When you think of Newfoundland, your thoughts might turn to cod fishing, The Shipping News, pubs, rocky landscapes, and curling - not $3,000 a night hotels.
However in Newfoundland, there exists a very famous hotel, or at least one that has very good marketing, on an island off the Island. The Fogo Island Inn is that hotel and we did contemplate staying.
It is on many bucket lists for its notoriety, architecture and model for social innovation on the island of Fogo. We have read so many articles that praised its vision and highlighted its famous clientele, who are picked up at Gander airport and shuttled to the Inn if they don't want to drive themselves.
But.... we just couldn’t do it. $3,000 a night! - with a 3 night minimum!!! - and it's not even high season!!!!! This seems the world of celebrities, oligarchs and hockey players. The one percent of the one percent.
Our conscience lead us to other accommodation, but we harboured hope we could eat in the famed restaurant. We enquired, but were politely informed that due to COVID-19 the restaurant is now closed to anyone not staying at the Inn. This seems to have become a permanent thing.
On one of our hikes we could see the Inn across the way, looking like a curious insect, standing on tall legs above the rocks, grey on grey.
Intrigued we took another little hike at the other end of the town of Joe Batt's Arm to have a closer look.
The Inn's design pays homage to the tilts of Newfoundland.
 |
| faux-go |
 |
| Fogo Inn |
We decided that the Inn would be a perfect inspiration for a 21st century Agatha Christie mystery in the vein of "At Bertram’s Hotel" or "Evil Under The Sun". All the ingredients are there: an isolated location; lots of rich, notorious visitors; a high-profile owner who came from Fogo Island and made it big; below-stairs intrigue; and a community full of mixed feelings, supporters and doubters.
The Shorefast Foundation, the Inn's charitable wing, declares its support of local cultural and economic prosperity, but locals say they don't see much evidence of that support. Fogo Island's road potholes are just as atrocious as elsewhere in Newfoundland. The excellent trails are kept up by the towns themselves, not the Inn. Businesses are shuttered and empty, or not visited by the Inn's clientele. Locals we met still work 3 or 4 jobs to make ends meet, and are grateful for the cooperative crab plant set up by local fishers. Almost none of the Inn's staff is local. Meanwhile, there are no places to rent, as the Inn has bought up more than a hundred houses for staff, but only for those who come from away. The last doctor on the island is leaving. And why is there not a craft brewery on Fogo Island of all places?
It has been a lesson. Carefully worded propaganda read from afar had us thinking what we were meant to think. But when you get close, and kick the tires a bit, the gilt comes off pretty easily.
After a wonderful two days of hiking, conversing, and plotting our murder mystery on Fofo Island idea, we arose early to catch the ferry. Waiting for the arriving cars to drive off the ferry, we spied an incongruous Porsche Boxster convertible coming down the ferry ramp in the cold sunshine, top down.
This is not a car built for Fogo roads. It was obvious where they were heading.
No comments:
Post a Comment