Caribbean Dreams 2001
St. Vincent
St. Vincent is the main island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a string of 32 islands and cays from St. Vincent to Grenada make up the Grenadines.
Our destination on St. Vincent is the Grand View Beach Hotel, a turn of the 20th century cotton plantation house that has been repurposed. The grounds are amazing, a collection of gardens, with a beautiful pool. The hotel is simple but classic, and given the travel climate of that time we discover that we have the place pretty much to ourselves, there is only one other couple staying there while we are, and we see them only once at dinner.
The Grand View name is not a misnomer, the hotel sits on a rocky outcrop, our room overlooks Indian Bay and the trendy Young Island. The scenic bay, including it's island rock with a large white cross has been featured in the Jeff Bridge's movie White Squall, and assorted pirate movies.
Being alone at the hotel, we are adopted by Charles, he is the hotels bartender, bellboy, waiter, and becomes our island advisor. He tells us the great places to go, how to get there, brings us drinks at the pool, and tells us all about the islands stories and history.
Our first morning is spent at Villa Beach just down a steep trail and around the corner from our hotel. This beach is a favourite with the locals, we soak in the rays and splash in the aqua blue waters with neighborhood kids and a few of their families that have come here to picnic.
Based on Charles advise, the next day we take a boat cruise to the Falls of Baleine. It's supposed to be a beautiful spot only accessible by boat, We are a little worried as it's quite cloudy in the morning, but it is warm, and becomes a beautiful day in the afternoon.
Our first stop is an amazing Black Sand beach, we snorkel around a bit, and hang out with a small group of fellow tourists that are with us. We travel to the far side of North America, and end up on a boat with 4 other Canadians. We are all travelers and discuss our trips and dreams, it is interesting when they tell us to travel to West Africa, but go soon because it's probably going to erupt into violence in a few years. Turns out that their advice was bang on. After reading Canadian General Romeo Dallaire's book about Rwanda, 'Shake Hands with the Devil', it is horrifying to see it happen again in Kenya and Darfur. Africa is still on our list, but it looks like South Africa is safest.
After being cooled down in a sudden downpour, we swim back to the boat and are taken to Buccament Bay, our next stop is the small fishing town of Barrouallie. We are treated to a lunch of locale fare, and are pointed at a restaurant we would come back to for dinner the next night. It wasn't until we got home that I was horrified to discover that Barrouallie is famous for its slaughter (they call it whaling) of Black pilot whales every year.
After lunch we are taken past some amazing caves and rock structures to the highlight destination of Bailene Falls. It is a short hike from the shore, and we come out of the trees to an amazing waterfall and crystal clear pool. There is nothing like a refreshing swim in the tropical heat.
We sat alone in the hotels open air restaurant and watched the sunset over the bay. After a very nice dinner at Grand View, Charles helped us make arrangements for a rental car to tour the island the next day. We headed to the lush Mesopatamia valley, and it's floral Montreal gardens.
We explored the island, but cut our ideas of a 4 hour hike up the volcano La Soufriére, yes St. Vincent and St. Lucia both have volcanoes, and both of them are named La Soufriére. Instead we visited Ft. Charlotte, where the cannons face inwards as attacks by natives was a bigger threat. From there we drove through the valleys and past sugar cane fields and refineries on the island.
From the desolate forests and beaches we drive our way back to the busy town of Kingstown, where the Cathedral of the Assumption, built in 1823, stands out from the congestion and ramshackle buildings in the downtown area. Back to the Grand View for another private dinner.
Our last day at St. Vincent and the Grenadines would be our best day. We took the ferry from the busy ugly port of Kingstown to the idyllic port of Bequai, an island 9 miles south of St. Vincent.
Bequai (pronounced Beck-way) has a population of 5000, and is sprinkled with gingerbread style home and apartments. A cute mix of bars and restaurants round out this amazing island.
Although lunch was good, nothing would compare to our afternoon on Princess Margaret Beach. This postcard like beach with it's pale blue waters and pink sand was our own personal paradise. We were alone all afternoon, as we layed in the sand and floated in the warm clear waters.
Sitting in the soft sand of Bequai, I wondered what celebrities were at the nearby island of Mustique. There is no ferries to Mustique, but with locations like this, who needs them? After a perfect afternoon we took the ferry back to St. Vincent and watched the Sunset from our room.
Our perfect day on Bequai would bring an end to our trip, as the next day we would fly back to Barbados for our long flight home. An incredible adventure, made more special because of a very unfortunate event in our worlds history. A crowdless trip we would not forget.
The Caribbean has so many hidden treasures, we'll keep going back till we see every island that starts with St., next up St Maarten/St. Martin, or maybe we'll just try to go to every Caribbean island, what the heck!