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By
Avia Ustanny: Freelance Writer
A place for plants and people: Coyaba
river garden and museum:
Coyaba
River Garden and Museum is a hidden retreat on the Shaw Park
estate in the hills overlooking the town of Ocho Rios, reminding
visitors of Eden's fabled allure. The garden is a manicured
tropical showing of Jamaica's natural beauty. It is also the
source of the Ocho Rios water supply.
A
water pump, set at the entrance to the Spanish style buildings
which house a museum and rest areas, is a reminder of this
fact. The Victorian pump is, as well, a deliberate promise
of the lesson in history to come.
Why
is the garden called Coyaba? (Coyaba is the Arawak word for
heaven). Owner Simon Stuart explains: `The real spirit of
Jamaica is Arawak. It is peaceful and has very much to do
with nature which is what this place is about really. We are
paying homage to the original people and trying to understand
what Jamaica was before.`
Coyaba
is also described by its owners as a place for plants and
people.The area is a genuine water garden fed by streams that
rise on the property. Giant banyan and cedar trees are spread
near the museum and bar housed in Jamaica/Spanish architecture.
These capture the spirit of the past. The bar/museum is flanked
by a cut stone courtyard in the centre of which a fountain
plays.
This
remnant of the Shaw park estate has been in the family for
more than four generations `Coyaba was originally a water
supply company,` Stuart recalls. We started working on the
place 10 years ago.`
The
family has turned what was once only a banana walk and water
supply source into a garden of tropical abundance.
The
garden/museum was designed for the cruise market and has taken
off as intended. It's a must-see on all cruise and hotel tour
itineraries. Surroundings that promise to put one's mind in
a more inspired mode include a model aquarium filled with
carp, mullet, snappers and turtles.
CENTRELINE:
Start at the river head where the spirit still lives
You
must begin your tour by visiting the river head where the
spirits still live. Then, having paid your respect, browse
through the ginger lily garden, the cactus garden, and the
mullet pond. Hummingbirds and doctor birds are frequent visitors.
Nearer
to the museum, passion fruit and jade vines lurk. The River
Walk will take you between streams and tree ferns, dwarf bamboo,
banana, pimento and other spring fed ponds.
Attraction
Manager, Toni Allen, points out that there is also a recording
studio on the property. `It is an inspirational setting.`
She
says, `We do get a lot of the foreign market. It is the locals
market that we are striving for. There are some functions
and school trips, but we would like to have much more.
CENTRELINE:
The museum -- genuine Arawak artefacts, wattle and daub houses
and more
Rodrick
Ebanks of the National Heritage Trust and Steve Sullivan,
the antiquarian, helped to create what is really a quite comprehensive
telling of Jamaican history in a small museum.
A
tour of the museum begins with an initiation into the Arawak
past. Genuine artefacts from Arawak communities in Venezuela
are featured, including cassava making implements.
Represented
too is the history of the Maroons, then Jamaica under the
Spanish, Plantation Society, as well as a snap shot of the
pirate town -- Port Royal. There are photographs of Jamaican
homes 100 years ago - wattle and daub structures -- and a
feature on the islands traditional industries.
The
Coyaba museum features also the `famous sons of St. Ann`,
Marcus Mosiah Garvey and Robert Nesta Marley.
You
may want to pause to examine the history of Shaw Park estate
itself, which reveals the personalities as well as architectural
evolution of the site.
Rumour
has it that the Spaniards hid a quantity of treasure on the
estate. It is also claimed that the area was the site of the
final battle for the island between the Spanish and the English.
Shaw Park estate was a refuge for Ysassi, the last Spanish
governor.
Up
until 1836 the estate produced sugar and raised cattle. The
Shaw park hotel was opened in 1923. It was one of the first
on the North coast. Its great house, gardens, falls and limestone
caves now entertain visitors with its natural beauty and with
its carefully housed cradling of the past.
TO GET THERE
Five
minutes form central Ocho Rios, on the hill overlooking the
Bay. Take the A3 towards Fern Gully/Kingston, and turn opposite
St. John's Anglican Church on Milford Road. Follow signs for
a half mile.
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