February 16, 2005
Zion Country boosts tourism in Ja
ZION COUNTRY is a small tourism enterprise which speaks of the good business prospects to be gained from niche market tourism in Jamaica.
Established seven years ago in Long Road, Portland, the rustic eco-friendly resort offers its local and foreign customers, a plethora of cultural adventures centred around a real ‘rootsy Jamaican country life’ setting.
Its product is an alternative to the accommodation lobby type tourism generally offered to Jamaican tourists and has been attracting the group registering the highest per cent growth in tourism arrivals for year 2004.
Proprietor and managing director of Zion Country, Dutch native, Ennering Fredericus said he invested about J$8 million to set up the business and has been reinvesting his profits in the venture ever since.
“We have built a new building, new houses on the property, done some repairs to the roofs and painted the place,” he told Wednesday Business.
He said his major reason for purchasing the almost two acres of land to set up Zion Country was to provide more employment for the community.
UNIQUE GUEST SERVICE
Zion Country’s guests may relax in any or all four of the wooden Zion Country beach cabins on their visit to this secluded spot.
Noticeably and intentionally absent from the guest rooms are electricity, telephones, television and other modern conveniences in order to capture the essence of the rural quality of life in Jamaica.
Guests are charged a local rate of J$1,700 to J$2,000 per night and a tourist rate of J$1,800 to J$2,400 per night for the beach cabins. The rates include a continental breakfast.
To compliment this setting, Zion Country’s guests are taken on nature tours and hiking trips as far as Blue Mountain Peak or the Bob Marley Museum on Hope Road, St. Andrew. They also have a beautiful view of manatees from their cabins which overlook Manchioneal Bay.
GOOD BUSINESS
Mr. Fredericus affectionately known as ‘Free I’, says business has been fairly good. European and American tourists, are his most frequent clients. They consider his resort an appealing alternative to the traditional products.
According to director of standards at the Tourism Products Development Corpo-ration (TPDCo.), Mary Helen Reece, there has been an increase in demand from the European travel market for more adventure-type tourism.
The resort is also said to be an attractive option for students seeking different types of adventures on school trips.
SHORT-TERM GOALS
Free I said he would like to see more locals visiting the attraction especially after May when the tourist season slows down.
“I get 95 per cent of the business through advertising through the Internet,” he explained. “The other five per cent is via word-of-mouth advertising,”
As to support from the JTB, he said “Since the last five years in Jamaica, tourism has been the number one income earner in Jamaica. I know nothing about the Jamaica Tourist Board’s or TPDCo.”
“You may get a little help from those people after begging for a long time. They make you feel as if you are just a small place so it’s not a big thing, ” he added.
LONG-TERM GOALS
Zion Country employs two persons. Free I would like to grow his business in order to accommodate more. “I am a foreigner investor in this country, not necessarily to become rich but to make a living and open up more employment opportunities for persons within the community, ” he said.
“I don’t want to go too big and have too many people on a small space,” he emphasised. He said he markets the other natural aspects of Portland while marketing his business to foreigners. Unfortunately however, many times they arrive to Jamaica disappointed.
“The Government has jumped into the natural attractions and cannot manage them,” he said pointing out that since the take over by government agencies, major attractions such as Reich Falls, The Blue Lagoon and Navy Island have been closed down.
Escape to Zion country
A piece of land in the promised land,
natural environmentally friendly
Just the kind of place he wanted to build
Where grass grows green
That’s where You’ll find me
Where the air Is fresh and clean
I want to be
White sand beach
And I see deep Blue sea
There ain’t no place On earth that I would rather be
Lay’in in the sun And I’ma having fun
The place to happiness is second to none
Lyrics from Zion Country
by Tengeh
Kaili McDonnough, Staff Reporter, December 27, 2003
A CLEAN, simple and scenic utopia exists only 45 minutes from the beautiful town of Port Antonio, Portland.
Tucked away on a small dirt road in Long Road, Portland is the home and business establishment of Free I, a native of the Netherlands who now calls Jamaica home.
Free I landed on Jamaican shores 10 years ago and says he immediately felt an attachment to the land. He returned to Jamaica the following year for a three-month long holiday in which he rented a small room from a resident in the vicinity of Winifred Beach.
