Chapter VI – The LAY Of The Land

Yes, there are hidey-holes around the grounds if one is looking for privacy. Hammocks and picnic tables abound the grounds as well.

There are basically 2 sides to the resort: The nude side and the prude side. I suppose it is possible to stay on one side or the other and not see a nude (or a prude) all week, except at meal times. And show times, etc…some people say there are actually 2 resorts in one. Nudes and prudes don’t mix. Personally I did not find this to be true. But the Prude beach was nearly empty ALL week!

Lunch was served buffet style (as were all meals) and was a mix of foods from the US and Jamaica. There are two other restaurants on-site. One serves Italian/Jamaican fare (A pretty good mix). The other serves more traditional Jamaican fare. Those two are open for dinner only. And reservations are required. After lunch we walked over to the bar and got the first of many alcoholic libations.

We decided to walk down to the beach and on over to the room. Our room was on the NUDE side. Quite a scary prospect. We walked down the path towards the ‘prude’ beach. The water was calling me. An Aquarian and true to my nature, a real water baby. The water was...So BLUE, so GREEN. Once we got beach side we discovered our drinks were in need of replenishment.

There are also two beach bars. You guessed it, one nude, one prude. They use pretty standard cocktail glasses there (We had been warned and had 32 oz. Insulated mugs in the ROOM!).

There are also 2 beach grills (yep, nude and prude.)

So we got got our drinks recharged and took off in the direction of the room via the beach. There were some vendors (legal stuff and extra) over by the volleyball area and some vendors in the water (!) I was pretty anxious to get wet by this point but hadn’t changed into a suit. Gave the Queen the room key and whatever cash I had, dropped my shoes and went and stood in the sea (up past my knees) and talked to one of the vendors(!) Pretty standard stuff. How ya doin’, where you from, etc…All in all it was a pretty interesting conversation ‘til we got to the bargaining table. 'What fine wares you have mi fren’.' I purchased more than enough for the week we were going to be there. The guy had paper as well and was more than willing to part with a few sheaves. I overpaid, but not too much, I hope. But probably made my new friend’s week…No need to go into those details, but we were capable of being pretty stupid for the week. So, we continued on up the beach (I was temporarily sated, wet beyond the knees and all) towards the room with our package.

Past the (nude) volleyball court there is the massage shack that was the original Delroy’s bar. Beyond that (Oh my!) the beach stretches up to the property line where the nude bar \ grill \ pool \ hot tub are. And the edge of the property.

A few more words need to be said about the beach. It’s not the biggest or even the best beach the Queen and I have ever been on. It is quite beautiful though.

Sea grape trees provide shade all the way down to the water line. A lot of sun hits the beach as well, but if you want shade you can get it. Erosion looks to have stolen a bit of the shore as well. The sand on the beach is made up of big grains. When you step into the water your feet tend to sink in a little bit as the sand is not packed that hard. There are also fresh water showers spaced along the beach, so you can rinse the sand and salt off before you head back to your room. They have two rafts floating about 10 – 20 yards off the shore. An abundance of beach lounges, belies the fact that this place can get pretty crowded. (The resort was about two thirds full when the Queen and I were there in mid July). A small sea wall tries to protect the shoreline from erosion (a losing battle, of course) and there are steps down to the water at a couple of points. The sea wall ends at about the bar / grill area and there is a little hook like peninsula there that provides direct access to the waterfront. There is no surf to speak of except right before the afternoon rains. There are also a lot of blow up floaties, rafts, etc…brought by guests and left when their vacation is over. There must be at least a hundred of the things at any given time. The water of course, is clear and bluegreen and not too deep. And Oh so inviting.

The beach reminded me of some of the nicer beaches in North and Central Florida where I grew up, that had trees on the beach. These, I am sure are long gone now. Lost to the developer’s axes (or more likely, chain saws). I think they were mostly gone before I moved to Texas in ’76. At this point the Queen and I were on tropical beauty overload and decided to head back to the room for a little while. As we were opening the door to the room, I noticed that by the hot tub there was a drink dispenser with ice and soft drinks and a frozen drink dispenser as well. We were empty once again, so I decided to see what was available for drinks. Naturally I also had to see what was in the frozen dispenser. Turned out to be a not too shabby frozen Rum Punch. As I turned to go back to the room, I realized (again) that this WAS the Nude pool and it was full of Nude people. Or maybe they were naked people. I felt a little self conscious, as I was the only one around that was fully clothed and tried not to stare and look like a complete rube, again. But I had never seen so many nude (naked?) people (of all shapes, colors and sizes) in one spot before. So I tripped (literally) back into the room to take a shower, as I felt pretty grungy from traveling.

Did I mention we were exhausted?