Negril Tour and Vacations Guide

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Royal Palm Reserve is one of those special places where one can appreciate the beauty and tranquility of nature and the wonders of Jamaica. The Reserve bills itself as one of Jamaica’s best eco attractions with over 300 acres of lush tropical jungle and Jamaican wildlife including over 300 species of animals such as birds, butterflies and reptiles and 114 documented species of plants and flowers. The Reserve was established in the mid 1980’s as part of a plan to protect the Great Morass Royal Palms which had undergone extensive harvesting and were nearly devastated by clearcutting.

The land was originally managed by the Petrolem Corporation of Jamaica but after a long series of hassles they released it to the Negril Environmental Protection Trust (NEPT) in 2001. The NEPT manages the Reserve with a goal to protecting the area and natural resources of the area under the following objectives from their website:

1. To protect and conserve the Negril Great Morass and its wetland flora and fauna, particularly the endemic Morass (Swamp) Royal Palm.

2. To raise the level of awareness, knowledge and understanding about the Negril Great Morass (and other wetland ecosystems) though an Interpretive Programme

3. To provide opportunities to citizens of neighboring communities, particularly Sheffield, for income generation through direct employment, concessions, training and the facilitation of sustainable livelihood projects in the community.

4. To increase scientific knowledge of the Negril Great Morass and related ecosystems in order to guide planning and management of the Negril Environmental Protection Area through the establishment of a Research Centre at the Reserve and the promotion of research at the Reserve.

5. To increase the financial independence and self-sustainability of NEPT and the Royal Palm Reserve by promoting the Reserve as an income-generating eco-tourism attraction.

The Royal Palm Reserve is without a doubt the best bird watching spot in all of Negril and one of the best choices for birdwatching in Jamaica. You can view dozens of exotic bird species from Negril Jamaica on the Nature Walk with over a half mile of boardwalk which leads you on a beautiful walk to a 30 foot tower in the middle of the Morass which offers the best views of all of Negril. The lovely sounds of birds singing and chirping can be heard all day long at Royal Palm Reserve and the birdwatching is great year round according to some local fans of the Reserve. The Reserve is home to the endangered and rare West Indian Whistling Ducks which you can see floating around in the stocked fish pond. They are scared of people so keep quiet while observing or they will fly off.

The Reserve keeps a pond stocked with Tilapia, or Red Jamaican Snapper as they are called in the local super markets, and they have a catch and release fishing program in effect right now. During peak months or when the pond is overstocked they allow some catch and keep fishing based on the amount of water in the pond and fish available. Fishing in a stocked pond is kinda unfair to the fish but loads of fun for the kids and family. We caught a few fish and let them go but my camera was left behind on that trip so no pictures of us fishing at the Royal Palm Reserve. Fishing equipment is available upon request but bring a loaf of bread for bait and to feed the Whistling Ducks with.

The Reserve has an alligator that lives within the confines of a caged pond. We have only ever caught a glimpse of him and he seems very shy. Could also be that it was hot as the sun and he was hiding in the waters of the swampy pond but we only ever saw him once in three trips. I figured he was trained to answer someone who feeds him so I banged on a pipe used to water him and as soon as I did he popped his head above the murky waters. I think we scared him as we maneuvered for a better picture and he split never to pop up again. Worth a look for sure but you may not get to see him every trip. The Royal Palm Reserve website advertises horseback riding but I never saw any signs of that on our trips, they may bring the horses in from someplace out of sight because the property requires advance booking for this special feature.

The best thing to do at Royal Palm Reserve is plan a picnic. The staff are well prepared to cook and feed groups up to 20 people with advance bookings or you can bring your own food and enjoy a nice day with friends or family and some good food and conversation. The natural beauty and awesome views will inspire some lively conversation on the wonders around you and maybe even make a difference in your day or your life.

