As we know, due to bad weather we hadn’t been able to call at Curacao so instead we’d sailed overnight to Kingstown, the capital of St Vincent and the Grenadines. This is famously where they’d filmed Pirates of the Caribbean but we’d decided to opt for the more generalist ‘Panoramic St Vincent’ tour rather than play pirates for the day!
As we woke up and went up to breakfast at Islands the views were fantastic. We had sailed right into the heart of this pretty town with its steep hillsides, lush mountain backdrops and busy harbour front. It was by far the best view from the ship we’d had so far, although to be fair my memories are already starting to blur! As we ate breakfast we watched the comings and goings at the port with ferries from the other islands arriving with their loads of school children presumably on their morning commute! It was very colourful and exciting and I managed to do a little sketch from the top deck.
We joined up with Shami and Jo for our tour today which was in a small bus with a friendly guide called Ruby. She was lovely but it was sometimes difficult to keep up with her both physically and verbally as she had a heavy creole (?) accent! St Vincent is very small (18 miles long and 11 miles wide) and we started by driving through Kingstown. This is a rather scruffy place but full of interesting people. Ruby gave us a good tour of the various municipal buildings which she was clearly very proud of.
Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens which are apparently the oldest in the western hemisphere, created in 1765. We had a lovely stroll around here admiring the lovely flowers and trees and then had the obligatory photo with the sign ‘St Vincent and the Grenadines’. This is also where we were able to see the National Bird of St Vincent, the imaginatively named ‘St Vincent Parrot’. They were very pretty but sadly behind bars.
After this we drove up very steep, dodgy roads into the mountains. The driver managed to avoid most pot holes and the racing minibuses with graffiti all over the front of them. We loved the signs that said ‘Stop the Reckless Driving’ with a picture of a smashed up car on it. The views were terrific and we kept going until we got to our next stop at a point where we could see both the Atlantic sea (Windward side) and the Caribbean Sea (Leeward side). It was indeed very windy up here but the views over the mountains and farming villages were great. Life in St Vincent doesn’t sound easy. Not only do they experience hurricanes, the last one in 2024 was category 5 and flattened the Grenadines and caused much damage in the north of St Vincent. But they also have an active volcano, La Soufriere, which last erupted in 2021 and I think Ruby said it threw black dust all over everywhere. Blimey. Anyway, stuff and nonsense, my guidebook says there are some wonderful hikes to be had here and the views from the crater rim are breathtaking. Not today Thankyou….
At our own viewpoint we were treated to a drop of rum punch. Made from the islands own rum which is 84% proof! It was all really quite undeveloped but every now and then Ruby would show us a ‘castle’ on top of a hill. These were huge ostentatious houses built by local businessmen and Ruby had a funny story to go with each of them.
St Vincent and the Grenadines became independent from Britain in 1979 but is still proudly part of the Commonwealth. There were lots of signs of the current politics of the island as they paint their offices particular colours according to g to their party! In general building development here is covered by the building code which tells people the rules for building their houses BUT they can individualise them by painting them whatever colour they want. Hence the colourful mix!
Once we returned down to the coast we went through an area where the main tourist development is located. It’s called Villa. It’s much more low key than Aruba but there are several resorts and a smart looking Blue Lagoon yacht club. From here we could see two of the Grenadine Islands…Mustique and Bequia. Ruby told us that you could swim with ‘Toddles’ over here…..any ideas! 🐢
Now we’d done a full circle and returned to Kingstown. Ruby said we were now her family and if we returned to St Vincent she’d sort us somewhere to stay. Bless.
After a spot of onboard lunch we went out with the girls into Kingstown by foot. This wasn’t quite as good as we’d hoped. The people weren’t at all friendly, they didn’t bother us ..they just weren’t interested. Fair enough…we wandered around through the famous arches pavements trying to keep cool but it was sweltering and we were all suffering. We went as far as St Mary’s cathedral but that was enough and we agreed to make our way back to the port. There really wasn’t anything in the town for tourists at all….no nice looking bars or anything. Back at the port however we did find a friendly bar for a refreshing beer. Meanwhile the pirates were back and they’d clearly been on the rum all day as they were now dancing with the steel reggae band and singing along to UB40 Classics!
Back on board this was the girls last night. We’d be returning to Barbados tomorrow and the girls would then fly home. We, on the other hand, start part two of our itinerary ‘Cocktails and Coconuts’! We chose to go back to The Glasshouse to eat and then a cheeky farewell drink up at Bar Eleven before the show which tonight was ‘Musicals’ which was very very good. Then it was time to say goodbye to the girls. They’ve been absolutely great company as we really hit it off. We’re looking forward to seeing them again back in Brum but we will miss them over the next few days.
Where shall we go to next? 