Jesse & Debbie – Hedonism II
May 15-22, 1998
We’ve been to Hedonism three times now and can’t imagine not going back every year. It’s the one place on earth where we can feel totally relaxed and constantly happy. There are places with nicer beaches, better food, nicer rooms, but we can’t imagine that there’s anyplace else in the world that has that magical feel in the air and sexual energy everywhere. We get a liberating feeling from the place, and we don’t just mean walking around without clothes on. It liberates you from the seriousness of real life, and from caring "what the neighbors will think."
After several weeks of sleepless nights, brought on by anticipation of the trip, our stress level was out of control. We always get that way before a trip to Hedo, the only complaint we have about the place.
We took a 6:40 AM flight out of Boston on American, changed planes in Miami, were delayed for the third year in a row waiting for the plane to be fixed. We arrived half an hour late in Montego Bay and were met by Air Negril representatives. We were delayed again waiting for 10 other passengers who would share our small plane to Negril. Last year we arrived on a Thursday, were the only passengers on our Air Negril plane, and made the trip from touching down in Montego Bay to Hedo in 45 minutes. This year, arriving on a Friday, things were not nearly as efficient. Of course, Jamaica is Jamaica, but we were pretty anxious to get going. Tim Air has been recommended, and we’ll try it next year, since they apparently only have planes that take 2 or 4 passengers and you can’t get hung up waiting for the rest of the passengers to arrive. However the flight was lovely and quick once we got started, and we made it to the beach by 2 PM. Check in was uneventful, we got the kind of room we reserved.
It seems like our third visit started off with a different feel than the others. We came with more expectations and more memories, and somehow expected to pick up exactly where we left off a year ago. We needed a day to relax and get used to being there again before we were really ready to go all out and have totally uninhibited fun. We felt as if it was good timing to arrive on a Friday, so that when we were feeling ready to party, a new crowd (mostly as untanned as us) was just arriving.
We like to spend practically all our time on the nude beach. We love the atmosphere there, which varies depending on the time of day. It’s quiet and beautiful, almost deserted first thing in the morning (we still couldn’t sleep after we got there, always up by 6:30 or 7). It’s a wonderful feeling to walk out of your room unclothed, lie in the sun before breakfast and anticipate the day. The day starts to pick up when the bar opens at 10 or so, and the reggae music starts up. We tend to spend the day alternating between lazing around on the beach or by the pool, or in the water on a float, and taking part in water sports (snorkeling and kayaking) and the goofy stuff that the entertainment staff comes up with.
Our daily routine included ping pong at least once a day, and nude volleyball games in the late afternoon. We were happy that they actually got games organized every afternoon – on previous trips the games never materialized. Jesse was a judge in the wet Tshirt contest, and was privileged to be asked to take an active role by one of the contestants (a lifelong dream fulfilled). We were disappointed that body painting never happened. It seemed to happen a lot that scheduled activities failed to happen, or happened late. When we were able to find an entertainment staff person we were usually able to get things going, such as the ping pong tournament and a volleyball game.
The sillier organized activities do not appeal to everyone, but we really get a kick out of them. It’s one of the things we love about Hedo, and something we’d never do at home. It could feel silly at first to be taking part in things like playing naked Twister or nude volleyball or Name That Tune while standing nude in the pool or getting painted, but an added benefit is that it’s a good way to start to recognize people and get to know who’s who. It’s such a friendly crowd, you meet people no matter what you do. All of these organized activities earned us Hedonism dollars, which we could trade in for various things every morning. We probably should have exchanged them more often, since they ran out of some of the things we wanted, like bottles of Appleton rum and hats. But we still came away with plenty of free stuff. We had a new experience this year – more than one staff person watching us trade in our Hedo bucks for gifts asked if we would give them one of the items. We were happy to, actually, since we aren’t supposed to tip and we feel so warmly towards the staff. We were a little befuddled by this, though. Has anyone else had this experience?
And speaking of the staff, this is one of the things that keeps us coming back. We love the entertainment staff – they’re all adorable, and we love the way they interact with the guests. We found them to be playful and flirtatious and full of energy, which is amazing considering the hours they work and the crap they must put up with. The dining room staff is always very attentive – our wine glasses were never empty. You feel that the staff is genuinely friendly and likes being there with you. The bartenders are fantastic, particularly at the nude pool bar. And the woman making grilled fish in the evening at the grill on the nude beach is not only sweet and beautiful and friendly, but makes fantastic grilled fish – this is definitely the best food at the place.
And speaking of food, the dining room food is pretty mediocre, but there’s lots of it. Debbie is a vegetarian, and could have used a few more main course choices. The fish was always good and the steak was excellent on Toga Night. We went to Pastafari one night – we had a hard time remembering to make a reservation (they were always totally booked up by 10AM), but were able to get in without a reservation after 10:30PM. The service was slow that late at night, and the food kind of disappointing. We’ve had better experiences there before.
