Have just returned from Bequia. Our last few trips I never wrote a trip report – they were amazing trips, but I suppose I kind of felt uninspired, or really nothing big to report. On this trip I am compelled to report what an amazing find Bequia has been. 6 months or so ago – I had never heard of the place!
We flew out of Denver around 9am and with a quick layover in Dallas arrived in Barbados around 8pm on American Airlines. Uneventful flight – everything on time – was pleased to discover the second leg included a meal! Especially since, as the food cart rolled out, I had just finished eating a sandwich purchased in the terminal, had a laugh and ate again - I’m on vacation!! If we had taken the JetBlue midnight flight to New York then we might have been able to make it via SVG to Bequia in one terribly long day. An overnight in Barbados was a reasonable trade off. We arrived early enough to get some yummy street food - swordfish & macaroni pie. We sat in the St Lawrence Gap area and got tanked on Rum & Coke.
Ugh, up at 4:45am!!! The dang hotel clerk got his wake up calls mixed up!!! Well we booked the 8am Liat flight to St. Vincent – we needed to be at the airport early anyway. Note to self: Don’t book Rostrevor Hotel in future. There were a few other reasons I would not rebook, but they are better stated in a hotel review. Our friends canceled their return stay, and rebooked with Butterfly (a much better choice). www.butterflybeach.com Anyway... Had lots of time to shop Duty Free! Six liters of Mt. Gay XO later we were waiting for our flight.
We choose to go via Liat because it was a significant savings over SVG. Taking the ferry was a fun adventure – we didn't mind and it was worth saving several hundred dollars IMO.
Arrived in St. Vincent and quickly made it thru immigration – they half heartily inspected our bags, no problems. I was surprised we did not get called out for 6 liters of Rum. Caught a taxi to the ferry terminal where we were badgered by a stinky nose picker. He demanded my husband give him 5 EC. If it were me alone I might have had words for him to shove off – but I decided to allow the husband to be the ‘man. Failed miserably! So 10EC later and a booger covered suitcase handle we were ferrying to Bequia! Caribs on the ferry in the A/C room – was just what 4 Coloradans ordered.
We arrived 1 hour later and were promptly greeted by Gideon and taxied up to our Villa, Octopus Villa - www.Octopus-Caribbean.com – WOW! It had gorgeous westward views and the infinity pool was clean and inviting! Our host Paul and Claire (Just friends – hmm!) greeted us with smiles and gave us a tour. Oh and we also pulled into a gated driveway to find our rental Moke was sitting there waiting for us. The fridge was stocked with beer and misc items. The villa was all wood floors a full kitchen – lovely décor and three bedrooms. It had a great balcony with a lounger that was used often. Downstairs there was a gym and massage room. Paul and Claire booked us massages in our own personal spa – absolutely lovely!!! Next order of business to ‘discuss’ which bedroom would be whose. I quickly claimed the round bed in hopes of enticing the old man with a 1970’s tiger pose on the zebra linens! It worked.
Having arrived fairly early – I suppose it was about noon when we got to the island – we had plenty of time to go buy coke for our 6 liters of XO and lounge around the pool. We booked a dinner at our villa courtesy of Paul and Claire that evening. The villa has an outdoor living area which includes a 6 person table – dinner outside was lovely – and we were impressed with the quantity and quality of food that evening. One liter of Rum later, and lots of good laughs, we all hit the hay.
The next day we made our way down to Bequia Dive Adventures – www.BequiaDiveAdventures.com - what a great group of guys. We are a group of four experienced divers and felt this shop was the place for us. Took care of paperwork and then made our way next door to The Fig Tree for some breakfast. They were not exactly open, but the owner was accommodating and whipped something up for us. Very nice of her! She mentioned the Children’s reading program that afternoon, we did not commit, but said we would evaluate our sobriety at 2pm and see if we could make it. Well two of us made it! My husband and I were well rewarded by the interaction with the island children. I enjoyed chatting with the local girls and they seem intrigued by the blue in my hair. It was a great afternoon. I recommend others try to volunteer as well – it is every other Saturday at 2pm at the Fig Tree.
The next day we got up to go diving – this is one of the first trips the four of us had not pre-pd our diving, we were leery as to the quality of the reefs and did not want to commit to multiple bad dives. Upon surfacing after the first dive all four of us were thoroughly pleased and so happy to see a vibrant and healthy reef – it must be the remoteness, but it was one of the best looking Caribbean reefs I had seen. We truly loved Ron and Laury’s style of DM. They did not baby-sit, but were knowledgeable guides of the reef – we all dove our air, no timed dives. The reefs were flourishing with marine life. Wonderful to see!
