Bequia with Friends
| 2018-02-07: Planning Notes | ||
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| 2018-02-10: Travel Day - Primary | ||
| A long, mostly uneventful travel day it was. Brent, Keith and I left Edmonton after midnight and met up with Ann in Toronto early in the morning. The three of us proceeded on to Barbados, and had enough time to zip across the road to Pug's for the obligatory Banks beer before proceeding on to St. Vincent.\n Our LIAT plane to St. Vincent was delayed a little more than an hour, but as pre-arranged, Deborah was at the new airport to collect us and take us to our AirBnB. The house is enormous and beautiful with spectacular views. It is also partway up a crazy steep hill which Deborah's van is not able to climb. Sadly, when she tried, the rear end got stuck on the highway. I walked up the crazy steep hill to find the house while the others helped get Deborah un-stuck. We won't be asking her to climb the hill again - we'll meet her down at the highway for future trips. Sadly, my faithful Windows Surface is refusing to read my photo cards. I was hoping it would survive one more trip, but I think it's about done. It will work for other stuff this time, but I won't be able to post any pics until we're home, which is disappointing. I'll need a new gadget before our next trip! | ||
| 2018-02-11: Dollar Van/St. Vincent Orientation Travel Day - Joanne | ||
| We had a great relax day today. Brent and I walked about a km down the Windward Highway and bought some tomatoes and plantains from the rasta guy at his produce stand. We ate some plantains and two mangoes that Brent got from the tree in the yard. We got the plumbing fixed in the master bedroom (thank goodness). Arrion (our AirBnB hostess) took us down the highway to buy groceries (thank goodness... I can only live on plantains for so long). Deborah came out to pick up Joanne from the airport (Deborah doesn't usually work on Sundays). We didn't make her try and drive up the steep steep hill tonight. We did, however, arrange for her to take us up to Georgetown on Tuesday to meet our hike guide. | ||
| 2018-02-12: Kingstown - Pay Corea for La Soufriere | ||
We took the dollar van (or three-dollar van, as the case may be) into Kingstown today. We poked around and took care of some chores - paying for our guided hike, getting money, getting hike snacks for tomorrow. Had lunch and beers. Then took the three-dollar van back to where we're staying (which is in the Prospect area). Tomorrow - La Soufriere!
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| 2018-02-13: La Soufriere (D4) | ||
| Brent always says the worst times make the best stories. Today is a day ripe with good stories.\n We started off with booking Deborah to take us up to Georgetown to meet our guide rather than taking the bus up. That was actually a good thing. Except we got up there super early. As we pulled into town, Deborah recognized our guide and she says \"How are you getting to the trailhead? I know that guy. He doesn't have a vehicle.\" Uh-oh. The guide was supposed to take us to and from the trailhead from Georgetown. We (well, really, the guide) talked her into taking us all the way up to the trailhead, which she wasn't super happy about (the road is rough and her van is in really good shape). \n A week before we left on this trip, the weather forecast was calling for the worst weather... today. 10mm of rain for the day. Yikes! Brent says \"oh, we can survive that\". I say \"I don't want to just survive it, I want to have a nice time and be able to see stuff!\". So, I tried to call the guiding company all day on Friday to see about changing dates, but I never managed to reach them. As the weekend wore on, the forecast for today improved, so I stopped worrying about changing the dates. Until we had a horseman-worthy rain-pocalypse over night. \n We had a couple of enthusiastic rain showers on the first part of the trail, which is in the rain forest. When we got up above the treeline, however, is when things got REALLY enthusiastic. We had wind strong enough to help push us up the volcano, and hard enough rain to give me two soakers without having had to step into a stream to get them. We got up to the top and couldn't see anything down in the caldera but fog, but we did get our \"Ed Shirt\" photo. \n The trip out saw the weather clearing back up again, of course. It was actually a really great hike.\n Before we set out, our guide, Elroy, had arranged for a bus to pick us up at the trailhead at 2PM. He and Keith made it to the trailhead on time, and the rest of us were about 8 minutes behind. No bus. We talked about some options, and Elroy considered asking the American couple who'd hiked up on their own for a lift down to Georgetown to come back with a ride for us. Hmmmmmmm. But then he managed to call for a cab, and after a short wait, the cab came and took us back to Georgetown, and all ended well.\n Incidentally, our guide, Elroy Browne, was amazing. He was so nice, and friendly, and was a walking encyclopedia of information about the plants, the area, the politics, the world... a very interesting man to talk to. We very much enjoyed going up and down the volcano with him and I would highly recommend him if you're considering La Soufriere.
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| 2018-02-14: To Bequia, Bequia Orientation | ||
| Our transfer to Bequia was amazingly uneventful, given the number of moving parts. Deborah showed up, as planned, to take us to the ferry. The ferry departed, as planned, and got us to Bequia, as planned, for 11:30AM. Our taxi met us, as planned, at the ferry and took us directly to the St. James apartments. The building manager, Veda, met us, as planned, at the apartments for check-in. I do love it when a plan comes together!\n After we got settled in, we walked down to the harbour, walked the Belmont Walkway and groceried up.
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| 2018-02-15: Bequia Beach Day | ||
Today we enjoyed a beach day. We walked the Belmont Walkway, then took the spanky new walkway (complete with guardrail) around the headland to Princess Margaret Beach. Ann and I hung out on the beach while Jo, Keith and Brent snorkeled about. We hid from a squall under Lenox the Lion's tarp (which is conveniently located right under a Manchineel Tree), then took the trail over the headland and down the road to Lower Bay. We had lunch at La Plage, then Jo and Brent snorkeled a little more while Keith did \"Snoring Yoga\" on the beach.