One of the great pleasures of being at Hedonism for us is socializing. There’s an atmosphere of camaraderie on the nude side anyway (can’t speak for the prude side, never been there). The pool, hot tub, and bar on the nude side are friendly places where there’s always lots of opportunity for conversation. People looking for quiet can always find it on the beach. No one should be discouraged from coming here by thinking they won’t fit in; there’s a great variety of people there, from all kinds of backgrounds, most of which are pretty run of the mill. The place is by no means crawling with "perfect" bodies – most people look quite normal (with some notable exceptions). One amazing thing about the nudists is the number and variety of tattoos. Does the rest of the world have this many tattoos that they don’t normally let us see?
A lot of people in trip reports we have read have complained about gawkers and people with their clothes on on the nude side. We saw this happen, but it never bothered us, and didn’t seem to bother anyone else that we noticed. We met a man shooting water balloons at passing boats that got too close to the nude beach and were going a little too slow. (This was a pretty powerful sling – he could shoot the balloons way out. He told me he came with 400 balloons. It must have taken him hours to fill them up.) That was about as hostile as anyone got towards gawkers while we were there, and it really wasn’t hostile at all – it was just very funny.
And then there’s sex. We never stayed up very late, so there wasn’t anything going on in the hot tub when we were there, which was a little disappointing. When we stopped by the hot tub at midnight there were lots of people hanging out and talking. We did see a few people going at it during the day in the hot tub, however. One nice nighttime alternative to the tub for fooling around was behind the waterfall. It wasn’t that cold, and it’s semi-private sort of, and the rushing water makes for a nice atmosphere. And the beach is a lovely place too – particularly in the hammocks.
Pajama party night was especially fun for us this year. Being rather inebriated definitely enhances this experience. Sure, it’s noisy and hot, but people are looking so outrageous that we’re too busy being hysterical to notice. When we got too hot we went out on the steps leading down to the disco and watched the parade of people clad in pajama-like items. The staff was dressed particularly outrageously – Eladio, the entertainment coordinator, was wearing a particularly kinky leather and handcuff number, and one of the front desk clerks was there in a Superman suit. We had made a note the previous year not to worry that we would feel self-conscious about anything we wanted to wear to the PJ party, and we were right – absolutely anything goes. Outfits that appear to be completely out of the question when tried on at home are perfectly acceptable to wear in public here. You can’t possibly be embarrassed about what you’re wearing when you look around. There were plenty of good photo opportunities, and everyone was happy to pose, no matter how scantily clad. It was the highlight of the week, until Toga night.
We don’t remember Toga night being especially fun in previous years; this year we had a blast. It started with the rare privilege of having our togas tied by the legendary master toga tie-er Jamaica Jim, who not only does a great job tying but also brings a large quantity of rope to facilitate fastening. I wonder how he gets this stuff through customs. We’ve been reading his Hedo descriptions for several years on the internet, and we were very happy to finally get to meet him and his wife. We had fun dinner companions that night, whom we wished we had met a little earlier in the trip, since we were leaving the next day. Having someone to yuck it up with during Toga night is a must – somehow the experience requires sharing. The talent show ranged from good to pretty lame, but we enjoyed it. We even got up and joined the parade of togas – that was a unique experience.
We left reluctantly on a Friday morning – our Air Negril flight was scheduled to leave at 10:45AM, and we left in a taxi (compliments of the resort) at 10:35. The flight back was the beautiful inland route. When we arrived at Montego Bay airport I was surprised at how stringent security was. The guards wear military uniforms and berets, which are kind of intimidating. They x-ray your carryon luggage twice, and just before boarding the plane have you go through a security check, where they very thoroughly scrutinized our passports and carefully looked at our faces to make sure they matched our passport pictures. We’re about as innocent-looking a couple as you can imagine, so it was a little strange – maybe they were looking for a pair of escaped convicts or something. The metal detector was much more sensitive than any we’ve seen in a US airport. This isn’t really a bad thing. Don’t be surprised at how less friendly the sales people are at the airport than they are at the resort. And the prices are higher at the airport for the same souvenirs, so you might as well buy them at the shops at the resort.
We’ve been back a week and a half now, and managed to avoid the depression that followed last year’s trip. Maybe it was that 1 extra day we added this time, or maybe it was that the trip was perfect and we have no regrets about missing out on anything. It’s always hard to return to reality, go back to work, be parents and all of that, but this time around it feels like the memories will sustain us until we can return next year.
We’d like to thank Denny for the website – it was wonderful to be able to hook up with some people through the visitor list before we arrived, and it’s great to be able to read the trip reports. We LOVE reading trip reports!
Please write us if you have any questions or want to talk about the place – it’s our favorite subject!
Thanks for the report! - Denny