Saturday, July 20th. TRIP TO BEQUIA ISLAND – MEET
PM
Today was another amazing day in paradise! We got up really
early and Wayne drove us to the harbour to catch an 8:30 car ferry to Bequia
Island. This was an outing organized by the SVGTU for their members and they
gave us complimentary tickets. All of the union brass came along including our
favourite, Jane. The ferry ride was about an hour over pretty rough seas (it
has been very windy here the last couple of days with hazy conditions and some
rain off and on). When we got there Jane hired a cab for us to have a tour of
the island. The rest of the group went off to do other things. So the four of
us headed off in a safari style jeep where we sat in the back of the pickup cab
on benches, with a driver that Jane knew from school because she used to live
on this island. The first stop was an old British battery that was on a hill
and guarded the harbour. Then we went to a shop were a group of young men
crafted scale model sailboats. After that we headed to the other end of the
island to visit a hawks beak turtle sanctuary. It was closed but when Jane
looked around she found the owner who also knew her and he gave us a guided
tour that included seeing adult turtles and some new hatch-lings.
The next stop was at Queen Elizabeth Beach where we hung out
for a couple of hours. I swam for a bit and caught some sun, while Irnice and
Jane sat in the shallows and George sat in the shade. Then Jane had Kent pick
us up in his car (that he brought across on the ferry) and take us to Toko’s
Bar on the far side of the island. It was an incredibly remote, rustic, rundown
place. The bartender/ waiter was drunk and telling us how he was drinking gin
and milk as it was good for his ‘woo-hoo’. The owner was a nice man who also
knew Jane. She brought us there to try some authentic Vincentian food: red
snapper steaks, conch and humpback whale! On the table (which was a picnic
table) was whole branch of a tree with flowers. It was put there for our
benefit but we had to ask for it to be untied from the table so the four of us
could sit together. Inside the restaurant was a ‘museum’of artifacts that they
had recovered from the sea including an old iron, shark jaws, whale bones, and
bottles and other flotsam. The owner told us about how they harvest conch (deep
diving with poor equipment) and how dangerous it is and how many of the locals
have died over the years. There are conch shells all over the shore, hundreds
of them! As far as I have seen they are rare on any other island or beach. The
waiter was very flirty with Irnice and Jane.
Then we started to walk back towards the harbour while trying
to reach Kent to come and get us again, but we found out he was already on the
ferry. So Jane flagged down a local bus van that was going the other way and we
were jammed in with a bunch of other people. So we rode that back past the
restaurant we just left and about ten minutes further to the end of the line
where we turned around on an incredibly steep and narrow road – a three point
turn - not for the faint of heart! It was a milk run ride with lots of stops
and people getting on and off all the way to the harbour. We got to the boat
about ten minutes before it left. The ride back was nice and relaxing. About
half way we were followed by two dolphins and I got some good photos.
When we got back to St Vincent there was a cultural festival
going on at the docks. We paid $5 EC each to enter. There wasn’t very much to
see, but I bought a great waffle cone with chocolate ice cream and then Jane
told us she was going to introduce us to the prime minister of SVG, Ralph
Gonsalves! We walked over to where he was chatting with a group of young models
and we waited and waited (he was having a good time chatting up the ladies).
Jane knows him personally so she introduced us. He knew about CTF and our
workshops and he talked shop with us a bit and we had our photos taken with
him.
Then we walked to our waiting van and Wayne drove us home. As
soon as we walked in it rained hard for
a half hour, timing is everything.
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