Treasure Beach & Sunsplash Villa (May 11-16th, 2003 2nd part of our honeymoon)
The drive to Treasure Beach
The drive to Treasure Beach was a great trip to see a mixture of the Jamaican coast, back roads, farms & towns. Our driver, Winston, brought his friend Stanley along (who knew the way). They both were excellent tour guides - pointing out the towns & interesting sights, and answering questions, including a lively discussion on politics where we were able to get a sense of the struggles between Jamaicas two main parties.
Some of the towns we passed included Savannah La Mar - capital of Westmoreland - Negrils parish, Black River - Capital of St. Elizabeth, Treasure Beachs parish), Belmont - where Peter Tosh is buried & his memorial is located, and Scotts Cove - THE place to buy fried fish & bammy. Throughout the drive it was interesting to see the colorful boats, roadside stalls, people washing & fishing in the rivers, and quite a broad assortment of very poor & very rich places interspersed. Also interesting to see the climate change to arid as we got to the south coast. It is HOT and DRY there.
Sun-Splash Villa
We arrive in TB, and with a bit of hunting & asking, find Sunsplash Villa. Its quite a nice place - stucco with wood ceilings inside, perched on the gentle cliffs with a great view of the water.
This afternoon view shows the dry, grassy
yard from the road to the villa. To the far right is the shady hammock
enclosure - also with a killer view of the Caribbean. The villa
was comfortable - 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a great room w/ vaulted ceiling.
The kitchen has all the basics, including microwave, blender, coffee grinder,
etc. 
The bedrooms were screened, but not the other rooms, so youve got to close up shop at night to keep out the local friendly moths, bats & kitties. No AC - which would have been nice, but pedestal fans were fine.
The nicest features of the villa were the pool (15 ft x 30ish) and the large covered patio on the back (40 ft by 18ish), overlooking the pool & the sea.
We spent most of our time in & out of the pool (with a float which we brought) and hanging out on the patio, which was lovely!
This view (right)
from the hammocks shows the porch w/ sundeck above it. The
pool is just barely visible behind the row of hibiscus bushes to the right of
the villa. The hammock palapa was a great spot shady &
cool, killer view of the sea, and usually a nice breeze blowing.
This view is from the sundeck over the
porch - showing a bit of the pool and the beach and reefs below.
The beaches were excellent. Theyre protected by a line of small reefs about
30 ft offshore - providing great places to snorkel & dip in the shallow pools
between. There were also quite a few tiny tropical fish in the
pools, including our favorites tiny sargent
majors only about an inch long.
Heres our beach - down about 40 steps from the pool. Lots of cactus and other thorny vegetation here - and the ubiquitous barbed wire & cinder blocks.
We walked several miles of the beach, typically seeing not a soul, or even a footprint. The water color varied from brilliant blues to the more muted colors here, depending on the wind & time of day
This is a typical beach view (looking east towards our beach around the point, from near the Hikaru villa), with calm water at the beach thanks to the reefs to the right.
The fishing boats up on the beach in the diatance were at the only small beach bar we saw - a tiny shack with reggae blasting from a boom box. It was run by a nice young fellow, who was chatting with friends and sipping Red Stripe. We found all the folks here to be very easygoing, and relaxed. There were hardly any hustlers, and nearly everyone returned a smile & greeting while we walked the beach or the road.
Treasure Beach area:
The south coast is dry. When we arrived (in the rainy season), the last rain was a minor sprinkle about 2 weeks ago. All 5 days there were in the 90s, with bright sun in the morning & welcome light high clouds in the afternoons. This dry hot sun was a blessing after 7 rainy cool afternoons in Negril.
We spent a couple of afternoons walking around the area, going about a mile west down the single main street (right) to the fishermans beach and a bit farther to the next small village. Lots of goats grazing in the fields, including some cute little kids, just twice as big as our cats.
Another walk took us east about 2 miles to check out the famous Jakes & several other nearby places. Jakes was surprisingly nice. Though we agreed that privacy was lacking especially compared to Sunsplash, which is incredibly private & quiet.
The nearby Jack Sprat had excellent garlic conch by the beach. We stopped at the nearby Wild Onion (funky & interesting grounds, but closed when we stopped at about 3pm), and the Treasure Beach Hotel. This was a nice, rather elegant old-style hotel, with nicely decorated main rooms with old wood panels & ceiling fans. The place is perched on the sloping hillside & cliffs, with well kept paths to the rooms & pool. Overall, this looked like a nice, relaxed, well-maintained place if one opted for a more typical tropical hotel.
Back at Sun-Splash, we spent every afternoon dipping in the pool, relaxing & taking in the nice scenery & sea breeze. The staff there was superb. Percy, the groundskeeper, did a great job each morning (before we were up) on the pool & planting beautiful hibiscus, bright crimson Oleander, cactus, and a small impatience-like bushy flower.
Josette, the housekeeper & cook, did a wonderful job preparing any meals we needed. Shed come by each morning when we opened the front door (an excellent signal idea!), and make fresh coffee & juices, fruit smoothies, eggs, French toast & other cool Jamaican fare like breadfruit, johnnycake w/ fried sardines, onions & peppers & anything else we wanted.
She had a big roast chicken dinner waiting for us when we arrived - w/ potato pudding, and a huge pot of rice & peas (worth all the praise wed read about!). We ate those leftovers for 4 days - excellent. Josette also cleared up the mystery of the nightly squawking next door. The neighbor keeps 4-5 peacocks, which serve as great watchdogs - calling loudly at any sound (like us jumping in the pool or shuffling cards) nearby.
We truly enjoyed the aura of Treasure Beach & think weve found a true gem in Sunsplash! The private pool, huge porch & ocean views are heaven!
Overall, a great locale & a wonderful villa - lucky choice for us!
Chris & Liz