Following his second Jamaican sojourn, Free I went back to the Netherlands but knew he ‘was not fulfilled with all that life had to offer’. While he led a comfortable existence in Holland, he says he had the frustrating feeling of trying to figure out exactly what was missing from his world.
Months later he figured out what was missing Jamaica.
One year later, knowing only a handful of Portland residents, Free I surrendered to the Jamaican way of life, bought a few acres of land and started developing his dream project which today is four wooden beach cabins overlooking an inviting bay. As one who has appreciated the simple life, with little commercialism and formal enterprise – Free I notes that ‘the Jamaican lifestyle provides more time for meditation, thinking and relaxation’.
AT ONE WITH NATURE
Stressed out from the vigour of urban life? Consider joining Free I for a weekend in the Zion Country. A far cry from typical tourist resorts and guesthouses, in Zion Country you are truly one with nature. The rooms are without air-conditioning, electrical outlets, televisions and phones. Bathrooms are communal and are located outside the cabins, as are washing basins that have mirrors reflecting a view of the entire bay. Water from the faucets is cold rain water caught during the rainy season and stored in tanks.
“This is what country living really feels like – pure and free of technology and commercialism,” reckons Free I. The entire experience at Zion Country is mystical, especially if you are a person who is unaccustomed to the rustic way of life.
Apart from its physical beauty, another element of Zion Country Beach Cabins is that you must create your own fun. It is a fantastic place to visit if you feel like a weekend of kicking back with an engaging novel or lounging by the beach. For nature watchers, the bay is a major attraction. It is like an open pool where Manatees often congregate during the season. This is also a paradise for bird watchers and hikers.
Ninety-five per cent of guests are European tourists. Free I says he welcomes more Jamaicans to soak up the rustic Portland experience. “Most Jamaicans,” he notes, “are not adventurous enough as when they go off for a weekend escape they retreat to all-inclusive hotels and luxurious joints.” He further comments that “there is beauty in off-the-beaten track resorts (and that) it is an added cultural and social experience in one’s life.”
WHAT TO DO
Bird watchers would swell with delight at this retreat, as throughout the property there are many species of birds, which are attracted to the number of rare lumber and fruit trees.
In addition, Free I often organises hiking trips up the river to Reich Falls or up to the Blue Mountain peak, historical trips to the Morant Point Lighthouse, Folly Ruins and as far away as the Bob Marley Museum on Hope Road in Kingston.
WHAT TO TAKE
Comfortable and casual clothing (including a swimsuit), a book or a few magazines, board games, binoculars, good company and an open mind.
THE COST
Release the bohemian in you and escape to Zion Country for a weekend filled with mellow vibes and relaxation. The local rate for two people is $2,000 a night. This includes a continental breakfast that is as pleasing to the eyes as it is to the palate.
KEEP IN MIND
Zion Country is an eco-friendly resort that promotes environmental awareness.
HOW TO GET THERE
From Kingston, drive through St. Thomas to Portland. Five minutes after passing Happy Grove High school, the road will fork. Make a right turn and drive another five minutes until you see a big sign for Zion Country Beach Cabins on your right. Make a right turn and you will see Zion Country on the left hand side of the road.
MARCH 27, 2005
Finding a More Authentic Jamaica
IT’S not particularly easy to get to Portland parish, a lush, often rainy region on Jamaica’s northeast coast. The closest airport with jet service from the United States is Norman Manley International in Kingston, which is at least two, and sometimes three, hours away by car, depending on the number of potholes, trucks, chickens, goats and bicycling Rastafarians encountered on the road.
But that journey, on the A4 “highway” (a rather grand name for a road that can barely contain two cars passing each other), is worth the effort — and not just because of the steady stream of road stands offering ripe bananas or cold coconut milk, or the ubiquitous one-room bars slinging frosty Red Stripe beers or shots of clear overproof rum (which is 63 percent alcohol by volume).
Instead, what you will find is the real Jamaica, not the isolated experience offered by all-inclusive resorts that are the typical tourist destinations on this Caribbean island.
