Negril, Jamaica, late 1970s

[agilis]

A set of old photos I took in the late 70s on Negril's main 7 mile beach when there almost no hotels or tourists and the place was a pristine paradise with spectacular diving. They were on an old, long defunct Jamaican website that a friend directed me to recently. No superclubs, very few people, mostly locals. The condition of the pics seems to have deteriorated from multiple recopies. I remember taking the self-portrait with the old Nikon's timer, and posing a Canadian girl I ran across on an aptly named boat.

www.dreadless.com/pracme's_pretouristic_gallery.htm

 

[oly5050user]

Looks like it was near the old sun downer hotel that was there. At least that's the name I can think of. A man I knew at the time from NJ , he had a LDS in NJ at one time, cannot remember his name now, so long ago, had a shack of a dive shop there on the beach.

just took another look thru the pictures..Ha it WAS the Sundowner hotel! Just noticed the sign for it in one of the images!
I took a group there from NY that the LDS I worked out of at the time (Cougar Sports) assigned to me. One of the participants that went liked the "local gangi" so much that he stayed after we left. Not sure If he ever came back to NY after that trip! That was a long long time ago..

 

[iamrushman]

cool photos....thanks for sharing...

 

[agilis]

Looks like it was near the old sun downer hotel that was there. At least that's the name I can think of. A man I knew at the time from NJ , he had a LDS in NJ at one time, cannot remember his name now, so long ago, had a shack of a dive shop there on the beach.

just took another look thru the pictures..Ha it WAS the Sundowner hotel! Just noticed the sign for it in one of the images!
I took a group there from NY that the LDS I worked out of at the time (Cougar Sports) assigned to me. One of the participants that went liked the "local gangi" so much that he stayed after we left. Not sure If he ever came back to NY after that trip! That was a long long time ago..

Ed Barrett? I used to call him Bwana Ed when I dived with him. I went to Negril two or three times a year back in the 70s and most of the 80s, spent a year there once, and a couple of summers.

The Sundowner was owned by Rita Hojan, a Jamaican married to a Swiss businessman. Her family was from Green Island. I knew them well, was very close to one. There were a few places gradually opening up back then, like Henry Moo-Young's White Sands, then a couple of places on the cliffs. Then more, and more.

I really can't go there now. I took a trip 12 years ago after a long hiatus, just to see how things had changed, and actually began weeping when I saw what had been done to that great love of my youth.. Pave paradise, put up a parking lot.

 

[oly5050user]

Yup, it was Ed Barret...must of been around 1974 -76.. I guess I would not go back either. Back then I was there a few times as well. Had a real job in NY so could not stay a year. Wonder if Clark the gangi man still there? He probably be close to 80 or more by now.

 

[agilis]

Ed left Jamaica around 1977 or 1978. The dive facility was set up like a South Seas Tiki hut.

I lived in Negril for a year shortly after being discharged from the service. I badly needed to get away from things. In the late 60s/early 70s you either went to Negril by boat from Green Island or overland from the south (Sav La Mar) in four wheel drive. No phones, limited electricity, dirt roads. The Sundowner had been there from the late 50s as a very private getaway for some very famous people, before they cut the road in from Green island. They had a massive short wave radio to keep in contact with the outside world.

Negril was a magical place back when almost nobody knew it existed.

I was an academic (now semi-retired), so I had summers free. I also spent a couple of sabbatical semester there in the 80s, living in Grange Hill. I've been to many places, but none that captured me like old Negril. I watched its early decline, but had to stop making frequent trips in the late 80s. I still miss it, as it was when the world was young.