all ages.

The late great Peter Tosh who also hailed from Westmoreland, strongly advocated for the legaling of marijuana and numerous paintings of him with his mantra " Legalize It" are prominent on the wall at Ricks Cafe.

I had not visited the cliff side for more than a decade and was really impressed with what it had become.

Ricks Cafe which established itself    

beside the jumping spot 50 years ago, has been expanding  exponentially too.

 That's the party center of the West end.

Boats bring visitors from the beaches to the cliff side to jump off the rocks.

They come from land and sea to party.

Negril is definitely now on top of its game and I loved the vibes.🥳

Scammers everywhere!

 Scamming is now so pervasive, that one can be excused if one gets paranoid. 

Really!

I am about to visit South Africa and to be secure, had booked an airport taxi transfer to the city. This was done through an international airport transfer service and it was confirmed giving me driver name etc. 

Just like Lyft or Uber. 

But this morning, I got a WhatsApp  text from what looks like a Chinese area code asking me to confirm my pickup info. So I went to the web page of the company and sent them a secure message. 

Low and behold they do not correspond in that manner! 

It is such a regular thing with scammers sending messages allegedly from companies like Amazon, Netflix etc, hoping you will reply so they can get your info.

It’s really tiresome😡. 

I even had to change from Uber to Lyft some years ago after a man called my number and said they came to pick me up at Ft. Lauderdale airport, but neither his license plate nor name corresponded to what Uber had sent me. 

So I refused to take his service and cancelled Uber.

This constant double check can really get tiresome but in these days of scammers, it is so necessary. 

Damn pests.