From St Vincent island
02/20/10
Today is Saturday, Farmer’s Market day on St Vincent, a new island for us. The island is lightly inhabited and not yet geared to tourism. The Farmer’s Market is not in one place, but rather takes place all over town, wherever there is a spot on a curb. One woman was selling eggs from the back of a car with multiple flat tires. The car clearly had not moved in a long time. Eggs, fish, fruit and veggies were the items for sale. Lots and lots of eggs and bananas and veggies that were new to us. It appears that all the locals come to town to shop on market days, Friday and Saturday. Supermarkets have very little compared to home, but then we don’t have market day either.
St Vincent has the oldest Botanical Garden in the Caribbean, so after wandering around town for an hour or so, we headed back toward the cruise terminal to find a cab. Finding a cab is easy. Once off the cruise property, we are always assailed by dozens of cabbies offering tours of the island. On many islands, the cabs are regulated and metered, but St Vincent is not one of those. The cabbies are licensed, but are free to charge what they want. We are warned to finalize a price before getting into the cab. We have only had a problem two times in many years, but John always takes a photo of the license plate for reference in case of problems.
Shawn, our driver, was a good choice, talkative and knowledgeable. He dropped us at the gardens and agreed to return for us in an hour. We wandered the gardens for about 40 minutes and were done looking and done in by the heat. Shawn was a bit late, but it’s hard to expect a cabbie to hold to a tight schedule. We asked him to stop at the Roman Catholic Cathedral for pictures and he did and he also took us to St George’s Anglican Cathedral and the Methodist Church. We asked two people for the name of the Catholic Church and were told by both that it was the Roman Catholic Cathedral. We are adding a picture of the outside of it with this blog. It has really unusual architecture.
Shawn is an interesting guy. He honks at lots of women and they all smile and wave back. He mentioned that he has a 14 year old son and a 14 year old daughter. He also has a 19 year old daughter and has never been married. The 14 year olds are not twins. He showed us the 14 year olds as we drove around. A one man repopulation team.
St Vincent is a very lush island, green and humid. And we are here in the dry season! As we head north, the islands are greener and greener. Aruba, our first stop, is a really dry place, at the opposite end of the spectrum. Some of the trees in the gardens today had huge vines hanging from them.
We had quite a show when it was time to have the lines cast off so we could sail away. Every port has longshoremen who do the honors and they are usually businesslike. They just toss off the lines and head home. Not today! One of the guys tossing off the stern lines was quite inebriated, waving his arms in the air, telling us to come back, that he loved us and that he had had lots of rum punch today.
Tomorrow we will dock on St Kitts and will be taking an excursion to Nevis, a nearby island.
John & Colleen
Today is Saturday, Farmer’s Market day on St Vincent, a new island for us. The island is lightly inhabited and not yet geared to tourism. The Farmer’s Market is not in one place, but rather takes place all over town, wherever there is a spot on a curb. One woman was selling eggs from the back of a car with multiple flat tires. The car clearly had not moved in a long time. Eggs, fish, fruit and veggies were the items for sale. Lots and lots of eggs and bananas and veggies that were new to us. It appears that all the locals come to town to shop on market days, Friday and Saturday. Supermarkets have very little compared to home, but then we don’t have market day either.
St Vincent has the oldest Botanical Garden in the Caribbean, so after wandering around town for an hour or so, we headed back toward the cruise terminal to find a cab. Finding a cab is easy. Once off the cruise property, we are always assailed by dozens of cabbies offering tours of the island. On many islands, the cabs are regulated and metered, but St Vincent is not one of those. The cabbies are licensed, but are free to charge what they want. We are warned to finalize a price before getting into the cab. We have only had a problem two times in many years, but John always takes a photo of the license plate for reference in case of problems.
Shawn, our driver, was a good choice, talkative and knowledgeable. He dropped us at the gardens and agreed to return for us in an hour. We wandered the gardens for about 40 minutes and were done looking and done in by the heat. Shawn was a bit late, but it’s hard to expect a cabbie to hold to a tight schedule. We asked him to stop at the Roman Catholic Cathedral for pictures and he did and he also took us to St George’s Anglican Cathedral and the Methodist Church. We asked two people for the name of the Catholic Church and were told by both that it was the Roman Catholic Cathedral. We are adding a picture of the outside of it with this blog. It has really unusual architecture.
Shawn is an interesting guy. He honks at lots of women and they all smile and wave back. He mentioned that he has a 14 year old son and a 14 year old daughter. He also has a 19 year old daughter and has never been married. The 14 year olds are not twins. He showed us the 14 year olds as we drove around. A one man repopulation team.
St Vincent is a very lush island, green and humid. And we are here in the dry season! As we head north, the islands are greener and greener. Aruba, our first stop, is a really dry place, at the opposite end of the spectrum. Some of the trees in the gardens today had huge vines hanging from them.
We had quite a show when it was time to have the lines cast off so we could sail away. Every port has longshoremen who do the honors and they are usually businesslike. They just toss off the lines and head home. Not today! One of the guys tossing off the stern lines was quite inebriated, waving his arms in the air, telling us to come back, that he loved us and that he had had lots of rum punch today.
Tomorrow we will dock on St Kitts and will be taking an excursion to Nevis, a nearby island.
John & Colleen
posted by Colleen and John | 4:58 PM
2 Comments:
I like that you're still able to see new ports! The picture is beautiful. I'm still waiting for a pic of you, Mom ... you should do a self-portrait of the two of you!
I hope you can post a bunch of pics at the end of your trip when you get home. I love hearing your commentary!!
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