Last Lick

Last Lick (Black Ants Corner, Runaway Bay, contact Adina Parchment, villa manager at Jakes, tel. 876/965-3000 or 876/844-9803, jakesvillas@cwjamaica.com, jakes@cwjamaica.com, US$95/115 low/high) was a piece of land given as a 40th birthday gift from the late director Perry Henzell (The Harder They Come) to his wife Sally. Right away Sally painted a watercolor of the house she wanted to build there, and in 1981 a Robinson Crusoe–like two-story cottage was erected amid a garden of flowering shrubs and trees true to her artistic vision.

Built on a cake slice–shaped piece of land with the sea on two sides of the triangle, the two-bedroom stone cottage has a little sitting room with a kitchen in one corner on the ground floor, a bathroom with a tub that doubles as a powder room and leads into a bedroom with three French windows opening to the sea. Another door leads to the outside patio, which serves as the dining room and hangout area. A sandpit for sunbathing and a shower for washing off separate the cottage from the sea, where a ladder descends to the water, shallow enough to stand, and good for snorkeling around the coral heads. Other steps lead down to a shallower part of the sea, which has mineral water flowing in from a stream, known as "the healing baum." The spring is prized for its regenerative powers and the sea is crystal clear. An upstairs bedroom and bathroom has French windows opening out to a sea view and is accessible by using the outside stairs or a ladder from the ground level. Housekeeping is included, with meals prepared for an additional US$25 per day per person.