One of the lovely add-ons for our luxurious villa was it included a 63 foot yacht!!!! Yes, you heard right – it included a freaking yacht – well alright we paid for it, but it was awesome. We did an overnight trip to the Tobago Cays; the boat had a crew of three. They made all our meals – they even caught a tuna – whacked it on the head, filleted it, and served up the best, most yummy tuna I have ever had the pleasure of tasting!! WOW!
Paul, Claire, and Jerome were a great team. I could tell they were feeling us out as to we gonna be hoitytoities, or down to earth drinkers – well let’s just say all of us had tons of laughs and everyone enjoyed each others company. I felt we were truly blessed to not only have found this beautiful boat/villa combo, but to be lucky enough to get a couple of amazing hosts with good senses of humor and easy going attitudes. Although I am not one to separate staff and guest, or be served – however with all our laughs they remained professional. They always wore a uniform around us, served food promptly, joined us for a drink only when moored, and looked the other way when we let loose like drunken sailors! Ahhh – really an awesome overnight trip! We also did a day trip to Mustique – and they caught a barracuda on this one – instant yummy fish meal – how lucky are we!
Oh yes, enough about the boat... We arrived and immediately jumped off to snorkel the Tobago cay marine park. Wow – so many turtles in one spot – one even had two remoras on it – huge beautiful turtles, all looked really healthy. It was a luminescent full moon rising out of the water – and dinner was soon served upon our return from the snorkel. Exhausted from a day that began early we went to bed. We found the boat to be a little bit hot down below – I laid outside on the bench area and it was lovely.
The next morning we were to dive with Glenroy – I spoke with him via email at least a month in advance and several times prior as our trip approached. We even called him the day before as we set sail from Bequia. I guess he had a larger group diving for the week with him and decided he would blow us off. I found it to be extremely unprofessional and when I verbally stomped my foot over the phone with him, he said he would see what he could do. Late that night he called to say he had made arrangements for us and they would be there to pick us up the next morning to dive.
We dove the beautiful Mayreau Gardens – however if that was a DM with us, then believe me when I say we drank water our whole vacation, lol! BS I say. Anyway – thank goodness we were all comfortable enough diving to not be worried about this. A drift dive that dove into the current... Hmmm. LOL I would not recommend him – however there may be no other choice for Tobago Cay diving. Oh and in my first email I specifically said I wanted to dive Sail Rock – not knowing at the time it was not particularly close to Tobago Cays – he should not have given me empty promises, as I could have made other arrangements prior to our trip to dive that area. Be that as it may – this was really the only glitch of our time in Bequia – so no worries mon! Only one night in the Cays and we set sail for home again – ahhh I just called Bequia home – cool!
Anyway we made our way around town and ate at the Gingerbread, Frangipani, De Reef, Mangos, Keegans, The Beach Hotel restaurant (Bluetropic I think), The Fig Tree, and lots of Mac’s Pizza! We tried several types of roti, callaloo soup, salt fish, curried conch, and a few other local favorites – everything was delicious... Except that salt-fish. Whoa. And I’ll leave it at that. Our favorites were Macs, bluetropic, and the Gingerbread. The Gingerbread did not have a single bad bite – the pumpkin fritters were absolutely to die for! Upon arriving at the Beach hotel restaurant they were filleting fresh mahi-mahi – soooo that is what we ordered. It was right up there with the freshly caught tuna – OMG – as a now Colorado gal who grew up on a beach – boy do I miss fresh fish!!! One down side is we went in May and this was the off season – so every restaurant did not offer the full menu – lots of yummy looking stuff that just was not available :-( Hmmm... Reason to come back??? Don’t get me wrong though – the off season was lovely we had the island to ourselves!
We made our way around the island in our Moke, which we rented from Gideon. I felt like I was driving a go-cart; we laughed so hard driving that thing around – it was a real hoot! So glad we did it! Upon our wait for the ferry on the last day I discovered a 10% discount card in the tourism office, wished I had known, oh well, but now you do. :-) We did a little exploring of the area, but never made it to the turtle sanctuary – I actually tried emailing them to see when would be a good time to visit and the email was full and it came back – so maybe they will look into it now that I have posted.
The island was so lush and gorgeous – tons, and I mean tons, of fruit trees. I gorged myself in Mangoes – there was a tree next to the villa. The most interesting, but delicious fruit was a fig looking thing, that tasted like brown sugar – oh my! I can not remember the name, but maybe someone will post it. The hibiscus, bougainvillea, frangipani, and all the other unknown flowers are just beautiful. I really do not recall any litter. I can see how the waterfront walkway will be gorgeous upon restoration; I walked up on the wall to avoid the cracked and slippery walkway. The people of Bequia are so friendly too – everyone had a smile and I always enjoy seeing school children in their uniforms when traveling in the islands – so picturesque!