The Royal Palm Reserve charges $10US per adult and $5 per child for access to the park all day long. You can spend some time walking the nature trails, fishing the stocked ponds or watching the wildlife and time pass by and enjoy a beautiful day of nature while supporting a beautiful public space. The museum on site offers a great educational opportunity and our kids had fun in the interactive attraction. Learn about the biodiversity and local fauna and wildlife in the colorful and entertaining activities room at the museum and teach the next generation to appreciate the natural world as much as they do the electronic one most of us live in.

If you are in the Negril area and don’t visit the Royal Palm Reserve you’ll miss out on some of the best views in Jamaica and upset me for not appreciating the natural beauty of the Negril Great Morass and the Royal Palms.

You can find 55 more pictures of Royal Palm Reserve at the Jamaica Photo Gallery

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Jennys and Jackos Favourite Cakes and Restaurant has been in the same spot on West End Road in Negril Jamaica for 30 years. Jennys and Jackos should really be called Dorothy and Jackos. Ms. Jenny passed on many years ago now but that spot was made famous as Jennys so when Jacko and his wife Dorothy took over they ripped down the old building and put in the new place while adding Jackos name to the sign and Mrs Dorothy now answers to the name Mrs Jenny far more often then her own name. Must be kinda weird for Tayon and Jennys other children who still live in the neighborhood to hear mommas name still used so long after she has passed on. I suppose thats a legacy of sorts.

Jennys is famous for its “special cakes” but popular for being the best value restaurant in all of Negril. It’s a locals restaurant that feeds the neighborhood and tourists alike. You’ll most often find the place packed with Jamaicans enjoying such island favorites as Ackee and Saltfish for breakfast and Brown Stew Chicken for lunch or dinner. Jennys has not only some of the most delicious food with generous portions but is down right cheap for the quality. The $200JA plate of Brown Stew Chicken is a heaping helping of vegetables, rice and peas and a chopped chicken quarter smothered in the delectable brown stew sauce. Not into brown stew? It’s all good cause Jennys does a mean Curry Chicken also.

Jennys is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner with something on the menu for everyone. I have actually eaten more menu items but I always forget to take pictures for the blog. I know I had the Oxtail Stew and Curry Goat both of which were fantastic but no pics. I do have pics and write ups on each of these below though so enjoy. If you’re in Negril on the West End you should think about stopping by a real Jamaica eatery and dining with locals for the day at Jennys and Jackos. It’s located at the beginning of the cliffs just past Heartbeat Seaside Resort.

Ackee and Saltfish

I have no idea why but I never ate ackee and saltfish until this trip. Now that I think about things it may have been the idea that saltfish would not taste good for breakfast that kept me from ever trying any. I knew it was supposed to be the Jamaican national breakfast and everyone ate it but it was not very appealing to me at all. I forced myself to try it this go around and lo and behold it has become my favorite breakfast. I simply love the flavor and texture of an ackee and saltfish breakfast. The best deal on the menu is you ask me because for $250JA you get a heaping pile of ackee flecked with saltfish that has been deboned as best they can and the rest of your plate is covered in the most delicious steamed vegetables and dumplings. The breakfast plate comes with a mixture of steamed vegetables like green bananas, yellow yam, dasheen, plaintains, dumplings and of course a pile of callaloo. Soak it down with a glass of orange juice and its so sweet. Saltfish for breakfast is a unique flavor and you may better enjoy just a plate of ackee and callaloo if you’re not into fish.

Fish Tea Soup

I just love a cup of fish tea. It’s a spicy fishy broth usually laden with fish bones and odd fish parts that makes a simply scrumptious soup ato me. I really like a well made fish tea and Jennys is a great example. I do wish they would dice the vegetables smaller but thats a personal preference. I like to dice vegetables in a soup and stir it heavily to break up pieces and thicken up the broth. Jennys Fish tea tastes great and has a thicker consistency than most but its still kinda light for my tastes. I like to taste the fish in a fish tea and not have the overbearing peppers and spice flavor. Jennys fish tea is a great balance between spice and fish.

