Activities Around Bluefields Bay, Jamaica

Manager’s Cocktail Party: On Monday afternoons at 5 PM, our management team arranges a cocktail party for the guests at our homes. It is held at our beach pavilion, The Treehouse. We try to include some members of our local community, and there is often a representative from Oasis Spa and from the local community organization (the BPCA) or Basic School faculty.

The Treehouse: The beach pavilion provides a great spot to spend time, have drinks at its beautiful Jamaican-marble bar, enjoy a waterfront lunch near to the beach, and read books and magazines. It is the site of our weekly manager's cocktail party and of our Jerk Chicken Luncheon held each Wednesday. This facility has a powder room, changing area, and an outdoor shower too.

Snorkeling: Please let your butler know if you wish to borrow some of our large collection of snorkeling gear. Snorkeling is excellent right along the shoreline, or a local boat can take you to nearby Moor Reef for US $30/hour. The boat holds 6 or 7 passengers, and should be scheduled the previous day. Please go early to enjoy calm seas and to avoid the hot midday sun.

Deep-Sea Fishing: Herman, a local boatman, provides rods and reels and can take up to four people about 8 miles out for deep-sea fishing. It is best to leave by 6 AM, and he charges US $40/hour. We have life preservers that can be put into his boat at your request, and our staff will prepare a cooler and snacks if arranged the previous day. If you would like to try a more elaborate boat with interior space and other modern features, sometimes this might be able to be arranged for you. These typically cost in the range of US $375 for five hours and this requires some advance planning.

Sea Kayaking: Our area, the leeward side of Jamaica, is ideally suited to sea kayaking. We currently have seven sea kayaks (2 two-man kayaks at San Michele, a two-man kayak at Milestone Cottage, 2 two-man kayaks and 2 one-man kayaks at our beach area). These are ideal both for exercise and for use as water taxis in order to view the coastline and travel to and fro.

Other Water Sports: There is now a gentleman living in Belmont who rents windsurfers and sunfish for $100 per week.

Scuba Diving: Negril, which is a 40 minute drive from Bluefields, has two or three certified dive centers. One of these is the Negril Scuba Centre (http://negriljamaica.com/negrilscubacentre.html, telephone/fax: #303-442-3016), which offers scuba-diving as well as dive instruction. Their website has a list of their services and rates. Diving at the Chalet Caribe in Montego Bay also gets an excellent report.

Tennis, Croquet: Our night-lit competition-size tennis court is for the use of all five homes. Please bring your own racquets and tennis balls, although we sometimes have tennis balls for sale at US $7.50/can. Also, please enquire to find out if a croquet set might be available for your visit? San Michele and Cottonwood Cottage have the best lawns for croquet.

Golf: Negril Hills Golf Course (18-holes, 35 minute drive, phone #876-957-4638) has greens fees of $57.50, carts are $34.50, caddies are $14, clubs are $18. Championship golf course, Tryall Golf & Country Club (one hour drive, fax # 876-965-5681), is the best in Jamaica. Greens fees are $150, carts are $27, caddies are $22.50. Their website: www.tryallclub.com

Hiking: Local community-members have been trained to take people up the Bluefields Mountain to learn about the birdlife (Philip Gosse wrote the defining treatise, Birds of Jamaica, while living in Bluefields), to see local plants, to visit an incredibly interesting local house with no electricity or piped water and with a separate kitchen structure and wood-burning stove, and to enjoy fabulous views of Bluefields Bay. This trip is a terrific way for people to see a very different world from ours in the U.S. The basic walk is quite leisurely, will take 2+ hours, and is recommended for early mornings. The leader will meet you at your villa and will take up to 6 hikers at a flat rate of US$90. If you wish for a more rigorous hike further up this 2000+ foot high mountain or you would like to go on a marine tour, these are also readily available. Please let us know of your interest….

Horseback Riding: Busha Clarke or his staff take you trail-riding on the spectacular 2000 acre waterfront property, Paradise Plantation, belonging to his family. You ride through the Sweet River, along the coastline, and into the sea for breathtaking vistas of the coastline. This ride features much tropical foliage (mangrove, water hyacinth, etc.) as well as good views of this working plantation (cattle, dairy, lumbering). This costs about US $30 for a 90 minute ride. Riders must be over 6 years old.

