A Quick Trip To St Vincent

When we arrived in Grenada at the end of March this year, we were allowed to remain for three months as visitors, and then had to leave the country - no choice. We couldn't think of a better opportunity to visit another island...so we did!

But in order to get there, our flight plan was a bit different than the one shown on the map above. We had to fly to Barbados first (off the map above to the far top right) and then fly to St Vincent - again no choice. Coming back, we flew right over top of Grenada and went further south (again off the map) to Trinidad, and then finally home to Grenada....makes for a long day each time... patience is a virtue. We flew with LIAT airlines (aka Leave Island Any Time...) as they change their schedules and flight plans without notice. Somewhat annoying to travelers - especially when they don't let you know.

We traveled in late June, and we are well into the rainy season by then. When it rains, it really pours! And, we found out there is cause for concern regarding thunder storms and tropical typhoons while flying in a small plane from landing strip to landing strip... The satellite images we saw just before we left were showing large dark clouds in close proximity to our little chain of islands - at least none of them were spinning. As it turned out, we were able to duck around them and we had somewhat uneventful weather for all of our flights. But, it sure rained heavily while we were staying in St Vincent...

The point of the trip was to visit a new place, but mostly to get our passports stamped again as incoming visitors to Grenada to allow us to remain longer. Two of our four days away from Grenada were spent in transit, although the actual flight times were all less than one hour long - some only twenty five minutes. We had the other two days to explore St Vincent a little bit (Tue/Wed), and to enjoy some time at our hotel.

While in St Vincent we visited several local grocery stores to determine what was available there (in the event we wanted to stay longer next time), and we spent some time to document grocery prices so we could compare St Vincent shopping to Barbados and to Grenada. As it turned out, the prices in St Vincent were similar to Grenada for the same basket of goods. Barbados is definitely the most expensive place we have been. Grenada and St Vincent groceries cost 75% of Barbados prices.

We took local buses everywhere (except trips to the airport) and they cost EC$2 each to get on. We we went to go see Kingstown - the capital city of St Vincent - and walked everywhere on the the three or four main roads that make up the 1km long stretch of the business district. It was a very interesting place, yet quite different from St Georges here in Grenada. Kingstown was not nearly as picturesque, and we found we were "under-whelmed" with it as a place to find an apartment to live. To us, Kingstown was a VERY busy and noisy place filled with people and vendors offering their wares to all and sundry. If a potential relocation to St Vincent became a reality for us, we would likely live somewhere on the south coast rather than in Kingstown.

We did some sight-seeing, some shopping, and gobbled down a couple of bananas to keep us going until we found a lunch spot on a side street. We found it odd that the coast line of the City of Kingstown had no restaurants that took advantage of the sea view, and there was no beach bar scene that you might typically find in other tropical centers... just large rocks piled the full length protecting the shore from sea waves. We were very happy to have paid a visit there (rather than just stay at the hotel) as we were given a glimpse into what it would be like to shop there should we elect to have a long term stay in the future.

St. Vincent is "mother" to the long string of Grenadines Islands which are undoubtedly the most spectacular chain of islands in the Caribbean. The lush green mountains are scattered with banana plantations. There are several island locations where the original movie "The Pirates of the Caribbean" was filmed. One of the sand bars at the Tobago Keys is pictured here and was where Captain Jack Sparrow was marooned with Elizabeth Swann when she set fire to his stash of rum.

The national bird, 'The Green Parrot' can be seen flying between palm trees. This is a photo of an older green parrot that we took during our visit to Young Island - just across the narrow gap of water from the Mariners Hotel, where we stayed. We had a ride on a very small ferry boat (20 feet long) to get to Young Island and we enjoyed a very nice and a very expensive lunch there. The resort on Young Island is very exclusive and they have a price list for almost any type of "get away" that you can imagine, including a five day wedding package for you and your short list of guests, with a starting price of US$17,000.00 and they can add more costs depending on which options you select. Yes, it's beautiful there. It was fun to visit.

Colonial architecture from a once British rule, fill Kingstown streets and are used for their library, court house, and other community support facilities. They can also be seen in many of the larger "plantation" type homes that dot the island.

We absolutely loved it that we could look out across the water and see a handful of other tropical islands that beckoned to us for a visit. We would certainly be doing that on a return trip. Bequia is the closest (pictured), and is the largest of the Grenadine Islands string. We would love to have a boat to take our time to explore all of them. Once you have a St Vincent visitor's status stamp in your passport, all of the other islands are yours to visit without incident with Immigration, except for a cursory view by an officer to make sure you have a current stamp.

Needless to say, we really enjoyed our visit there and can add more new potential adventures to our ever increasing list of places to visit...

And yes, when we returned to Grenada, our passports were stamped by their Immigration Officers at the airport to allow us to remain here in this paradise for three more happy months. All is well. Back to the beach!