Another find was the little gourmet store at the north end of Port Elizabeth – fresh baked baguette, a bottle of Prosecco, and some yummy cheeses – made for a delish sunset cocktail hour. I invented yet another refreshing summer drink – some local peach tea and Prosecco over ice... fab-o!!
At the end of 12 days I did not want to go. However we were not finished with our vacation. We had five more days and were flying out of Grenada. On Monday we caught the fast ferry to Union Island. I really wanted to visit Canouan – but it just did not work – looking back I am sure I could have paid for a private boat to immigration and Carriacou.
Union island was terrible IMO. It seemed run down, lots of beggars and people aimlessly wandering or sitting with menacing looks as we dragged our bags to the Anchorage Hotel. I tried to stay other places but everything was closed or booked. The Anchorage – YUCK. It was dirty, dusty, old, dated, broken window, stained sheets, 2” cockroach upside down wiggling out its last days. I felt trapped – there was no other place to go – and frankly all the other hotels were using some pretty old photos on there websites – because in person they looked fairly run down too. In the middle of the night I awoke to someone trying to get into our room. At 6:30am I was at the dock recruiting a boat to go to Carriacou. By 9am we were checked into a Carriacou hotel.
I am including a quick synopsis of what we did afterward, because I am sure there are others who will do the same a we did. We liked Carriacou – it felt smaller that Bequia believe it or not. No real restaurants – just stands. After our Anchorage experience I asked the tourism office for the most luxurious of accommodations and they directed us to the Hotel Laurena. - www.hotellaurena.com - LOL not quite luxury. But clean and comfortable – small but it met our needs. The owner Laurena could not be nicer. It was truly a lovely hotel her and her husband had built. Plus her little Jamaican Jerk stand a block down had fantastic food! We rented a scooter at Wayne’s rentals and went exploring.
We did two dives here with Arawak divers – www.arawak.de/ccou/ccou.php - you would think we would have dove with the shop Silver Diving one block from our hotel, but they were full and frankly uninviting and not friendly when we approached them. We were extremely happy to have dove with Connie and George at Arawak. Connie was detailed and scheduled in a very German manner, but honestly they grew on us and their banter between each other became quite humorous. Again another DM with a great diving style – explore the reef, find stuff for you, and let you dive your air. The reefs in Carriacou were healthy and had lots of marine life – however the visibility was not as good as the Grenadines area.
After diving we gathered our stuff (Laurena happily let us check out much later for nothing extra, how nice considering we had checked in so early the previous day) - we caught the Osprey ferry to Grenada’s main land. It took about 2 hours, however they did have beer!
We arrived and grabbed a taxi to Mt. Cinnamon - www.mountcinnamongrenadahotel.com – we booked this hotel via www.SkyAuction.com – we paid $550 for three nights – a very good discount since it is usually about that per night. We stayed in a gorgeous 2-bedroom villa. Kitchen, balcony, washer/dryer, king size bed, just lovely. One draw back was it did not face west – more north – so you could not actually see a sunset, which for us is quintessential when cocktail hour arrives in the islands! It had a serious climb up and down to the beach from our villa – no out of shape person should consider this place. Fortunately for us, we were only suffering from a few weeks of alcohol abs, and were able to call upon our withering vacation muscles to work! The pool was out of service – that ticked me off – but the upgrade to the bigger villa, plus having the beach area all to ourselves (yes we were the only ones at the resort) made up for it.
We dove the sculpture park here – I specifically wanted to get in some photography at the park – vis was not great but it was a great dive. I was fortunate to get an amazing picture of a male sea horse with his babies in tow. We dove with Dive Grenada – www.DiveGrenada.net - literally a stone’s throw from the hotel and our dive master Ricardo was actually a model for one of the sculptures. He was so friendly, informative and it was just the three of us. I felt really fortunate to have had him as our DM – I pre-tipped on the cc when I prepaid for the dive – usually you pay at the end. I would have left much more if they had taken payment afterward. I planned on heading up to the room to get some cash to bring back to him, but got side tracked and forget – I regret that, so someone give him a nice fat tip!!! He deserves it!
Caught the 9:55am American Airlines flight back on a Saturday morning with a layover in Miami. Completely uneventful and all on time. The last couple trips have been on American and although the planes are a little old and the TVs stink – they are on schedule! Oh yes... Got upgraded to first class – yeah boy! What a great ending to a lovely trip!!!
Sorry for the length – hope this TR helps another traveler!! 1FF
