PORT ANTONIO
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from January 1986.
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Before the jet set "discovered" Port Antonio a number of years ago, J.P. Morgan had been anchoring his yacht there in the early part of the century. During the 1920s, '30s and '40s, Clara Bow, Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers and other glamorous stars made the town their favorite getaway spot. As late as the '60s, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were regulars at nearby Frenchman Cove, which has fallen on hard times in the 1980s. Today, other than a visit by Raquel Welch, vacationing celebrities such as the sheikh of Kuwait, the Aga Khan and Calvin Klein keep a lower profile.
The town has some marvelous examples of Georgian architecture along Queen Street. Make reservations in advance for lunch at DeMontevin Lodge, which was built by a Boston sea captain in an eccentric, Victorian gingerbread style. You walk into the house's large dining room and sit at a giant dining room table set with crystal and lace. Your lunch might include spicy pea soup, sweet-and-sour. chicken with chutney, curried conch, calaloo (resembling an astringent spinach) and boiled green bananas.
This excellent Jamaican cuisine is prepared by the former private cook for Errol Flynn The locals all agree that Flynn brought the world's attention to Port Antonio when he tied his yacht in the harbor during a hurricane in 1947, fell in love with the place and bought property there. His lovely widow, Patrice Wymore Flynn, puts in long days running the 2,000-acre ranch where she raises Jamaica red cattle and harvests coconuts.
There is a new tour available of the Flynn plantation where the visitor can spend an hour seeing copra made from coconut, learning how Jamaican beef is processed, observing the manufacture of wicker furniture (designed by Patrice). Flynn) and seeing a collection of Errol's memorabilia, which includes relics from his beloved ship, Vacca. As if managing all of the above weren't enough, Patrice also designs clothes and collects superb local art for her boutiques located in the Trident Villas and the Dragon Bay hotels.
At nearby Boston Beach you will find spicy-hot jerk pork Jamaicas greatest gift to the culinary world being prepared. The recipe for jerk pork (or chicken or fish) comes from the maroons runaway slaves who banded together in the mountains of central Jamaica to live on very few resources. The word "jerk" is a corruption of the work "juke," which was the method of slaughtering their livestock with spears. The meats are cooked for hours over allspice wood and basted with a combination of red pepper, allspice leaves and other pungent spices. The miraculous result makes stateside barbecues seem tasteless. Given the proper marketing techniques, American jerk chicken stands could bury the Colonel in no time flat.
We suggest you arrange for a two and one-half hour (or longer if you want to stop for a swim or picnic) bamboo raft trip down the Rio Grande. The raftsmen make their own crafts out of roped bamboo logs; they also contain a raised bamboo bench for their customers. The raft "captain" will pole you along the sometimes swift current of the largest river on the island. You'll see a kaleidoscope of Jamaican life along the riverbanks women doing their wash, men diving for crayfish and children practicing the art of poling with their own miniature rafts. Time truly stands still as you float through a primeval jungle where the ferns and philodendrons appear to have taken growth hormones.
The Trident Villas and Hotel epitomizes the graceful surroundings with its large apartments and one-bedroom villa suites each of which has been decorated differently by renowned Jamaican owner/designer Earl Levy. The entire complex looks like a sumptuous movie set for a gala English lawn party replete with delicate gazebos and two resident peacocks strolling about. (Be warned that the piercing shrieks often heard at twilight are not from a damsel in distress, but merely coming from Oscar the peacock trying hopelessly to woo his mate.)
Every afternoon, high tea served from gleaming silver in this genteel environment makes one dream of being transported to the world of Henry James. You'll dine formally in a paneled room reminiscent of fashionable Belgravia, London, with an abundance of Baccarat crystal shimmering at night by candlelight.
After a five-course meal that perhaps includes smoked marlin, curried ackee and baked bananas served by white-gloved waiters, guests repair to the drawing room for classical piano music and Tia Marias. Despite the beckoning of a lovely pool, a sheltered cove for snorkeling and tennis courts, guests can just luxuriate in utter indolence counting the boats that sail by. For that's what Port Antonio is all about the ultimate physical and mental escape.
