Nice pics, anyway.
Has anyone read "The Book of Jamaica" by Russell Banks? https://www.amazon.com/Book-of-Jamai...5990450&sr=8-1 . Accompong plays a major role in the novel.
I haven't been to Accompong, but I've run into the general theme of Jamaicans practically fighting one another for who gets to take the white mon's money (e.g. to be a guide, or whatever). If I go I will do like I do other places in Jamaica which is to go by myself and say "no thanks, I'll just explore on my own".
Yes, I met Russell Banks when he was staying at my friend, Rubber's house, in Accompong Town. In fact, Rubber is a main character in the book. Since you haven't been to Accompong Town, I will just chalk up your statement "no thanks, I'll just explore on my own" to naivety.Originally Posted by rtitle
Because Accompong Town is a semi-autonomous region and governed by rules established by the Town Council and the Colonel, all visitors are required to sign in to the Community Center on arrival and the taking of an organized tour is expected. There are varying degrees to this law's enforcement. For instance, I can show up and I am treated as a citizen and have no requirements. You, however, would be standing out like a "sore thumb" and most all the members of the community would stop you from self-exploring and show you to the Community Center to register. After all, this is how they make their money not from lone wolfs wandering around not being escorted and especially not paying.
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
Are you saying I owe them money because my skin is white?
For a man trying to live in Jamaica, you seem pretty obsessed with your skin color.
No. What I am saying is that you have to pay them money just like you have to do at any privately or government owned and run attraction in Jamaica. Try wandering around at Dunn's River Falls or Y.S. Falls etc. without paying. Because you are now an "in between" sometimes resident of Jamaica doesn't give you special privileges like Jamaica is somehow your oyster.
This is what I was referring to as naive.
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
I'm going to assume you're identifying yourself as the "white mon" in your comment...otherwise it's not a "white mon" "theme", it's a visitor/tourist "theme".
And, as Accompong has pointed out...you're definitely not wandering around Accompong Town without permission & a guide. It's literally similar to visiting another country and going through an immigration process...you NEED permission to enter the said country.
There's many other places that you will find difficult to "just explore on your own" around Jamaica also...it's just not as simple as that.
Rob's first visit...they had to go in search of the Colonel for permission & found him deep in a field tending to his land. But, he still got permission & acceptance as that's what you do!! You do not take matters into your own hands and just choose to wander around!
based on our experience in moore town this year, i'm co-signing what lisa's said.
this is how it went for us:
at the base of moore town there was a really nice lady selling jelly coconuts (100j each- cannot beat that!) and a few men sitting on a low wall. warren asked the men what the protocol was and we learned that nanny falls is gated now and that we should first check in with the colonel to ask for the key/ask for permission to visit the falls. we told the men that i was looking to get a history lesson for my kid and the guy who took the lead on filling us in said the colonel would be happy to do that. he then pitched his guide services to the falls and quoted a pretty high fee. warren told him, "they're not tourist-tourists, they're haitian and came here to pay respect and learn our history. you can't give them a tourist price!" the fee came down to 6000j for the 3 of us, plus warren.
we stopped off at a store to get a bunch of beer and soda and wound up acquiring another guide. husband, who is good at getting to the bottom of this type of thing, asked why the first guy thought we needed two guides ("for safety," by which he meant if someone gets hurt one person could stay with us and the other could run and get someone) and if the price was gonna go up from what we agreed on ("no, same price!"). so, we were now a party of 6.
let me backtrack to speak about the colonel for a moment... we really wanted to meet him, so we could pay our respects and so we could ask him to give ti boss a brief history lesson, but by the time we got up to his house he'd already left. we were told he was headed up to some land they owned, where they're setting up a new tourist stop- a parrot sanctuary and fruit orchard. sounds pretty rad to me!
so, we missed the colonel but got a key from someone else...
you can read alllllll about my family's visit in my long-azzzzz thread posted in the port antonio message board. the photos will confirm that they charge all tourist visitors, not just white and asian people.
but to be honest, if i had the experience rjonsun had at accompong, if i couldn't neogtiate a fair price or find a more reasonable guide i'm sure i would've turned around and headed back out without a second thought.
Last edited by mwenvlay; 12-10-2019 at 02:01 PM.
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