Our first trip to Bequia May 11-25th, after hearing so many great things about this place we were all anxious to get there. Our day started REALLY early. We were up at 2:30 for our 6am flight from BWI to Miami, on from there to Barbados and then SVG Air to Bequia with a short stop at Union Island, ( what a landing that was). There was an SVG representative waiting for us in Barbados and he took us to an in transit waiting area while our bags were collected for us, so no C & I. We were met by a taxi that had been arranged by Grenadine Island Villas, we asked if there was a nearby store to buy some wine or beer and we were taken to a rather shady looking shack of a bar to buy whatever he had to sell, turned out to be 3 bottles of corked wine. We were off to Moonhole where we were met by Doro, our wonderful cook for Tranquility Villa and her son who would lug all of our heavy bags up the trail to the villa! Thank God!! It was about a 5 to 10 minute hike up on a stone and concrete trail and then the a few flights of steps to the different levels of the villa, we were whooped!! And Doro’s son was carrying 2 heavy bags at a time one on his shoulder and one in his hand and he was barefooted! The villa is on 4 levels, the first is a bedroom and bath, up one more level and you have 2 more bedrooms and baths, the next level is the main living area and kitchen and the top level is the master bedroom, patio and bath, Phewww!! That’s a lot of steps! The views are to die for, from every level! Half a level down from the living area is the pool also with astounding views. Upon arrival Doro had dinner waiting for us, how sweet is that? Curried chicken, rice, fresh fruit, home baked bread! Doro had also pre stocked the kitchen with some essentials, red and white wine, coffee, milk, eggs and so on. What a nice surprise. We would come to realize rather quickly how nice it was to have a villa with a cook, and how spoiled we would be! After dinner we had some wine and it was not long before all of us were ready for bed, Doro had lit mosquito coils in each bedroom and bathroom and she had also tucked in our mosquito nets over the beds, we had great breezes so a good nights sleep was had by all.

The next day Andy and I went to town with Doro to buy what we thought we would need for the remainder of our 4 night stay at Tranquility (we were way off on the booze!) On our way to town Doro had the taxi driver stop on the road in her village to speak to a man on the street (I didn’t understand a word she said) after we started off again she said she was trying to get us some conch, Yeah! It was about a 15 minute ride to town and since it was Sunday we had to shop fast, the stores close at 11am, we hit 2 grocery stores and a small stand that sold fresh fruit, veggies and eggs. We spent $800 EC, which is about $300 US. Sure enough on our way back we were flagged down by the man in her village, Doro got out of the taxi and I watched as the guy put 8 large conch into a bag, Doro said $40 EC, about $15, good deal! Needless to say we were spoiled by Doro for our entire stay, she came in at 9 am cooked our breakfast, scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, banana pancakes, French toast, omelets, then she would clean the villa prepare our lunch if we wanted it, and then dinner. We told her that we wanted to try all the local dishes, curried conch, stewed conch, fresh fish, stuffed chicken, polenta, stuffed christophene, pumpkin, fried plantains, and oh boy, fresh homemade key lime pie and coconut custard pie!! Can you say fat and happy? We spent our days there hiking around the Moonhole area swimming and snorkeling at the beach and soaking at the pool, the evenings were spent listening to music, the homeowner had quite a collection on the I pod, dancing under the stars and star gazing. Our time there came too quickly to an end and we had to say our good byes to Doro, we were all sad to be leaving but we were off to Tropical Hideaway Villa in Belmont Estates for another week!

Tropical Hideaway was gorgeous! Right from the gated entry way to the huge double carved doors that led to the penthouse suite that would be our home for the next week! The views from the suite were just breathtaking, looking out over the HUGE infinity edge pool to the harbor, wonderful sunsets! We had a custom made bed that was over 7 feet wide!!! The bathroom in our suite was how shall we say?? Open air? No doors, a poo with a view? We had a huge curved bar and 2 hanging chairs and a large curved sofa looking out over the harbor. The owners live on site and were very helpful during our stay, calling taxi’s and restaurants, and supplying ice. We took a boat trip on a very sweet 42’ power boat with Capt. Wayne to the Tobago cays, the snorkeling was great, hundreds of turtles and fish, then it was on to Mayreau for lunch at the Saltwhistle Bay Club. This is a great spot, it is like White Bay on JVD without the crowds! We spent a couple of days at Princess Margaret beach snorkeling, swimming, limin’! Lunch at Jack’s Beach Bar, good food and drinks! Took a water taxi from there to the Belmont walkway one day to have roti’s at the Green Boli, they were the best. Dinners out at Papa’s, Bagatelle, Firefly, and 2 times to Sugar Reef. Food was good at all but the menu at the Sugar Reef is very limited, Andy can’t eat fish and the other options were roti and hamburger. Loved the dining room at Sugar Reef, really beautiful. Firefly was also beautiful and formal, with the wait staff in white tuxedo shirts and black bowties, very elegant but don’t feel like you have to dress up to eat there. We spent lots of time in that great pool at the villa, the owners made a punch bowl full of Mojitos and brought them to the pool one afternoon, that was a nice touch and we enjoyed having cocktails with them.

We had 3 nights at the end of our stay at Tropical Hideaway that we had no reservations for, Terry and Earl were leaving on Wednesday and we were not going home until Saturday. We decided to contact the owners of Tranquility to see if it would be possible to return for our last 3 nights. YES! We were going back to Tranquility! Doro’s son was there to meet us and carry our luggage once again, we had stopped at the store before going back so we were ready with booze and food so we wouldn’t have to leave until it was time to go home. Doro was at the house ready to welcome us with food and drink. Black Jack fish for dinner sautéed with eggplant, onion and tomato sauce, scalloped potatoes and stuffed christophene! Yummy! We spent our last days there relaxing at the pool, hiking, and swimming at the beach, and of course eating Doro’s wonderful food! We were all in tears when it was time to leave for home but promised Doro that we would be back! And we will!

A very uneventful trip home except for the madness at Miami airport, arrived at BWI around midnight and Terry was waiting to give us a ride home! Thank You Terry!