Drew always says that I entered his life at the right time and I can’t help but agree. Jamaica is the second of two island vacations I went on with his family, both within one year of each other.
After many years of his involvement with the RockHouse Foundation, Drew’s dad, Ian, took his girlfriend Trish, his three kids, and me to Jamaica to see his hard work in action.
We were picked up from the airport by Luke, a friend of Ian’s. He drove us from Montego Bay to our hotel, and was an excellent tour guide throughout the entire drive. He showed us his hometown of Lucea, and pointed out this building. He explained that many years ago, a ship docked here that was originally intended to deliver a clock to St. Lucia. Thus, the city was named Lucea, and the clock now sits at city center and still ticks to this day.
The first night we attended a dinner benefitting the RockHouse Foundation, and learned that it was created when the hotels (the Skylark and the RockHouse) were bought by their current owners. The owners recognized the risk of exploitation with such an investment, and created this foundation to give back to the community it would become a part of. Funding for this foundation has led to the construction of a massive school in one of the more underprivileged areas of Jamaica. This school focuses on integrating children with disabilities in with their counterparts, and giving them the individualized therapy each student requires (behavioral, physical, etc).
While this dinner answered a lot of our questions on the goals of the foundation and Ian’s involvement in it, our learning did not stop there. We spent the rest of the week in awe at the amount of lore Ian had at this resort. Multiple staff members (the owners of the hotel included) were on a first-name basis with him, and often joined us for dinner or drinks during our stay.
I can’t say we were fully shocked though- we knew that Ian has been involved with the RockHouse Foundation for many years, helps the resorts with IT, and even is a partner of the Skylark hotel. And besides, no one truly knows what their dad does for work anyways.
We started the trip staying at the Skylark hotel, a beautiful beachfront resort in West Negril, Jamaica.
Between rain showers, we found ourselves lounging on the beach and exploring the crystal clear 80 degree water. Although shallow, we were able to see tons of animals- giant sting rays, schools of fish, crabs, etc. High school Drew was thriving.
The resort offered multiple activities, free to in house guests. One of which was a Psilocybin Sound Bath experience that took place in the garden at the RockHouse (Mom- if you’re reading this, the delicious shrooms chocolate bars were optional).
After a few days at the Skylark, we switched resorts and stayed in our own oceanfront villa at the RockHouse.
Each villa had its own patio and cliff to dive off of, so we spent lots of time exploring the different cliff and bridge jumps, and of course exploring the reefs below.
Ian encouraged Drew and his brother Ryan to swim over and explore a nearby home, formerly owned by a drug lord. He said that this home had rails that ran from a door beneath his pool into the ocean, supposedly for smuggling drugs. Drew and Ryan couldn’t see much from the water, but the house is pictured here with the green roof, showing its proximity to the resort itself.
The RockHouse was also littered (ha ha) with the most adorable and friendly cats, who often visited us during meal times and yoga. They definitely helped us to cope with our Chicken withdrawals.
While we could have easily spent the entire vacation at the resorts themselves, Ian urged us to explore the local community a bit before we left. He took us to Rick’s Cafe, a local tourist destination featuring a cliffside bar and restaurant, DJ and live entertainment, and a 40 and 65 foot cliff jump.
He also took us to a local restaurant, LTU. Due to time restraints, we were unable to eat here, but the scenery alone was beautiful. This restaurant is said to be owned by a man born and raised in Naples, Italy who immigrated to Jamaica as an adult to offer italian cuisine to visitors.
In all of our exploring, we came across multiple signs that I couldn’t help but photograph. Expect to see “Ready Chicken Up & Running” hung up soon in front of Chicken’s food and water bowls.
Food and Drinks
One of the recurring conversations we had during this vacation was surrounding the impact Jamaica has had on food and music globally, even though it’s only about the size of Connecticut. We were fortunate enough to visit multiple venues with live reggae bands, as well as eat and compare multiple types of jamaican dishes.
The first night set a seemingly unrealistic standard for the rest of the trip. As aforementioned, we attended a dinner benefitting the RockHouse Foundation, and were lucky enough to be served food cooked by Chef Charlie Mitchell, a Michelin starred chef and James Beard award recipient, as well as Chef Andre Fowles, a five times Chopped champion.
They served a tasting menu featuring a tuna crudo with scotch bonnet (a local jamaican pepper) reduction, grilled snapper (a local fish), and roasted beef short ribs. The meal was served family style so we were able to try a little of each. The food was incredible, and will now be my go-to meal if I ever found myself on death row.
The meals at the resort itself were still amazing. We each quickly found our favorite meals on the menu, and went on to hyperfixate on them for the remainder of the week. Mine? A coffee date shake with fresh fruit and yogurt for breakfast, a grilled snapper sandwich for lunch, and either jerk chicken or curry shrimp for dinner.
We also each had our hyperfixation beverages at the pool bars- Drew with his Red Stripe Lager, and me with either a frozen vodka limeade or a Stingray (jamaican rum with Ting grapefruit soda).
While the resort food was amazing, it was nothing compared to food we ordered at a local restaurant, Kool Vybes. This restaurant is locally famous for its jerk chicken, so of course we had to judge it for ourselves. Between the six of us, we ordered three half jerk chicken meals, a garlic shrimp meal, and a pepper shrimp meal. We were initially overwhelmed with the amount of food we were served, but couldn’t help but to finish every last bit. Somehow, this food was comparable to the food Chef Mitchell served us on the first night, bringing the culinary experience of the trip full circle.
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