Conch Soup

I’ll start by saying I don’t prefer Jamaica style conch soup but I like it. I grew up in the Florida keys where we had Cuban style conch soup and I prefer the taste and texture of that. Cuban style or Key West Conch soup normally has loads of small bits of diced conch meat and a much different broth and flavor to it. Jamaican style conch soup has much larger and more flavorful pieces of conch meat in the soup but a lighter/waterier broth. I like the Jamaican conch soup and the larger pieces of meat but I think again I personally would prefer smaller pieces of conch diced into the broth and a long slow cook to thicken it up.

Brown Stew Chicken

I had never had brown stew anything until this trip to Jamaica. (I know, no ackee and no brown stew until now) I had also never eaten at Jennys until we arrived at Heartbeat Jamaica and our first lunch on the island together as a family was here. The first meal I ordered was the curry chicken because it was safe but my next meal was the brown stew and its been my favorite ever since. I love brown stew chicken and brown stew fish. I especially like the chicken though as I think it just works better that way. I have had rice and peas before but rarely tasted the coconut milk in the rice until I ate at Jennys. Now I understand how rice and peas are supposed to taste and I love it. I can actually eat brown stew chicken, rice and peas every day and save a fortune over cooking at home while eating better.

Here is the takeout order Brown stew chicken dinner from Jennys and Jackos

Brown Stew Fish

The brown stew fish dinner meal is much the same as the chicken except that the fish is not fresh cooked for you. The brown stew dressing is added to the fish already cooked for that day. It’s the way many Jamaican restaurants do fish, they cook the fish early on in the day and then put it on display for you often in a glass case. This makes the fish dry and hard most often but heating it up in some brown stew sauce actually helps it out. Brown stew is not my favorite way to do fish and I much prefer it steamed. Brown stew is better with chicken I think.

Steamed Fish

What’s not to like about steamed fish? That’s right nothing. What makes a good steam fish? I like the coconut. I prefer steamed snapper to begin with and yellowtail if possible. A steamed yellowtail snapper sounds good even right now. The steamed fish meals are prepared fresh and a great meal for lunch or dinner. Here is the fish I had for dinner just last night. Yes it has taken me over a month to finish writing this article and collect all the pictures of Jamaican food from Jennys.

Jennys Cakes

They say Ms. Jenny made the best cakes and you can still get a great slice of cake from Jennys and Jackos. I have noticed that Jamaican cakes are a bit more dry then I am used to but maybe that’s how Jamaicans like it. Almost every slice of cake I have had here was very dry but it could just be me and the heat during summer. I don’t care much for sweets in the heat but I choked down a couple slices of cake with the kids and enjoyed it. I was told Jennys has the best “special cakes” and you could find a nice slice of ganja cake if you asked nicely and didn’t look like a cop. A likle bird told me for $600 Jamaica you can buy a bigfat slice and have a great trip in Negril. ya unnastan mon?

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We needed a package shipped from the States with some things from the house to make our stay more comfortable. When we packed I left the speakers for our entertainment unit at home for space and weight savings knowing I would regret it and i sure did. Within days it was obvious the built in speakers in our 22″ multi function tv/monitor were not enough to watch a movie from and we needed a sound boost. We brought about 50 movies along and forgot the remote unit to play regular DVD movies on the Xbox with plus my son scratched up his favorite game in the first week and was pretty upset about it. He seemed to yearn for home until I was able to get him one shipped. I was lucky to also find a copy in Kingston which I snapped up before the package was able to arrive to us a full three weeks after it was shipped.

