"How many people work here with the tourists?" I asked Isaac and Alfred, our two guides for a horse ride we were taking around the Good Hope Plantation yesterday. It was a bright day, and there must have been 5000 acres of property dazzling below me.
"Two," they replied, and looked a bit puzzled. I steered my horse, Cokehead, off the trail and up into one of the many citrus groves we were riding through, and plucked another Ugly Fruit of the tree. Like an orange, only uglier and more delicious. Juicy like you wouldn't believe, with the flavour of a mandarin and the size of a small grapefruit. The peel came off easily, and I gleefully let the juice run down my face and shirt as the horse walked itself back onto the trail.
It had taken a good hour to drive the 20km inland to get to the Plantation, which dominated most of the valley of the Martha Brae as it ran out of the Cockpit mountains out to the coast and the resorts below. Some signs posted about the plantation described that it had been around for some two hundred years, and owned by a succession of oddballs, starting with a succession of slave-owning sugar cane farmers, and eventually passing into the hands of a partnership which tried to create a high-end tourism destination in the 60's or 70's. They restored the old great house up at that top of the hill to its most charming, and for a brief while they managed to lure in some society types, even a prince, it so appears.
There was a civil war of sorts in the 70's in Jamaica, and the visitors ground to a halt. A brochure with the history of the plantation noted that when Jamaica emerged in the 80's, tourism there "had gone from exclusive to (all)-inclusive." The owners tried a few other pursuits, notably the citrus farm, as well as a race horse training operation. Both worked, sort of, to the degree that we were able to hire two retired race horses to ride through the magnificent orchards of trees dripping with ripe fruit.
We high-brow Americans, the kind who are pre-disposed to "responsible tourism" and look down our noses at package tours and would never willingly don a bracelet or surrender to having to eat at a buffet while on holiday have an ingrained aversion to Jamaica, land as it is of bargain all-inclusive. It's a shame, really, since the island is full of gems such as the Good Hope Plantation.
If any of the Internet people out there find this post and are considering a trip to Montego Bay, don't miss a horse ride up at Good Hope. I hear that you if you call ahead and ask for it, they can prepare you lunch at the great house. I just found the web site, which I'm glad they have, but don't worry, it is MUCH more slick than the plantation itself...
"Two," they replied, and looked a bit puzzled. I steered my horse, Cokehead, off the trail and up into one of the many citrus groves we were riding through, and plucked another Ugly Fruit of the tree. Like an orange, only uglier and more delicious. Juicy like you wouldn't believe, with the flavour of a mandarin and the size of a small grapefruit. The peel came off easily, and I gleefully let the juice run down my face and shirt as the horse walked itself back onto the trail.
It had taken a good hour to drive the 20km inland to get to the Plantation, which dominated most of the valley of the Martha Brae as it ran out of the Cockpit mountains out to the coast and the resorts below. Some signs posted about the plantation described that it had been around for some two hundred years, and owned by a succession of oddballs, starting with a succession of slave-owning sugar cane farmers, and eventually passing into the hands of a partnership which tried to create a high-end tourism destination in the 60's or 70's. They restored the old great house up at that top of the hill to its most charming, and for a brief while they managed to lure in some society types, even a prince, it so appears.
There was a civil war of sorts in the 70's in Jamaica, and the visitors ground to a halt. A brochure with the history of the plantation noted that when Jamaica emerged in the 80's, tourism there "had gone from exclusive to (all)-inclusive." The owners tried a few other pursuits, notably the citrus farm, as well as a race horse training operation. Both worked, sort of, to the degree that we were able to hire two retired race horses to ride through the magnificent orchards of trees dripping with ripe fruit.
We high-brow Americans, the kind who are pre-disposed to "responsible tourism" and look down our noses at package tours and would never willingly don a bracelet or surrender to having to eat at a buffet while on holiday have an ingrained aversion to Jamaica, land as it is of bargain all-inclusive. It's a shame, really, since the island is full of gems such as the Good Hope Plantation.
If any of the Internet people out there find this post and are considering a trip to Montego Bay, don't miss a horse ride up at Good Hope. I hear that you if you call ahead and ask for it, they can prepare you lunch at the great house. I just found the web site, which I'm glad they have, but don't worry, it is MUCH more slick than the plantation itself...
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