Musings Of My Island Home

As my North American city remains mired in a week-long cold snap I cannot help but long to be back home, sitting on the beach, sipping on some coconut water.  Where is home? I know that I have been here in Canada long enough to be considered a naturalized Canadian and I am a citizen and all but as they say, home is where the heart is.  So right now, my heart is in my birth country, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  Home.

Many of you have never heard of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and I won’t  hold it against you.  It’s easy to miss this beautiful island as it is so tiny.  If you go looking for it in a plane, make sure you kill the engines  when you are miles away so as not to overfly it.  If going by boat, do the same thing.  Actually drop anchor.  It is so small that NLF players go there to practice.  They would stand at one end of the island and one on the other and pass the ball to each other.  Ok, I’m just kidding, it’s not that small but it is small.  But as they say, good things come in small packages.

Bequia waterfront

St. Vincent is a mountainous 133 square miles island nestled in the Easter Caribbean.  Where’s that?  Sorry, I don’t have the time to give you a geography lesson.  Because of its lack of an international airport, it is basically untapped as a tourism resort.  This is great as you get an island unspoiled and almost virginal. That’s soon changing as an international is in the works and scheduled to open for business next year.   Black and white sand beaches await the visitor.  Should you not wish to stay on the main island, the Grenadine islands await.  These are a string of islands stretching from the north of the mainland all the way to the island of Grenada in the south. The most beautiful and popular being the island of Mustique.  Celebrities including Princess Margaret, Mick Jagger, Donald Trump and Racquel Welch have cottages and homes on this island and it is known for great diving and privacy.  Bequia, the largest of the Grenadine islands, holds its own quite well.  It has a sheltered harbor that many boaters like to take advantage of.  There’s also an annual regatta that attracts many.

St. Vincent’s has an active volcano that last erupted in 1979.  It is a nice 4049 ft climb up the mountain where you would see different plants and wildlife in abundance.  It also boasts one of the oldest botanical gardens in the western hemisphere.  Some parts of the movie ‘Pirates of The Caribbean were also filmed in St. Vincent as movie producers are starting to see the island as great for filming.

The Botanic Gardens

Ever heard of Carnival in Rio? New Orleans Mardi Gras?  Or Toronto’s Caribana?  Well the island has its own scaled down version of these.  It lasts for 10 days and involves street parties with costumes, music, drinks and food galore.  It’s one of the best carnival in the region and runs from late June to early July.

Carnival!

I can go on and on but that’s what Google is for.  Look it up.  Read all about it and see why I long for home when I’m freezing my butt off here in the freezing tundra.   Yes mon!

I lived somewhere in this valley

My Valley

Pirates Of The Caribbean 1&2 filmed in St. Vincent.

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