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| 2018-02-16: Hamilton Fort, Dive and Moonhole | ||
| All five of us walked up to Hamilton Fort this morning. The vendor was up at the top, and although he still had my two binerdanas that I'd given him, he'd cut them up and sewed just the \"Bequia\" text and Bequia map onto a couple of shirts. I think he would have had better success selling them if he'd left them as binerdanas.\n After lunch, we split into two groups. Brent, Jo and Keith went for a dive with Dive Bequia, and Ann and I met up with Gabi and Sue for an island tour in Gabi's car. \n Gabi first took us out to her home to drop off her groceries (of course that's an essential part of any island tour). We then went out to La Pompe to pick up Sue. From there, we went all the way down to the south tip of the island and got a good look around the Sandrock Property, which Gabi designed. From Sandrock we were able to directly access the beach in front of the condo portion of Moonhole (the original Moonhole was on the other side of a headland, so we didn't get to see that), but WOW - I didn't think I'd ever get that close-up of a look at Moonhole. I'm super sorry that Jo wasn't with us when we went there because that was the one thing she asked me for, was a look at Moonhole.\n Meanwhile, Brent and Keith had a nice dive while Jo had to abort after 15 minutes due to compression issues.
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| 2018-02-17: Walk to Park and Back | ||
| The five of us walked this morning down to Park, and the end of the pavement of De Road past Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary (which was closed), toward Bequia Head. It was a beautiful, and sometimes windy, walk. \n When we got back, four of us went for lunch (Keith stayed home to do homework, but had a nap). Then, Ann and Jo went off to the beach while Brent and Keith went off for a rum tour. I hung out at the house.
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| 2018-02-18: Bus to Padget Farm - Walk Back | ||
| Today we took a bus down to Padget Farm and then walked back, via Susan's house. Walking back was easier than in the past because when we got up to the spine of the island, we could drop down to Lower Bay and then walk back via the beaches rather than walking the busiest part of De Road.\n We thoroughly enjoyed visiting Susan. She has a great view, and fed us wonderful fajitas.
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| 2018-02-19: \"Do Your Own Thing\" Day on Bequia | ||
| Today was kind of an unstructured, \"do what you want\" kind of day. Jo went off to buy groceries, then Brent and Keith went off to go on a dive. Ann and I went off for more groceries. Jo went off to look for a crucifix. Brent came back from the dive sans Keith who had stayed behind to go on a second dive and then go souvenir shopping. After a spot of lunch (including wonderful banana bread), Ann and Jo went off to the beach. \n I made sure our arrangements for tomorrow and beyond were taken care of, and Brent and I are sitting and writing. The next plan is to meet up with Susan after she gets off work. Sometimes folks just need a break from all the adventuring.
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| 2018-02-20: Return to Saint Vincent | ||
| Again, a plan came together. Yay! As arranged, Ramzey came by with his taxi to take us down to the Ferry. Veda (the manager of St. James Apartments) rode the ferry with us over to St. Vincent. Deborah was engaged elsewhere, so she wasn't able to come get us, but we rode with Elvis instead. Elvis dropped Brent and Jo off at the Massey in Arnos Vale and then took the rest of us to Prospect... and his van was able to make it all the way up the hill to the house!\n The only bad thing was the wallowey, barfey ferry ride. From now on, boats are OFF MY LIST! Ugh. Thankfully I didn't literally barf, but I came as close as you can come to barfing without actually barfing. I was so relieved when it was over.
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| 2018-02-21: Owia Salt Pond | ||
| Brent and I have never seen this much rain on St. Vincent. It has just been rain and rain and rain and rain. Last night it rained and poured buckets. It was still raining buckets when we got up. And kept on raining buckets. And kept on.\n It was not looking promising for us to have a beautiful day today, and yet, luck shone on us and we ended up having just that. This was our first time up to Owia Salt Pond and we loved it. The journey up in Deborah's cab was breathtaking. The Salt Pond was beautiful. \n It's Keith's birthday today, so we're hoping to have Birthday Jello.
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| 2018-02-22: Vermont Nature Trail | ||
| Today Brent decided that the soundtrack for this trip should be \"Here Comes the Rain Again\". Rain and rain and rain-and-rain. But we took our friends to one of our favorite places, Vermont Nature Trail on St. Vincent. It was beautiful, as usual. It was super-rainy, as not usual. \n After we hiked, we were directed to use the faucet behind the visitor center to wash our feet and shoes so we didn't track a bunch of mud into Deborah's van. We dried out as best as we could, but then we still had to sit on rain jackets, sarongs, and even a plastic garbage bag, so that we didn't ruin Deborah's plush taxi seats.\n Deborah took us past \"The Spa\" (the natural spring in her neighborhood) so we could fill up out bottles with the amazing water there. Then she dropped us off at \"Four Shells\" for dinner where we had an amazing meal - fish/chicken with rice, vegetables, plantain and salad, with beer and/or ginger-ale. Five people for $130EC ($65CDN). We will absolutely be back to THAT place! It was fantastic!
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| 2018-02-23: Travel Day - Primary | ||
| 2018-02-25: Travel Day - Joanne | ||
| 2018-02-26: Travel Day - Joanne | ||