We stopped in to check on a PO Box at Negril Post Office but were told basically we didn’t need one and we could use the one from whatever resort we were staying in. Our official address is Heartbeat Resort West End Road Negril Jamaica

We have since had to ship packages on more than one occasion and it varies by what you are shipping. I was in a rush to send some documents that I had signed and I had to call DHL and have them stop by the resort on the next day because there is no drop off point here in Negril. It seems silly to me but not one of these internet cafes around here has stepped and made themselves the official drop off for any of the carriers. Not UPS or FedEx has an office locally. There are supposed to be FedEx drop offs here but I have not sen one yet. They say it’s just better to call. Price to ship 2 sheets of paper to the States via DHL was $2000JA or about $35US with a 3 day delivery.

The Negril Post office offers registered mail for about $5 US but there have been stories of lost packages and delays. I myself had a package disappear during Hurricane Dean and it has never been returned or deliverd. Of course I have no receipts for it but it would never matter anyway. It’s just gone and thats the way things go in Jamaica. If you need to ship or receive packages in Negril you should plan ahead and figure out what the best carrier would be. Grab a local Jamaica phone book and call UPS, FedEx and DHL for faster delivery or important packages, or if you can afford to lose it you can try the Jamaican postal service.

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I had people ask me about my bug bites in Jamaica and what they could do to prevent the nasty infections I got. I’ll say that this summer was the worse I have ever seen bugs and mosquitoes in Negril and they really did eat us up horribly. My youngest son Robby has some scarring on his legs much like some of the older street hustlers around here and its sad really. I’m hoping he’s young enough he grows out of them but i fear he’ll have some long term marking. We all got bitten by mosquitoes but he got it the worse I think.

I’m beginning to believe I had a MRSA infection that made my bug bites worse because I began to notice that they took weeks to heal when it should have been much less. Kinda scary I may have had a deadly infection and thought it was fricking bug bites but the article below just about seals it for me. I treated my own wounds by lancing and draining, I thought they were spider bites but found no spiders, we had multiple infections in the family and it was not just me with infected bug bites.

I wiped some ants off my foot one day and watched the ant bite my finger before it exploded into a huge mess of infection basically before my eyes. It swelled up double my regular finger size in an hour. I lanced and drained it but I had to go back to Negril Medical Center to have them scrub it and disinfect me. I ran a course of antibiotics which I hate to do but it cleared me right up.

I have over twenty hours worth of tattoo work on my body, at one time or another I have pierced both ears, my eyebrow and my nipple and all of that combined was not as painful as the bite on my finger. I honestly was scared I would lose my finger for the necrotizing effect the infection had and the pain was unbearable. It grew from the inside out with intense pressure I was forced to swallow two Percocets a night for a week to sleep through the pain and once again I hate the chemicals or any prescribed medications. I was given the pills by an American friend who brought them with, you can’t find that in a drug store. Add pain meds and maybe even a good antibiotic to your list of things to bring if you plan to travel here in the summer.

ABC News: When MRSA Gets Personal

When Mr. Wilson (name changed to protect confidentiality) arrived at the emergency department at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, Fla., one night in October, he had a common complaint.

“I think I’ve gotten bitten by a spider,” he said. On his thigh, several large raised skin lesions were visible.

“These aren’t spider bites,” his physician, Dr. Yvonne Dunn, remarked. “You have a skin infection called community-acquired MRSA. Your boils will need to be opened and drained, but with proper care, you should be OK.”

The patient listened intently. “Just my luck,” he said.

What Is MRSA?

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common germs we encounter each day. It is a normal (and usually harmless) germ on our skin and in our nose.

Infections may occur when the organisms get into the body through breaks in the skin (such as cuts, scrapes, open wounds, surgical incisions or catheters in a person’s vein) and multiply rapidly. MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. MRSA is a more resistant form of the germ that has become a serious cause of human infections in the hospital, and recently, in the community.

Technorati Tags: jamaica, mrsa, bug bites, mosquitoes, mosquito bites

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Copyright © 2007 Jamaica Tours and Tour Guides. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@www.jamaicamax.com so we can take legal action immediately.
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