December 6^th December 15th

We started out very early in the morning for our 4^th trip to Hedo II. My car was not running right but we made the airport in record time anyway. Our Air Jamaica flight was smooth and a good way to start our vacation with champagne for breakfast. We met Robert from Tim Air and were whisked to Negril in 17 minutes. We were in the door at Hedo by 12:30 and since check in was not until 3 our room was not ready but Christopher from the front desk said to give him a half-hour. We knew we were home when we walked into the dinning room & were greeted by friends from last year, Tex & Julie, with warm hugs. We were quickly introduced to Edie & Jerry also with the WWW group. We joined them for cocktails and lunch, then back to the front desk for room keys, ready as promised. Thank You Christopher. We dropped our stuff in our room and quickly shed the rest of our clothes & it was off to Delroy's at the nude beach!

We managed to defy the sand gravity trip. In the past we have not done much beyond nude volleyball & a little snorkeling around the beach. This trip someone suggested we grab gear and catch the Hedo boat that goes out to the reef to snorkel. It was so much fun. Rupe better know as one towel Rupe or Mr. Nude Beach managed to loose his towel just before entering the water. They would not allow him to get on the boat totally naked or else he would not even have had the towel with him. One poor soul lost his new wedding band as he boarded back on the boat, most of us got back in the water to help him search but to no avail. Except for that it was a great way to spend a few hours.

 We ventured into town on the Magical Mystery Tour lead by Steve Partymon. We went to the mall, it is not like any mall I am used to but it was clean and had quite a few shops to look in as well as a grocery store with real ice cream. The mall restroom was kept lock & for 30cents you could use it. It was clean and neat. I had to borrow some change to use it  (do I still owe you a quarter Edie?) but it was well worth it. (Right Elaine!)

From the mall we made another stop at a roadside vendors. I understand we stopped to purchase brownies, I tried to stick to my diet at least slightly so I passed. Our next stop was Margaritaville, a local tourist trap. Actually it was very nice with some shops and a bar that specializes in what else but margaritas. There is a very large trampoline out in the water. Nancy & I raced for it, she beat me BUT she did have a head start. Climbing up on the trampoline was harder than I expected and once we stopped laughing and jumped one at a time we did OK. Margaritaville is not normally a nude beach but Rupe and a few others either did not have a bathing suit or just did not want to have wet trunks on for the rest of the day so they made it nude. No Problem Mon! We were all enjoying the trampoline when we got the signal from Steve, the tour master; it was time to move on. We enjoy a Kodak moment before moving on.

I can understand why Ricks Caf has the reputation as the best place to watch the sunset from. Plenty of cold Red stripe, the cliff divers do their thing and the view is wonderful. I understand the food is OK too. We were all told we could jump off the cliffs too, I signed up in line right after Tex. (Fortunately for me he never got to his turn. Whew!) We managed another Kodak moment while sitting along the wall much to the horror or delight of the other people. I guess it depends on your perspective. Soon the bus was ready to deliver us back to Hedo and it was time for the hot tub and jerk chicken. I believe that was the night a few of us got Hedo bucks for eating jerk chicken. I still think that Keith & Stacey should have gotten MEGA Hedo bucks for their actions with the jerk sauce. Keith, for future reference, stick to chocolate sauce or follow Jims lead, he prefers caramel sauce.

We did venture off the resort for another day trip. Charlie our bus driver was hired to take a group of us to Mayfield Falls. After a delayed start we headed out towards the southern mountains and climbed up and up and up. The vistas were real beautiful at some points we could see for miles. When we arrived we had to walk down a very long set of steps & cross a rickety type bridge. Now that we were exhausted we were ready to climb up the falls. Of course Rupe was chose to go naked. He had worn his one towel on the bus but I had at least grabbed some shorts for him if he needed them. Steve, Elaine & I had worn flip-flop style sandals; Elaine & I opted to borrow some tie style sneakers to climb the falls in a short way into our trip Steve wishes he had too. Our two guides were great! They were very patient with our group of nine and allowed us time to swim in the deeper pools, against the current. What a workout that was. After a stop at the bar for a cold Red Stripe it was time to go find Charlie and our bus. You know those stairs we climbed down well now we got to walk back up them. We had climbed Dunns River Falls on our first trip to Jamaica and this was defiantly nicer. It is not as commercialized and we were not bothered at all by vendors. At one point we posed for another Kodak moment with a larger falls right behind us. Tex had his Polaroid camera and was busy charming the local ladies by taking their pictures for them. We made one other stop on the way back & that was at KFC, we were starving! We had expected to be back to the resort by 1 or 2 at least in time for lunch but like most things they always seem to take longer than you do expect. We even missed volleyball that day!

