PART THREE: BEQUIA
June 19, 2012
Off to the airport… back to LIAT… back to Barbados… and on to St. Vincent where we caught the ferry to Bequia. Cilla from Sugarapple had arranged for us to be picked up from the ferry terminal. We were at the Sugarapple before we knew it. It was probably 6pm or so, maybe a little later when we arrived. Our plan was to walk to the neighboring Bequia Beach Club for dinner… little did we know at the time there were changes since our last visit! They have completed their expansion, and have a lovely new pool and restaurant down by the beach. So, we walked down the stairs, saw the restaurant (where we knew it to be) was not there, so wandered down further to the beach. Quite the ghost town! Very surreal to have a beautiful new resort empty, not a soul to be found. After us wandering around (still looking for an open restaurant), the security guard found us. He was very pleasant, said the restaurant was not open, and showed us another way to get back to Sugarapple. We waited on the road for probably 20 minutes (in the shelter of an old taxi stand) waiting out a huge downpour. Luckily, a dollar bus came by and stopped for us. We took it into town, and found the Mexican restaurant, Tommy Cantina, open and ready to serve us food and drink! Boy, were we ready. Let that be a lesson to us, one we should already have known, ask what is open when you check in and don’t count on walking next door… One never knows! We had a great dinner at Tommy Cantina and the pina colada was wonderful. We were lucky to find a taxi at the old almond tree after dinner for a ride to our home for the next 5 days.
The next day we set into town with a taxi this time… We wandered the town, tried to eat at Mac’s Pizza (our favorite), but they are closed on Wednesday. *Note to self – don’t try to go on a Wednesday – I think we have made that mistake before as well… We had a great lunch at The Gingerbread, did our grocery shopping for dinners and breakfast at the Sugarapple Inn, and went back to the Sugarapple to enjoy the pool. Our walk later that afternoon was back over to Friendship Bay to watch the big waves, and look at the beautiful Bequia Beach Hotel in the daylight. It is beautiful, we just saw some workers around the grounds. Sad, as it is such a beautiful location!
Thursday and Friday we rented a car. Bequia is a cute little island, not many roads, probably not possible to get lost! The challenge… driving on the left side of the road, watching out for huge speed bumps, and not to get too close to the edge as they have deep drainage ditches on the side of the road. It would not be a good experience to accidently drive off one of those! We went into town, explored a little more, had laundry done ($15 for a big bag of laundry, washed and folded), and had lunch at Mac’s finally! The last time we were in Bequia, a tidal surge had done quite a bit of damage to the Belmont Shore walkway. It is nice to see the walkway has been repaired and improved. Very nice job! We love walking the Belmont Walkway looking for fish, crabs and birds. It is a great scenic location…
We also spent some time out at the Oldhegg Turtle Sanctuary visiting with Brother King and the turtles, goats, sheep, chickens, dogs and other various animals. A very fun outing to be sure! They are closed on Saturday. This is well worth a visit! Give Suzie a scratch on the shell for me, ok? (She loves it!)
We had a delightful lunch at the Firefly Spring Bay. What a great facility. The service was fantastic. The lunch was delicious! I would go back here in a heartbeat…
Late Friday afternoon, my son and his friend flew in on SVG Air. We picked them up in our rental jeep. They had taken the red eye from Los Angeles, and were in need of a shower and then some food. My son’s favorite restaurant is Mac’s, so we had reservations for dinner. Even though it was June, low season, I was glad we had made reservations. There were quite a few diners there that night! We had a great dinner.
The next morning it was time to leave the Sugarapple and catch the 9am ferry to St. Vincent. It seemed like a short stay in Bequia, but always a wonderful one.
The ferry ride started out like a normal ferry ride. But, then up the stairs walks a person we recognized… My husband asked me if I thought it was Soconey (a singer we met on one of our previous trips who was quite the expert on US capitals and presidential trivia). I was not positive when I was asked the question, but in about 2 minutes this great person sat down across from us, and begins asking us questions about state capitals. Ah-ha! Yep, it was Soconey to be sure! He entertained the four of us during our ferry ride with questions about state capitals and presidents, and song. What a great guy! Only in the Caribbean… <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />
