An Alternate View of Jamaica’s Blue Mountains : Caribbean visitors can find inexpensive lodging at rustic foothill retreats.

Our morning wake-up call was a rooster screaming something much more irritating than cock-a-doodle-doo , and the bathroom was not down the hall, but down the hill. We read in bed at night by the light of a kerosene lantern, and heat was provided by lots of blankets and a sweater over our pajamas.

But, oh, the smell of fresh mountain air, the homeyness of meals cooked just for us, and the joy of walking forest-fringed mountain trails while talking politics and music with a guide who had not been processed into obsequiousness by the tourism mill.

We were at Maya Lodge, a rustic retreat in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, just a winding 20-minute drive north from bustling Kingston. We had come to Jamaica to experience the country in all its forms--from the cushy North Coast tourist resorts to the more down-home charms of the less touristed south and midlands, and with a side trip to Kingston, the heart and soul of Jamaican music and culture.

We had spent the previous week at two all-inclusive tourist resorts on the North Coast, in Montego Bay and Negril. This two-night, early-spring sojourn at the extremely laid-back Maya Lodge was our experiment in so-called alternative tourism, or “eco-tourism.”

Fifteen-acre Maya Lodge is run by Peter Bentley. The blond, 46-year-old Jamaican, president of Jamaica’s Alternative Tourism, Hiking, and Camping Assn., has pioneered the development of small, locally owned retreats that give visitors a chance to appreciate the country’s scenery and people up close. Bentley’s company, SENSE Adventures, runs hiking and canoeing trips throughout the country, some with motel or cabin accommodations, others strictly camping.

Our spacious, spotless wooden cabin, handmade by Bentley, had high ceilings and cutout windows and smelled of the forest. It contained a large, firm platform bed, a night table with a kerosene lantern for reading (there’s no electricity in the cabin) and a long bench filled with ecology and nature magazines. We were supplied with towels and washcloths for scrubbing up at the shared shower attached to the lodge down the hill. Our door locked with a tiny padlock.

Our lodging was one of three pentagonal guest cabins up the hill from Maya’s main building, an airy wooden house nestled amid tropical foliage, with patios fore and aft. The lodge--which, unlike the cabins, has electricity and running water--houses the kitchen (which always resonated with reggae music), guest bathrooms, a lounge with pillow furniture and lots of nature magazines, and one guest room.

While our cabin, at $30 per night, was plenty earthy for us, several guests camped on the retreat premises ($5 per night per person, $3 for a tent), as do visitors at other eco-tourism sites around the island. Some of these retreats, such as Lighthouse Park in Negril, are set on cliff-tops; others, like Crystal Springs outside Port Antonio, are near waterfalls or botanical gardens. A few, such as Hummingbird Haven on Ocho Rios, are charmless places near--but not on--a beach, whose main appeal is the price--usually $5-$10 nightly for a camping spot, $20-$40 for a simple cabin, often with a shared bathroom down the trail.

All told, there are some 300 alternative tourism properties islandwide, from rustic beachside cabanas to guest houses, camping sites and Great Houses (former plantation headquarters). Had we wanted more comfort in the Blue Mountains, we could have opted for Pine Grove Guest House, a motel-like establishment with smashing mountain and valley views from the wraparound dining terrace ($40 per night), or Ivor Guest House, a classy estate with four guest rooms and a nice restaurant-bar ($52).

Certainly there were trade-offs at Maya Lodge. I prefer my bathroom right at hand, and my companion doesn’t even like to sleep in pajamas, much less sweaters. But the rewards were well worth the sacrifices.

While vacationers at the coastal tourist resorts were frying in their chaises, we were gazing at mountain vistas and stopping at plantations to drink coffee that was not only freshly brewed, but freshly milled. While others were lined up for seats at hotel “native” shows, we were sharing an evening of professional theater with an audience of Jamaican families in Kingston. (We had a rental car and paid Bentley only for guide services, but, for an extra charge, he will chauffeur guests around in his own four-wheel-drive vehicle.)

No sooner had we arrived at Maya our first night than chef Kenneth (Hunter) Wint handed us ice-cold bottles of Red Stripe beer and asked us what we wanted for dinner. I opted for a spicy curried shrimp, my companion for a milder barbecued chicken. Both were served with wild rice and beans, fried plantains, spinach, beer and fruit juice, followed by strong Blue Mountain coffee. The tab: $10 apiece.

We ate in the fresh night air on one of the two lodge terraces, accompanied by taped flute music sprinkled with bird and cricket sounds. Other guests were dining on the larger back terrace while the chef shuttled between his two groups of diners.

We sat on the patio late into the night talking with Bentley--and other guests who wandered over--about life in Jamaica, the threat of deforestation (which is occurring at a troubling 3% per year), and the evolution of the music and art scene (both thriving), then returned to our cabin and turned in to the sounds of bamboo branches clacking in the night breeze.

The next morning, we followed the aroma of freshly brewed coffee to our patio breakfast of eggs and bacon, with lots of fresh fruit, bread and jam ($4 apiece).

We had barely downed our last sip of coffee when Chef Hunter whipped off his apron, donned hiking boots and led us off in our car for a tour of the Blue Mountains on narrow winding roads--some paved, some not. We passed the hillside estates of Kingston’s wealthiest families (including the Marley clan of reggae music fame), then pulled over and parked the car, to trek through fern glades ablaze with hibiscus and other tropical flowers.

Lunch, packed earlier by Hunter, was a picnic of tinned fish and meats, cheese, fresh fruit, wine and beer in Hallowell Park, a public park high on a hill with rustic cabins for rent and great valley views. For after-meal coffee, we headed to a small mountainside farm known simply as “Dennis’s,” where we watched the owner’s nephews roast raw beans over a fire. While Dennis cooked the family’s dumpling dinner over another flame, roosters wandered to and fro, and assorted tots giggled and played in a corner of the rough wooden shelter.

We made it back to Maya Lodge for a quick dinner. Then Maya’s manager, Ann Adams, escorted us into Kingston to see the famous Jamaican Pantomime at the Ward Theater, the oldest theater in the Western Hemisphere. Afterwards we mixed with locals at Peppers, a popular outdoor bar and cafe, where mounds of spicy jerk chicken and pork are served on giant plates and eaten by hand. People wandered up to say hello to Ann, and soon we fell into conversation with a well-known Jamaican artist, then a musician and a lawyer. The hours zoomed by; when we said goodby to everyone, it was like leaving new friends we’d surely see again.

While we were ready for the next day’s drive north to a deluxe Port Antonio villa resort, with a marble bathroom and room service, we nonetheless treasured our alternate experience. For three lovely days we had felt like guests visiting buddies who proudly showed off their environs, and made us feel like insiders, not just tourists.

GUIDEBOOK: Blue Mountain Adventures

SENSE Adventures, of Jamaica, offers packages ranging from a short visit to Maya Lodge to trips lasting a week or longer and including hiking, canoeing, rafting and snorkeling. Accommodations are in simple lodges, rustic cabins, hostels or campsites. At Maya Lodge, guided hikes start at $35 per person (based on two guests), driving tours at about $65. If you have a car, you can hire a guide for $25 per day plus food and incidental costs. Contact SENSE Adventures, Box 216, Kingston 7, Jamaica, West Indies, (809) 927-2097. For $15, they will send a packet of information, including detailed maps of alternative accommodations across the country.

They also can arrange a stay at Pine Grove Guest House or Ivor Guest House, both in the Blue Mountains. Or you can contact those accommodations directly: Pine Grove, c/o 29 Oliver Place, Kingston 5, Jamaica, W.I., (809) 922-8705; Ivor, Jacks Hill, Kingston 6, Jamaica, W.I., (809) 927-1460.

Among U.S. companies that run eco-tours to Jamaica are two that cover much the same ground as SENSE Adventures, but handle all of the planning:

--Mountain Travel/Sobek offers nine-day trips taking in Kingston and the Blue Mountains, Port Antonio (where there’s river rafting and local market shopping) and Ocho Rios (where rocks form a staircase up cascading Dunn’s River Falls). Price is $1,350 per person plus air fare (about $530 round trip from Los Angeles to Kingston on American). Contact Mountain Travel/Sobek, 6420 Fairmount Ave., El Cerrito, Calif. 94530, (800) 227-2384.

--International Expeditions also runs nine-day trips, which take in Kingston and the Blue Mountains, Port Antonio (for rafting, market shopping and a drive into the rough interior), Crystal Springs (for birding) and the Black River in the country’s southwest (for boating and bird-watching). Price is $2,200 per person, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles. Contact International Expeditions, One Environs Park, Helena, Ala. 35080, (800) 633-4734.