Our group that seemed to grow each day since we kept meeting so many wonderful people enjoyed eating dinner at Pastafaris. The staff if very friendly and we could actually talk without shouting. We made our reservations for 2 tables of 5 since that was the most they could take for the first night and we showed up with 12. No Problem we just sat a little closer and our waiter; Michael was great about it. We laughed so much that night my sides hurt. We enjoyed our dessert of kumquat tart, well we laughed about it anyway, what we wanted was something chocolate for dessert but Dennys group had gotten the last of it. The next night our reservations for 10 but we had 12 again, tried to order dessert first, Damian the waiter this night (I think they pull straws & the loser got us) after we explained why we wanted to order dessert before dinner gladly snatched some & put it aside for us. On our 3^rd night to eat at Pastafaris the poor waiter was not having a good night, not only did he get our group BUT ALSO we added 3 more people. We tried to order dessert 1^st again but he said he could not do it. When Dennys table came over to show off their wonderful dessert that they had we retaliated; we got a cake from the main dinning room & had plenty of chocolate for all of us. (It was much better than the eclairs you had Denny! Thanks Elaine!) For some reason our waiter did not offer us coffee that night and was glad to see us go. Do you think we might have been a tad too loud? My sides defiantly hurt after that meal, I dont think I have laughed so much since forever ago. Thank to all our new & renewed friendships.

Our final night at Hedo was a Thursday and it was toga night. I did remember to purchase my purple material at least 6 weeks in advance and since I do know how to sew had every intention of premaking our togas. Do you think I would have gotten to it? NOT! We managed to make do with just tying & folding and of course it all worked out fine. Since we were celebrating Rupes birthday and also Hedo Bobs birthday we asked Teddy from the dinning room to set us up with 2 of the big round tables. They were done beautiful. We managed to squeeze 24 of us around those tables but we could have easily filled another one too. There are just too many wonderful people at Hedo! Maaagie also joined us, in one of her rare appearances at dinner. She had a new friend Alex the Alien with her. Both wore their matching purple togas like the rest of the WWW group. They ditched us to go center stage once the festivities started however. We had nicknamed one couple the energizer bunnies since they seemed to be f*#*#*#*#* like rabbits ALL the time. They showed up wearing rabbit ears with their togas! How appropriate. As soon as the toga party was over it was into the pool for our sanctioned nude volleyball game in the prude pool.

Friday our last day, we had to catch a Tim Air flight to get to MoBay for our return flight to NYC area Robert buzzed the beach for us but not as close as he did for someone earlier in the week. When we got to the airport we met up with Steve & Nancy, their flight was delayed and they were trying to get on another flight. We agreed to meet up at the bar shortly. We found Dave & Marybeth & headed up to the bar and were soon joined by Steve, Nancy & Bernie & Elaine. For some reason all our flights were delayed so we waited together and got to hug and say good bye again with promises to keep in touch. When we finally got home with the car limping along it was very late. Rupe was suffering and took to bed for a few days, he claims it was the flu I think it was that and a bad case of DIF. The car is dead but Rupe survives so does the DIF.

I would like to dispel a few rumors that might not be completely true. Yes Rupe does own a bathing suit; he just doesnt bring it to Hedo. We know nothing about the daily raids on the prude pool. The prudes were sore losers in pool volleyball just because we showed up & challenged them to a game. We won fair and square. Their blockers were also topless. I know nothing about that bottle of champagne, Lisa do you know anything? We only took ONE cake from the main dinning room. Well if we can only make reservations for 10 we will have to make do.

I do want to thank some members of the WWW group that helped us have such a wonderful time. I will always remember what fun we had and I am counting the days until we meet up again. Bernie, I know Rupe is your mentor but even he wears clothes up here in the northeast, he is trying to arrange a quick trip to Florida just so he can go naked in February & Elaine what is a kumtwat tart anyway. Jerry, I like the way you think even if it is very close to the way Rupe thinks too (scary thought that there are two people that think like that) and Edie you Hedo whore! You only play the games for the bucks! Ok so I am a Hedo slut I will play volleyball just for the game. Thank you to Dave & Marybeth for allowing us to share you wedding vow renewals, just so you know, most times the reception is after the ceremony not before but the champagne was good. Tex & Julie, what can we say except moo moo buckaroo we enjoyed your company last year, seeing you first thing this year set the tone and we knew it was going to be another great trip. We are looking forward to next year perhaps we will great you at the front desk. Tex remember I will be in line right behind you to jump off the cliffs. I will remember for next trip to shop at BobMart first. You need it I got such a deal! Hedo Bob, we are looking forward to seeing you around at CT events along with Steve & Nancy. Thanks to Jim & Lisa for sharing their new sense of adventure with us. It is hard to believe you were newbies last December. We never knew you could dance like that or that Jim had such a sweet tooth. I wonder what surprises are in store for us next year. To Denny & Diane, you are wonderful and thank you for organizing this WWW group. Sign us up we will be there next December.                                 

             Thanks to all

Rupe & Patty