Just returned from almost 3 weeks in the Grenadines. Our trip was land based with one week of sailing in the middle. Thanks to many of you here for your input prior to our trip. So this begins my trip report – I’m sorry it’s so long. I’ve divided it into 3 parts. Land based Canouan and Mayreau / Sailing Trip / Land based Bequia.
We left Santa Barbara, CA on a Friday night at 6pm. We flew AA through LAX, then San Juan, then St. Lucia, and arrived in Canouan around 5pm the next day. Long journey for us.
We stayed at Crystal Apts for two nights. Mrs. Enella DeRoche was charming and hospitable. After walking through the apt, which was clean, adequate, nothing fancy, we sat down and had our first Hairoun. (Well, maybe a couple). We wandered up the hill that night to Hilltop Restaurant. Very slow season, but brothers Amos and Cornell took good care of us. We had rum punch and a great dinner of red snapper. Fireflies were buzzing around, which I had never seen, and as the night wore on we got to know Amos and Cornell and their friend Casper. Talked, partied and laughed for a few hours, then managed to find our way down the hill being greeted with many "good nights" from all those coming from an outdoor evening church event. It was a great start to what would be so much fun ahead. Next day we lay around on the beach at Tamarind Beach Resort, walked through the village, then worked up the energy to climb the formidable hill to head over to Twin Bay reef. We took a soft cooler with beer, snacks and our snorkel gear. At the top of the hill, Guston gave us good directions. Spent all afternoon over there. Didn't see a lot of fish, but we didn't go all the way out to the reef, either. We snorkeled around the point and popped out at the spa area of Raffles. Water was real choppy. Dinner that night was at TBR, good food and good service. Again, very slow time there. They were planning to close for a month beginning in the next day or two. The next day Mrs. DeRoche arranged for us to get a little tour around the island from a friend, John. He works at Raffles but is off for a month for the slow season. He gave an insightful tour of Canouan and answered a lot of questions that we had about the split personality of the island. The village, where the locals live, is in the center, and much of the rest of the island is owned by the resort. 1000-1200 residents on the island. We saw land turtles, the quaint and now closed Canouan Beach Hotel, and a fisherman posed for us as he prepared his net for throwing. After our tour, we were back at Crystal Apts for roti, yum!, and goodbyes. Then we experienced the mail boat for our journey to Mayreau. A beehive of activity as it arrived and departed. Upon arrival in Mayreau, we waited for that same activity to get going again. Very little was moving off the boat in Mayreau, in fact the walkway wasn't even moved over to the dock area, so we waited, and next thing you know they started to untie from the dock and blare the horn. We jumped up and yelled, hey, wait! And they all laughed and asked us if we changed our minds, but quickly helped us get off the boat. I'm sure they thought we were crazy Americans.
Another formidable hill to get up to Dennis's Hideaway. Collin came to our rescue and helped with the luggage. Our room at Dennis's was more upscale than Crystal Apts. We had a nice balcony with views of Saline Bay, and AC and screens on the windows. This was nice to escape the mosquitos a bit. We had such fun just sitting on the balcony and watching all the people. Mayreau's population is only about 300 or so, but they're all right there in that small village. Kids were playing basketball, music was going, people out on their porches calling to each other. We saw a nice rain shower come through that only lasted about 10 minutes and watched the Windjammer, Mandalay come in and anchor. We amused ourselves watching the guests huff and puff up the hill and noticed that the locals have various hill walking methods. Some go straight up while many criss cross the road as they walk. It's amazing what you find interesting as you sit on a balcony on a small island and drink beer! Our meals on Mayreau were all at Dennis's. Elmo was our cook and he went out of his way for us. We had callaloo for the first time while there and our meals were all very good. Dennis, of course, regaled us with his stories.
Our second day on Mayreau we walked up and down the hill to Salt Whistle Bay. It ranked as one of the most beautiful, stunning beaches of our entire trip. 5 boats were anchored there. We lounged around the beach all morning and stopped at the church on the way back for the fantastic views of Tobago Cays and points beyond. Some school kids came over and we had fun with them. Took some silly pictures and as it turned out later, one of them was Elmo's son. Later we walked down to Saline Bay. Russell snorkeled and I watched the sunset and the sand crabs. Huffed and puffed back up the hill to Dennis's for dinner. Elmo got to pouring the very strong rum that night. Next morning we did some more balcony sitting, because it was a big day. Dennis was installing a swimming pool! We watched the ferry come in with the backhoe and truck and up it came and started digging. Dennis went out and poured an entire bottle of the very strong rum around the perimeter of the project. This was for luck. Although I'm not sure it was all that lucky for Russell the night before. He was moving a little slow. I continued to watch the novel approach to pool digging while Russ took a nap, then we walked down the hill to snorkel one more time at Saline Bay. A cute dog walked with us all the way, and when we went out to the water, he sat down by our towels to wait for us. We saw spotted eel and quite a few fish and took our first underwater pictures. Trudged back up the hill to pack up. Dennis gave us a ride to Salt Whistle Bay where we said our goodbyes and boarded our new home, a 40ft catamaran named Lost Our Marbles.