As the A4 takes you along the arid coast east of Kingston, the Blue Mountains and the John Crow Mountains rise up out of the island’s interior. The road passes through small towns like Yallahs, White Horses, and Morant Bay (site of a rebellion that was brutally suppressed by British authorities in 1865) before turning north. Then comes your first sight in Portland: masses of tall bright green sugarcane stretching for miles down to the azure sea.
Sugarcane built Portland’s hub, Port Antonio, which was established in 1685. Few colonial-era vestiges remain, but the medium-sized town is still a central destination, with grocery stores, banks, gas stations, restaurants, a library, courthouse, and a public market that bursts with activity on Saturdays.
One of Jamaica’s first tourist spots, Port Antonio experienced a mini-boom from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. Errol Flynn built an estate in the area and injected an air of Hollywood glamour. His widow still lives on a 2,000-acre cattle ranch to the east of town near Long Bay. In the past few years, more Europeans and Americans have built villas in and around Port Antonio, especially to the east on the jungle-like hillsides above the tiny oceanside enclave of San San.
But there are other destinations worth a side trip before settling into Port Antonio.
In Long Road, just east of Manchioneal, a transplanted Dutchman who goes by the name “Free-I” has built an eco-hostel with a pair of two-room spartan pine-floored cottages perched on a hillside overlooking the small harbor. There is no air-conditioning, no hot water, and a shared toilet that is reached by steep steps. But with the doors and windows propped open, a cabin room feels like a cozy summer sleep-away camp, with the loquacious Free-I as activities director.
Dinner is served on the veranda of a small bar. As night falls, gentle illumination is provided by wicker baskets, nestled among the tree branches, rigged with light bulbs. On a visit there in February, I had a savory Jamaican meal of grilled dolphin with peas and rice for $7, at 62.5 Jamaican dollars to the United States dollar, finished off with a strong pour of Appleton Estate rum for a little over $1.
Nearby, and worth a day of its own, is a mile-long swath of near-deserted white sand beach at the aptly named Long Bay. There are few guesthouses in the area, but small bars and restaurants squat among the rows of palms that are Long Bay’s backbone. Local people also go to Winnifred Beach, near Fairy Hill, and Boston Bay, a center for jerk — a method of slow-roasting meat over an open pit of wood from the pimento tree. At full tilt, Boston Bay looks like a Kiwanis barbecue convention. A thick layer of smoke hovers over the scene, music pumps, and competing jerk chefs wave you down as you cruise the quarter-mile stretch.
One enterprising chef ran up and knocked on our window as we pulled over. We followed him back to his stand, called Glasses Jerk Center. The proprietor pulled off the corrugated tin sheet that covered the meat, arranged on bamboo poles lashed together like the rafts that float the nearby Rio Grande. After free tastes of pork and chicken, we decided on the moister chicken. Another chef chopped half a bird into chunks, which he piled onto a square of aluminum foil laid out on the concrete slab that served as a lunch counter. (The cost: about $7, including a cold Pepsi and a log of cornmeal bread.)
Next stop was San San, where Maria Carla Gullotta, owner of Drapers San guesthouse, entertains mostly young Europeans looking for entree into the reggae and “sound-system” music scene. Like rap in the United States, sound system can be entertainment, protest, and a way out of poverty. D.J.’s spin tunes while M.C.’s rap — or dub — over the beat.
We accompanied Ms. Gullotta to a Friday night sound-system party held at a nearby cove. Stadium concert-sized speaker pillars cranked out alternately exhilarating and terrifying, heart-stopping volumes, while lines of young revelers chatted and swayed to the beat in a rum-and-ganja haze.
A short hike up the Rio Grande Valley the next morning gave us a quick view of Portland’s developing eco-tourism sector. Departing from Berrydale, we first crossed the shallow Rio Grande by bamboo raft and then walked through some villages, eventually going deeper into the rain forest along a tributary, the crystal-clear Say River. A lone fisherman was spearing freshwater crayfish — a valuable crustacean that can reach one pound and is often incorporated into a gumbo-like soup that’s a reputed aphrodisiac. We reached our destination — Scatter Falls — and then clambered up above the falls to explore the underwater pools and stalactites and stalagmites of Foxes Caves.
