Local guests being transported down the Rio Grande.
Garwin Davis, Assistant News Editor
RIO GRANDE rafting in Portland, once considered among the premier tourist attractions in the country, has since 1997 been taking a severe beating and is presently in danger of becoming extinct, rafters say.
They note that major flooding over the years coupled with the massive downturn in Portland's tourism sector and deplorable road conditions have all but "killed the rafting trade" with many of them now contemplating going into other occupations.
"The way I see it, this has now become a waste of time," explained Lindel Holastan, a rafter of 30 years and who has now decided he no longer wants to continue in the trade. "Sometimes over a three-month period some people don't make a dollar around here... how can anyone depend on this for a living."
Mr. Holastan notes that what it costs to maintain a raft plus "all the headache involved in trying to get some business" wasn't worth the hassle, saying he now has his eyes firmly set on farming. When The Sunday Gleaner visited the area last Friday, rafters were seen sitting idly by their rafts, some passing the time by engaging themselves in conversations about sports. A majority of the rafts appeared battered, a result of the flooding we were told, while others seemed to have simply deteriorated with time. The Rio Grande river itself, though appearing less treacherous than it was during the flood rains a few weeks ago, still looked murky. A few locals, nevertheless, took a trip down the river.
Motilall Parsons, another rafter, explained that "a few local business is mostly what we see nowadays. Buses used to come in from as far away as Negril and Montego Bay but that's not the case anymore, at least not as often." He also notes that the economics of the trade makes it rather difficult to survive as a rafter.
According to him, rafters get $1,000 for the eight-mile trip starting from the community of Berrydale down to Rafter's Rest in St. Margaret's Bay. But after paying an attendant $350 to "bring back the raft up the river" plus other expenses "one can hardly survive on what is left." He said that his "cries" echoed what the other rafters are going through, noting that he no longer sees a "future for rafting".
"Unless something dramatically changes for the better, I am afraid rafting the way we used to know it will be no more," Mr. Parsons said. "It has been dying for a while and I don't think it has much further to go."
Rio Grande rafting is said to have been started by former Hollywood actor, the late Errol Flynn, back in the 1950s and which later developed into a major tourist attraction. It enjoyed probably its best period during the 1970s when cruise shipping was booming in the resort town of Port Antonio. And even though the town's cruise sector declined rapidly over the preceding years, rafting more than held its own and to the point where according to one rafter, "it used to be the only thing happening in this town."
The Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), which took over operations of the attraction several years ago from Port Antonio businessman and architect Earl Levy, is hard pressed, rafters say, to get anything meaningful going for rafting and is reportedly looking for a manager to take over operations.
Efforts by The Sunday Gleaner to talk to officials from TPDCo up to late Friday evening were unsuccessful. However, Patrick Harris, a local representative stationed at the attraction in Berrydale confirmed that "things have been very bad" and that the rafters "have been hurting". He said that 1997-1998 were relatively good years for rafting but that things "simply started going downhill afterwards". He wasn't about to give up hope though.
"If you can get the basic infrastructure in place, rafting can get back to its glory days," he said. "The attraction is still here...the human resources are here, what we need is to get things rolling again."
Mr. Harris said one of the biggest turn off for visitors was the deplorable road conditions leading to the attraction, noting that "this has contributed to some of what we have been facing."
"With all the developments currently taking place in Port Antonio, I am optimistic that things will turn around for the better," he added. "Right now there is a lot of interest in the town...the acquisition of Dragon Bay by Butch Stewart and the Port Authority's investment in Navy Island. These are solid investments that are bound to reap rich dividends...this is why I feel so good about the prospects for rafting."
But others are not so convinced. "There have always been seasonal problems with rafting but I have never seen it this bad," explained Eula Buckely, a beach attendant who has been at the attraction for more than 30 years. "I also sell craft here for a living and sometimes up to three months I haven't made a sale...I tell you its real bad."
Her friend, Joan Parsons, adds, "I don't know if I could honestly encourage anybody to get involved in rafting as an occupation today. It doesn't pay the bills and a person simply cannot rely on it to survive...its as simple as that."
President of the Jamaica Union of Travellers Association (JUTA), Winston Cannickle, said that what Port Antonio needs for businesses such as rafting to survive is a number of cruise ships to start calling at the town's port again, noting that "this would be everybody's best chance at surviving...at least two ships per week would be good enough for us."
