Rafting on the Rio Grande in Portland, Jamaica

Rio Grande was the final river to complete my Jamaican bamboo rafting bucket list. This rafting experience is the most meaningful, as the Rio Grande is the birthplace of rafting in Jamaica. Originally designed to transport bananas from deep inland to the coast for export, these bamboo rafts were made popular by Errol Flynn in the early 1900s for recreation. The Rio Grande is one of Jamaica’s largest rivers at 3034km and lies in a beautiful valley. Rio Grande was named by early Spanish settlers in the 1500s, and rafting down a 10-km stretch of it is now one of Jamaica’s top tourist attractions. Here’s how my birthday rafting trip to the Rio Grande went.

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What’s Inside

1. Getting to Rafter’s Rest
2. Rafting on the Rio Grande
3. Dining at Belinda’s Restaurant
4. Last Leg of the Adventure

Getting to Rafter’s Rest

It’s a little confusing but there are actually two places in Portland called Rafter’s Rest. The first is located at the mouth of the Rio Grande in St. Margaret’s Bay by the coast, while the second is located deep in the hills of Berrydale, Portland. Originally, all rafting tours originated at Berrydale and would last over 3 hours as the raft captain leisurely steered down the wide river and stopped as much as you liked for food, drinks, swimming and photo opportunities. These days, they’ve added a shorter tour which starts in St. Margaret’s Bay, goes upstream for about 40 minutes then returns downstream. The Rio Grande long tour costs $12,000 JMD with local ID (US$100 without) while the short tour costs $10,000 JMD (about US$80 without), effective September 1, 2023. No reservations are required to raft at Rio Grande.

I wanted to get a full feel for the river and its history so naturally, my choice was the long tour. However, I nearly missed out on getting the long tour because the raft captains were restive and even had striked the day prior (the motive wasn’t 100% clear). The receptionist at Rafters Rest wasn’t too helpful either. She insisted that we take the short tour and call it a day, but thankfully there was a number for the Berrydale office on the wall. We took the initiative to call the Berrydale Rafter’s Rest office ourselves and found out that the captains had returned to work. It was at that point that she assisted us in getting a taxi to Berrydale, but my word… they charge JM$3,000! Nonetheless, it made more sense to park at St. Margaret’s Bay, take a cab up then collect our car after the tour rather than to drive to Berrydale ourselves since the tour ends at St. Margaret’s Bay.

Our taxi driver was very friendly and engaged us in more conversation than our tour guide did (more on that later). The road to Berrydale was very narrow and winding– so narrow in fact that the poor raft captains have to tug their rafts up the river themselves after each tour. It would be next to impossible to fit a truck on these roads to tow the rafts back to the starting point like they do at Martha Brae, another Jamaican river popular for recreational bamboo rafting. At Berrydale’s Rafter’s Rest, we handed in our ticket and got assigned a raft captain.

I was raftin’ on de Rio Grande oho
Me an me Uncle Benjie oho
We buck pan one big rock stone
An de raft tun ova o. Oho! Oho! Oho!

Jamaican folk song “Rio Grande”

Rafting on the Rio Grande

Our raft captain was Jeff, an older fellow with few words. He hardly spoke to us unless we spoke to him, which was a little disappointing. I love history and had read everything I could about the Rio Grande online. I was hoping he would tell us things which were left out of the tourist pamphlets but no such luck. Nonetheless, we were too enamoured by the beauty of the river to care. We were also grateful that he steered us carefully and we did not tumble over like Uncle Benjie in the folk song! The water level was lower than usual due to this year’s awful drought but the river was still completely navigable with a few rapids here and there. There was something to see around every corner– beautiful trees, tropical flowers, lots and lots of river grass, interesting rock formations and delightful birds in the tree tops, on the river banks and swimming in the river.

The Rio Grande valley was completely still and peaceful save for the occasional bird and river rapids. The gentle bobbing of the raft on the river was soothing and serene, completely unlike my first Jamaican rafting experience on the Great River at Lethe, Hanover which was loud and vibrant like a dancehall party. The contrast was stark but I appreciate them both for what they are. Lethe’s tour is short and designed for the young hip crowd, while the Rio Grande tour is only suited for history buffs and true nature lovers. The only other people we passed on the river were a few farmers from the community and a family of four which had stopped for drinks and swimming next to one of the bars on the water. It was a very hot day with sparse tree cover. I was super grateful I’d brought my visor for shade.

Dining at Belinda’s Restaurant

Another reason why we preferred the long tour: we had a lunch reservation at Belinda’s Restaurant. The short tour doesn’t visit there. Two-thirds into the journey (about 90 minutes in) we arrived at Belinda’s. Belinda’s is a unique countrystyle eatery perched on the Rio Grande’s banks and serves authentic Jamaican dishes prepared fresh every day from locally sourced ingredients. Dressed in traditional Jamaican bandana, Belinda herself and two assistants carry everything over the hills and through the bush to their rustic outdoor kitchen and restaurant seven days a week. As such, reservations are recommended because they may just leave the ingredients of your favourite dish at home if they don’t think many tourists will come their way that day.

Originally her mother’s restaurant, Belinda has earned a name for herself over the past 20+ years by preparing consistently delicious and traditional Jamaican fare such as crawfish soup, curry goat, stew pork, fried chicken, steam fish, fried fish and vegetarian stews. Belinda has become a Rio Grande staple, cooking her way into hearts and bellies, travel brochures, numerous food awards and onto the Jamaica Tourist Board’s website. You didn’t visit the Rio Grande if you didn’t dine at Belinda’s and no, this isn’t a paid ad. Her food is just that good, and speaks for itself!

I took steamed fish which came prepared in the true Jamaican style with okras, carrots and Scotch bonnet pepper. The sides were rice and peas, roast breadfruit, fried plantain and steamed pak choi. My partner had curry goat with the same sides. It was my birthday so I had rum punch to celebrate, while my boyfriend had the Jamaican grapefruit soda, Ting. Belinda’s was a birthday feast to remember, and even better, everything was super affordable and their customer service was great. Famous past diners at Belinda’s Restaurant include “Queen Bey” herself Beyoncé, Daniel Craig and Usain Bolt.

Last Leg of the Adventure

Fueled up with food and liquid courage, we took a dip in the river on the last leg of the journey. Next, we held a photoshoot of sorts, all while the raft was in constant motion. We took off the life jackets for the photos but don’t worry. They were provided. In the last fifteen minutes of the journey, we began spotting houses and a few other tourists who clearly had chosen the short tour. It was sort of cool to people watch for a bit. Lastly, we passed under the bridge which connects the main road to Port Antonio, Portland’s capital, before docking at St. Margaret’s Bay Rafter’s Rest where it all began.

Wrap Up

All in all, the Rio Grande tour was amazing and I’d recommend it for true nature lovers. If you’re not a huge fan of nature, I could see how someone could maybe find it boring given how long it is. Our detour for food caused us to spend about 4 hours in the Rio Grande Valley! For me though, this was an absolute delight and I would take it again sometime in the future. Nonetheless, I found it distasteful that our guide who didn’t speak to us for the entire trip only spoke up at the end to ask for a tip.

What do you think of rafting on the Rio Grande? Have you done it before? Would you like to? Sound off in the comments below. I love reading comments! 🙂

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like:

• Rafting on the Martha Brae
• Rafting at Lethe, Hanover
• A Visit to Animal Farm
• Tubing on White River

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