Visit To SVG
I ran across this little clip in a Canadian Blog:
"
After waking every hour on the hour in the typical paranoid fashion of someone catching an early morning flight; Day 1 officially started at 4:30am with the simultaneous ringing of the wake up call and the buzzing of the alarm clock. We caught the hotel shuttle and made our way smoothly through self-check in and security. One minor moment of hysteria on my part when I thought I lost my wallet and then we were on our first flight of the day to Miami. We made our connection in Miami only because our second flight was delayed an hour. Miami to St. Lucia was fairly boring, similar to the movie being played, and we both slept.
In St. Lucia we were met by St. Lucia Helicopter Co. and quickly escorted to a van which sped to a waiting helicopter where we were (again quickly) escorted. Except for the lack of hostile enemy fire I could have mistaken this part of the trip for a scene in 24. We were barely seated and buckled in when the helicopter took off. Dave and I clung to each other like two little kids on the ferris wheel for the first time - scared to death and loving every minute. The flight took us from the southern tip to the nothern tip where we caught our next flight to Barbados. From there we connected (after 2 hours) to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. By some small miracle we (and our luggage) made the trip on time.
A quick taxi ride to our hotel (quickness reflecting the speed of the driver and not the distance of the hotel from the airport) where we checked in and called it a day at 10:30pm.
Day 2 brought fabulous weather. We had our breakfast and did a quick walk around to get the lay of the land before hopping onto a bus to head to downtown Kingstown. The buses in St. Vincent are actually small vans that cram up 15 people inside plus the driver and door man. For $4 EC (that's Eastern Caribbean dollars) Dave and I can both get from our hotel in Villa to downtown and back - that's the equvalent of about $1.50 CAD. The buses all have names painted in graffiti on the front...like Infamous, Indian or Freedom. The best part is that their driving is insane and gives you more of a thrill than a roller-coaster.
Downtown Kingstown on market day is full of sights. The streets are lined with locals selling their produce and goods. Everyone is blaring music and yelling. There is constant honking from all of the vehicles. In St.Vincent the horn is the first thing to be replaced on a car....they honk to say "hi" or "bye", they honk to pedestrains to let them cross, they also honk to say "I'm not stopping for you", they honk at every blind turn (every turn in St. Vincent is blind), and of course they honk when they've been cut off, pissed off or told off by another driver.
After some shopping and lunch dowtown we went back to Beachcombers for a swim in the pool and a walk on the beach. Saturday night brought the Meet and Greet where 80-something of my relatives met at my cousins house for a huge buffet. There were many people I had met at the last reunion and many more I met for the first time. By 11pm we were exhausted again and made our way back to the hotel with the other Beachcombers at the reunion."
"
After waking every hour on the hour in the typical paranoid fashion of someone catching an early morning flight; Day 1 officially started at 4:30am with the simultaneous ringing of the wake up call and the buzzing of the alarm clock. We caught the hotel shuttle and made our way smoothly through self-check in and security. One minor moment of hysteria on my part when I thought I lost my wallet and then we were on our first flight of the day to Miami. We made our connection in Miami only because our second flight was delayed an hour. Miami to St. Lucia was fairly boring, similar to the movie being played, and we both slept.
In St. Lucia we were met by St. Lucia Helicopter Co. and quickly escorted to a van which sped to a waiting helicopter where we were (again quickly) escorted. Except for the lack of hostile enemy fire I could have mistaken this part of the trip for a scene in 24. We were barely seated and buckled in when the helicopter took off. Dave and I clung to each other like two little kids on the ferris wheel for the first time - scared to death and loving every minute. The flight took us from the southern tip to the nothern tip where we caught our next flight to Barbados. From there we connected (after 2 hours) to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. By some small miracle we (and our luggage) made the trip on time.
A quick taxi ride to our hotel (quickness reflecting the speed of the driver and not the distance of the hotel from the airport) where we checked in and called it a day at 10:30pm.
Day 2 brought fabulous weather. We had our breakfast and did a quick walk around to get the lay of the land before hopping onto a bus to head to downtown Kingstown. The buses in St. Vincent are actually small vans that cram up 15 people inside plus the driver and door man. For $4 EC (that's Eastern Caribbean dollars) Dave and I can both get from our hotel in Villa to downtown and back - that's the equvalent of about $1.50 CAD. The buses all have names painted in graffiti on the front...like Infamous, Indian or Freedom. The best part is that their driving is insane and gives you more of a thrill than a roller-coaster.
Downtown Kingstown on market day is full of sights. The streets are lined with locals selling their produce and goods. Everyone is blaring music and yelling. There is constant honking from all of the vehicles. In St.Vincent the horn is the first thing to be replaced on a car....they honk to say "hi" or "bye", they honk to pedestrains to let them cross, they also honk to say "I'm not stopping for you", they honk at every blind turn (every turn in St. Vincent is blind), and of course they honk when they've been cut off, pissed off or told off by another driver.
After some shopping and lunch dowtown we went back to Beachcombers for a swim in the pool and a walk on the beach. Saturday night brought the Meet and Greet where 80-something of my relatives met at my cousins house for a huge buffet. There were many people I had met at the last reunion and many more I met for the first time. By 11pm we were exhausted again and made our way back to the hotel with the other Beachcombers at the reunion."
posted by Karl Eklund at 9:46 PM
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