Portland’s interior is also the home of the Maroons, former slaves who escaped Spanish and British colonists. We scheduled a visit with Ivelyn Harris, a 53-year-old herbalist and descendant of the first Maroon leader, Nanny. Ms. Harris’s home is 15 miles up the valley from Berrydale, in Cornwall Barracks. As we inched up “roads” that more closely resembled rocky riverbeds, we called upon the spirits to protect the tires and rims of our Mitsubishi rental car.
More than an hour later, after multiple stops to ask if we were headed in the right direction (forget road signs or mile markers), we arrived at Ms. Harris’s lush 21-acre hilltop compound. She served us a hearty chicken and dumpling soup in her screened-in kitchen/dining area and we drifted off to sleep in her rental cabin despite the thump of a nearby sound system.
Our last stop, the Rio Vista Resort, was a welcome counterpoint to the rusticity of previous days. The small hotel lies about 15 minutes west of Port Antonio near St. Margaret’s Bay. Our two-bedroom villa had real mattresses, starched linens, and hot water. Dinner, including a sumptuous version of that crayfish soup, was served at a poolside gazebo on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande.
We lingered too long the next morning over breakfast, a Jamaican feast of ackee and salt fish (a bland fruit fried with cod and vegetables), bammy (a starchy cassava flour bread), johnnycakes (biscuits) and Blue Mountain coffee. The dawdling left us barely enough time to make our flight. Winding back along the coast towards Kingston, I found myself driving Jamaican style, honking and passing on blind curves, windows down, embracing the sights and sounds of the island as it rushed by one last time.
BETWEEN THE MOUNTAINS AND THE SEA
Portland parish straddles a large swath of Jamaica’s northeast coast, rising dramatically up from the blue-green waters and sandy beaches of the Caribbean through dense jungle to the top of the Blue Mountains. The 21.4-mile-long Rio Grande and its many tributaries flow out of the mountains, providing some of the most beautiful rafting, hiking, and caving spots in Jamaica. (Prices were often given in United States dollars; where necessary, prices were converted at 62.5 Jamaican dollars to the United States dollar.)
Where to Stay
Zion Country Beach Cabins, in Long Road, just east of Manchioneal off the A4, (876) 993-0435, on the Web at www.zioncountry.com. Double rooms are $40 a night, including breakfast.
Drapers San in San San, (876) 993-7118, on the Web at www.go-jam.com/drapersan-e.html. Double rooms start at $48 a night, including breakfast.
Frenchman’s Cove Resort, (876) 993-7270 or www.frenchmans-cove-resort.com/reservations.html is a 48-acre enclave dotted with one-to-three-bedroom midcentury stone and glass houses, offers larger accommodations for $89 to $225 a night For about $3 nonguests are admitted to lounge on the beach or to use the same freshwater inlet once used for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit shoot.
Rio Vista Resort, (876) 993-5444, www.riovistajamaica.com, is west of Port Antonio on the Rio Grande. One-bedroom suites are $95 a night, including breakfast; the two-bedroom suite is $140 a night (breakfast not included).
Our stay with Ivelyn Harris was booked through MaryLou Callahan at Unique Destinations, (401) 647-4730, www.portantoniojamaica.com. Ms. Callahan can also arrange hiking, birding, and nature outings, through Grand Valley Tours. Our hike with Euton Savage of Grand Valley Tours included a picnic lunch of jerk chicken and peas and rice, served on glass plates (hikes start at $30 a person).
Where to Eat
Woody’s Low Bridge Place, (876) 993-7888, on the A4 in San San, offers made-to-order Jamaican meals, all home-cooked by Woody’s wife, Cheri, like curried goat ($14.50; includes three-courses) pepper steak ($13.60) and fish cooked in the Jamaican “rundown” style (baked in a spiced coconut sauce).
San San Tropez (876) 993-7213, www.sansantropez.com, a hotel and restaurant, offers a more upscale, Italian-cuisine alternative. The menu features items everything from pizza (from $9.50), to homemade ravioli sautéed with lobster, shrimp and crab ($24) to lobster baked and sautéed in rum ($25.50). ALICIA AULT
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