Jogging & Walking: The old roadway running alongside the Bluefields Beach has been closed except to vehicles heading for the new beach parking lot. With almost no traffic, this is an ideal spot to begin a jog or walk. As you reach the Bluefields Police Station, cross the main roadway, and take the narrow road that travels up the hill. Make the first right turn onto the minimally-trafficked Brighton Road, which goes for miles and miles and provides a most appealing country surround. For a shorter jog, you should follow the old roadway and then form a circle following the new roadway at the back of the wetlands.

Local Spa: Our neighbor Jaci Fraser operates Oasis Spa and offers massages, body wraps, facials, manicures, pedicures, etc. Treatments can sometimes be provided at your villa by the Oasis staff or by a less expensive local masseuse, but please realize that we accept no liability or responsibility in either case. It is best to pay with cash or by personal check.

Thai Massage: Patrick Hickey, an American who has a large amount of training in Oriental medicine, lives in Montego Bay and can come on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays to do Thai massage. His treatments are deep-tissue and highly therapeutic (but with no discomfort) and we highly recommend him!! The rate for 1½ hours is $100. As he must drive one hour to reach us in Bluefields, he hopes to do at least 2 or more treatments per trip. If you wish to make reservations, please let us know.

Music: Each house has a CD/cassette player with a small selection of cassettes and CDs for your enjoyment. Please sort these out carefully from your own music when departing, as guests recently left with CDs owned by a staffmember....

Television & VCR: You can rent a TV/VCR (a TV/DVD may be possible) for US $140/week. If you wish to arrange for this, please indicate interest on the enclosed questionnaire and we will do our very best to accommodate you.

Telephones: The following numbers are good to keep with you: Mullion Cove/Office: #876-955-8993; San Michele: #876-955-8210; The Hermitage: #876-955-8004; Cottonwood Cottage: #876-955-8002; Milestone Cottage: #876-955-8644; Fax: #876-955-8672 (guest name/rental villa must be shown). Calling Cards do not work in Jamaica, so all outgoing calls must be made “Collect”. Another option is to purchase a “Phone Card” that can be used for outgoing toll calls and our staff can inform you about where and how this can be accomplished.

Visitors: If you have friends coming to Jamaica who you wish to host for a visit, we offer two options: For our half-day rate (US$75 per visitor), your friends can join you for either lunch or dinner, utilize the full bar, and enjoy the facilities. The full-day rate (US$125 per visitor) means they can join you for activities, lunch, cocktails/appetizers at sunset and a delicious dinner. Please make sure that our management receives prior notice about this so that proper provisioning occurs. And please make sure that payment is rendered before your visitors arrive to the property. If you wish to host “local” guests from our area, you must get permission from our managers before your guests will be permitted onto the property and you must render payment for these guests beforehand. You may not share our all-inclusive provisions with others at the expense of IAG, Inc.

Neighbors: The Bluefields Peoples Community Association (BPCA), a non-profit community organization, was formed about ten years ago. The BPCA began by offering training in fishing/agricultural techniques, providing literacy classes, and helping to organize a local Basic School (catering to children under 6 years of age). Our resort business has now assumed sponsorship and operation of this school. We always hope to include a Board Member from the BPCA and the Head Teacher from the school at our weekly cocktail parties in order to acquaint our renters with their work. It is possible to arrange for a visit to the Basic School and to this Community Center. We recommend that a visit be planned for Wednesday morning before the Jerk Chicken Luncheon at The Treehouse. Please advise if this is of interest to you and your group? And if you wish to contribute to our wonderful community, please contact us about how you can help to improve education or conservation in Bluefields!

Dancing, Drinking, Eating Out: Your waiter may be able to suggest some local reggae bars, but these are only active on Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights and have a “local” clientele. Casa Mariners is close by, offers less noisy sound, satellite TV, pool tables, and sometimes has live music on Fridays. The Jungle, the most popular club in Negril, gets going late, is especially good from Thursdays through Saturdays, has an entry fee of JA$500 per person, and offers a free ladies night on Thursdays.

