Rafting on Rio Grande - a dying business

Published: Sunday | January 28, 2007


Garwin Davis, Sunday Gleaner Writer


Tourists raft down the Rio Grande in Portland. - File

Rio Grande rafting in Portland, once considered among the premier tourist attractions in the country, is 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 rafters now contemplating going into other occupations.

"The way I see it, this has now become a waste of time," commented Monty Parsons, a rafter of 15 years. "Sometimes over a three-month period some people don't make a dollar. We can no longer depend on this for a living."

Mr. Parsons notes that what it costs to maintain a raft plus "all the headache involved in trying to get some business" weren't worth the hassle, saying he now has his eyes firmly set on doing something else.

A visit to Berrydale, Portland - the home of Rio Grande rafting - will find rafters sitting idly by their rafts, many resigned to the hardships that have now sadly become a feature of what was one of Jamaica's tourist attractions.

A majority of the rafts are battered, while others seemed to have simply deteriorated with time. The Rio Grande itself, though appearing less treacherous than it was during the flood rains several months ago, still looked murky.

Randy Smith, another rafter, explained that "a few local business is mostly what we see nowadays. Buses used to come in from Ocho Rios, Negril and Montego Bay, but that's not the case anymore.

Difficult to survive

"The roads are bad and people are turned off," he said. "It is very difficult to survive as a rafter."

According to him, rafters get $1,000 per person 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," he 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 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 secceeding 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".

Fabian Taylor, vice-president of operations for Tour Wise Limited, said Rio Grande rafting was not as attractive as before, adding that the attraction at Berrydale was run-down and far from being visitor-friendly.

"The rafts are old, the raftsmen are not properly attired - a real turn-off for visitors," he said. "To top it off, the roads leading to Berrydale are deplorable and a major turn-off. This is such a shame as this was once a very popular attraction and a must-see for visitors."

Basic infrastructure

A local representative of the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo.) who requested anonymity said 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".

"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.

"With all the developments that are planned for 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 which is why I feel rafting will someday return to its glory days.

Others, though, are not so convinced. "There have always been seasonal problems with rafting, but I have never seen it this bad," explained Eula Ramsey, 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 it's 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 ... it's as simple as that."