Intrepid visitors to Macqueripe should be able to try out the new zip line there today, says the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA). The car park at Macqueripe has been closed to facilitate enhancements, including the installation of the new zip line and a canopy walk. The Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development, in conjunction with the authority, will also turn the sod for another phase of the Chaguaramas boardwalk development plan today at 10 am at Williams Bay. After that, guests at the ceremony have been invited to Macqueripe for what the authority described as “the ceremonial first zipping.”
Zip lining, the CDA explained in a press release, “allows users to soar high above the ground while attached to a suspended overhead cable. Participants will be able to traverse from point to point as they take in some of the most breath-taking views of the north-western peninsula.” The zip line and canopy walk are being offered in conjunction with ZIP-ITT Adventure Tours, and the CDA said they would be run under internationally certified conditions. The zip line is part of a plan to make Macqueripe Bay a destination for ecotourists. Its construction was part of Phase Two in the development of the Chaguaramas area. The boardwalk development will feature rock-climbing facilities, a miniature golf course, vending zone, children’s play park and family recreational facilities. Phase One of the boardwalk was completed in May 2012 at a cost of $6 million and took seven months to complete.
The beach remains open to visitors during the refurbishment and the car park will be reopened on Sunday. But president of the Macqueripe Early Morning Swimmers’ Association, journalist Lennox Grant, yesterday admitted to being indifferent to such enhancements. Grant, who heard about the zip line from the CDA, said its construction did not affect the swimmers’ association.
“The infrastructural changes occurring in the name of development do not meet the needs of the swimmers,” he said. “We are indifferent to the enhancements. They want to make money and we’re not knocking that. If people want to zip line, that’s cool, it doesn’t get in our way.” He said there were other issues that needed attention, but the CDA management was uncommunicative and had ignored several issues the association had raised in the past. “They want to hold all the cards. Zip lining does not address our concerns, we are swimmers,” Grant said.
He explained that spearfishing by divers was a serious problem his weekly group of swimmers faced, as underwater divers could accidentally shoot at people in the water. “The CDA said they cannot prohibit spearfishing, but it presents a mortal danger for us,” he said. Grant said the CDA had a sign on the beach which banned spearfishing, but had told the swimmers’ association they could not enforce the rule. The sign is no longer there. He said the stance the CDA seemed to be taking was that it was not the authority’s problem, as their responsibility ended at the shoreline and anything beyond that was in the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard. “It’s an unnerving thing to see a figure two feet below you with a speargun who can mistake you for a fish…It’s not a danger we should face,” he said.
Grant said the CDA had always been uncommunicative to the association’s letters of complaints, many of which remained unanswered. “We have been fighting with the CDA for years and years,” he said. As an example, he said when the price to park at the bay went up from $10 to $20 a day back in April, the association complained to the CDA but no one responded.
“They ignored us completely,” he said. Grant said he wanted better communication from the authority. Calls to the CDA’s corporate communications office were not returned yesterday.