Party-Planning: If you wish for “live music”, consider hiring the steel band named “Carib 5” (US$250 for 2 ½ hours), a reggae band named “Sunset” (US$350 for 2 ½ hours), Denzel Douglas (aka Dougie) who plays his keyboard (US$175 for 2 ½ hours), or a Negril mento band (US$75/hour plus transport costs). You can also hire a local DJ to play reggae hits at a lower rate. But PLEASE be aware and respect the Jamaican law that there is to be absolutely no use of outdoor speakers after 11PM!! And we beg you to be careful not to disturb other renters.

Shopping: There are many duty-free shops at the Montego Bay Airport departure area selling liquor, Blue Mountain coffee, spices such as jerk seasonings, Jamaican T-shirts, paintings, books, cards, even tropical flowers to take home, and there are also duty-free shops in the Montego Bay Freeport. If you visit Negril, ask our driver to take you to Times Square, a new galleria of duty-free shops with none of the unpleasant “higglers” (peddlers) that frequent local crafts markets in Montego Bay and Negril. Also, paintings and small gift items (such as those spotted painted animals in our homes) can be purchased from the Gallery of West Indian Art in Montego Bay (located both at Round Hill and downtown). If you need to buy (but do not wish to go on a shopping spree), we have correspondence cards depicting artwork in our homes ($15/box of 12) and have copies of the book Escape in Style (featuring Milestone Cottage and San Michele) for $25. We beg you not to purchase items in our area, which will inevitably help to foster undesirable commercialism! For those interested in antiques or furniture, we urge great caution: The Anchovy Furniture Factory, on the road to Montego Bay, took full payment for chairs and beds from renters many years ago. In two cases, years of continuous telephone calls to this shop resulted in delivery of the beds 4 1/2 years later…..

Touring: Our drivers can take you to some interesting destinations if you rent a vehicle. The resort town of Negril, 40 minutes west, has a spectacular 7-mile sand beach, snorkeling off its cliffs, bars, restaurants, water sports, shopping. Please recognize that there are no uncommercialized spots where you can take drinks and a picnic, so you must buy provisions while there. There are many restaurants/bars: Margueritaville (on the beach), Joseph’s Cave (cliffside perch), Charela and Cafe-au-Lait (Jamaican/French cuisine), Cosmos Restaurant (seafood). Or you can go to the Grand Lido Resort at about 3PM, and, for a half-day rate, enjoy their facilities, go for a sunset cruise on the ship which belonged to Princess Grace and then dine in one of their restaurants. If this is of interest, please contact Bryan Drew (General Manager) at #876-957-5015, ext. 301

Boating up the Black River (longest river in Jamaica, 25 minutes east of Bluefields) is similar to a trip through the Everglades. It costs US $12/person and affords views of mangrove, crocodiles, birdlife. Be sure to stop and view the gingerbread Victorian buildings that are in the middle of the town of Black River. You might wish to combine this with a visit to an incredible Orchid Park near Black River owned by Dr. Bennett who raises unbelievable orchids. Or you can also visit the magnificent YS Falls, about 40 minutes northeast of Bluefields and with an entry fee of US$15/person, which are the highest waterfalls in Jamaica. These Falls and a large stretch of the YS River run through the middle of a 2000-acre private plantation, and the owners have opened them to the public (9:30 AM to 3:30 PM, every day except Mondays). There are far fewer tourists than at Dunns River Falls, but try to reach there when it opens since you will then be well ahead of tourists coming from Negril and Montego Bay. Also, try to go after a dry day, since otherwise the water might be muddy instead of sparkling and clear.

About one hour east of Bluefields is Treasure Beach. This community has a wide dark brown sand beach, big sand dunes, and water often perfect for bodysurfing. We made arrangements for our guests to picnic, shower, and change at a waterfront house with a breathtaking view of Treasure Beach for a small fee of about US $30 for your entire party. Or you might instead visit “Jakes,” a beach bar/restaurant. This community does not have “salesmen” on the beach and lacks Negril’s commercialism.

During sugar cane harvest season, it is possible to arrange for a tour of the Frome Sugar Factory. This trip provides a most enlightening view of the refining process for brown sugar and molasses, and it is only about 20 minutes away. The Appleton Estate has tours through its rum bottling plant, and is about an hour and a half drive from the Bluefields area. And there is now an Ostrich Park about an hour away that has plenty of ostriches and also playground equipment for small children.

We would like to thank the owners of Bluefields villas for submitting this information on activities for Bluefields guests. All prices and activities are subject to change.

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