Port Antonio is my favorite spot in Jamaica. Lush, green, and quiet, it lacks the glitz of Ocho Rios and gets along quite nicely, thank you very much, without the madness of Negril. For years, it figured largely in my fantasy life for two reasons: a hotel named Trident and rafting on the Rio Grande.
Trident was a grand hotel in the Jamaican style of the past, with the hallmarks of English baronial splendor coupled with Jamaican décor. The rooms were at water’s edge and salt spray dampened the chintz-covered chaise lounges. A pair of white peacocks strolled the grounds and added to the otherworldly air. Service was impeccable, with the bar manned by a mixologist from whom rum kept no secrets. He produced drinks with a flourish and a flair: rum punches, planter’s punches, daiquiris, and more. In the evening, a pianist entertained in the library before dinner and conversation was appropriately international and terribly sophisticated. The hotel evoked the Jamaica of times past when Noel Coward and Ian Fleming could be found at cocktail parties and Errol Flynn lived on Navy Island out in the Port Antonio Harbor.
Errol Flynn is said to be the creator of my second favorite thing about Port Antonio. It is thought that he was the first to take his guests out on the bamboo and wood rafts that had previously been used to transport bananas down the Rio Grande to the ships waiting at port. Rafting has now become one of the island’s tourist attractions and it is one of my favorite things to do in Jamaica.
The beauty of rafting is that there is nothing to do but sit back with a tall rum drink in hand and enjoy the quiet and calm of nature as you are poled down the river. The water is cool and the arches of greenery overhead dapple the sunlight. The only sounds are the rhythmic splashes of the rafter’s pole as he propels you gondolierlike through the current. The rafters occasionally fancy themselves singers and a verse or two of Marley is not out of place, but usually I am happy to savor the silence and look for the next rest spot, where I can get a taste of some jerk and a refill of my rum drink before continuing the journey down the river.
Returning to Trident after a day of rafting is my idea of true bliss. The hotel and the activity mark the dueling sides of my personality. Trident appeals to my love of luxury and wish to bask in the glories of good service and rafting appeals to my love of nature’s calm. As are many things in life, both are immensely enhanced by a glass or two of very good rum.