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Published: February 23rd 2009
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Bequia
The islands popularity is demonstrated by the large amount of boats in the harbour Bequia was a delight to visit, the main strip is laid out along the waterfront so everything is visible and easy to find. The main path along the waterfront leading to all the bars and restaurants is right next to the sea, with the tide quite often rising over the path. When we first arrived we had no food or water left and to top it off it was a Sunday and none of the food shops were open, so we decided that this would be the perfect excuse to go out for dinner. We found a nice pizzeria on the sea front with a lovely view of the harbour; here we filled our bellies for a very reasonable price. After the meal we did our usual exploration of the new vicinity, it was only 5 minutes before we came across an abandoned hotel with all sorts of quaint little areas to investigate. The place looked like it could be absolutely gorgeous if it were done up properly, with an outdoor kitchen, bar, garden and swimming pool interspersed amongst palm trees with a lovely view of the harbour. It didn’t seem to make sense that no one was making use of
the hotel, but we later found out that the building is advertised at a $12,000,000 selling price, which may explain the lack of activity there. The place became a good area for collecting our daily supply of coconuts and oranges from the trees growing in its garden.
We arrived at a little cafe for breakfast on our second day where we befriended some locals as well as a life-size cardboard cut-out of George Bush. It was the day before Obama’s inauguration and apparently the owner of George Bush was going to burn him during a party they were having that night.
The whole place was beautiful and the people seemed so friendly, it was clearly a popular destination judging from the immense amount of yachts in the harbour. A couple of tall ships found their way to the harbour, and being sailing-enthusiasts we of course went over in the punt and had a proper look. One was a sailing cruise ship and the other was a Dutch tall ship from Amsterdam that was used as a sailing training vessel, no one let us onboard for a better look though unfortunately.
Alex, Ed and I went on a
lovely hike/walk to a secluded beach at the other side of the island called Hope Beach. After walking for about 20 minutes up an incredibly steep concrete road, we walked down the other side of the island through woodland for another 20 minutes to come out onto the isolated Hope Beach. The beach is quite small and enclosed in great cliffs with huge waves crashing onto the shore, we all had good fun swallowing sea water and playing in the waves. Meanwhile, Alex was taking full advantage of the privacy and was prancing around in the nude attempting to top up his all-over tan.
One particularly good night was when we went to see some steel drum players at one of the local hotels. I have never seen such enthusiasm from musicians than I did with some of the drummers that night, the music was fantastic and they were clearly having a lot of fun playing the drums. It was this night when we met the Skippers, a Dutch family who had sailed over from Holland. There was Tom, Jenny and their son Koen, who was about our age, all extremely cool people who we got to know better
throughout the week. We joined forces that night and after the steel drum players we found ourselves at Bequia’s equivalent of a night club. This was a small hut, about the size of your average garden shed, with a small bar inside and a pimped up sound system. Here we danced in the street and drank until the wee hours of the morning, I had the privilege of dancing with some of the locals, but also had to be saved from some of the more scary ones by Jenny and Koen. Entertainment continued to the end of the night when we were attempting to unlock the padlock to the punt in the pitch black whilst intoxicated, it took 5 of us about 45 minutes to finally get it unlocked so we could go back to Bob.
After a few days we ventured away from the tourist area and found a few cheap local bars, which looked similar to the night club we were at, but were a little quieter and sold very cheap beer, so naturally we found ourselves at these bars most nights. We met plenty of locals who told us the best places to visit in Bequia
and taught us how to play dominoes properly, again showing us their welcoming nature. I love how friendly the people are here and the local market is a great example of this, rather than being bombarded by people in the usual aggressive way, the people of Bequia would try and sell us their produce by giving us free samples. This went down particularly well with us, as each one of us came out of the market with a big bag of newly bought groceries.
Other exciting things that happened in Bequia include a blues festival which Scott and Shannon paid to attend, but me and Alex decided to listen to the music from the beach outside and get a free show, as being from the north of England apparently means that we have short arms and long pockets. This attempt at getting some free entertainment was ultimately disappointing however, so we ended up leaving pretty quickly. We also went on a hike to Friendship Bay which wasn’t quite as nice as Hope Beach, but lovely nonetheless. Lastly, Alex taught us how to play Mah Jong, which is a game originating from China and is probably the most complicated game
I have ever played, but good fun.
This paragraph is mainly for Jade who requested more gossip in the last post. So here it is: I’m afraid that no one has used up the last of the toothpaste as we bought enough in Bermuda to last about a decade. A common problem is the mild disagreeable scent that is constantly lurking in the cabin which is caused by the release of flatulence by some of the crew members who aren’t used to a diet of beans and lentils, not to mention the diarrhoea that Shannon has been suffering for about 2 months now. The food that I am sick of eating at the moment is sandwiches and cold tins of beans, but there hasn’t been anything else to eat because we ran out of gas for the stove about half a week ago and have yet to fill up the canister. I hope that will suffice for now, I’ll be thinking of more gossip in the meantime for my next post
We loved Bequia so much that we are probably going to go back for a while when the Picton Castle (the tall ship that Alex, Ed and
Interesting tree
Shaped by the wind Scott have all sailed on) is there in a few weeks. It is definitely our favourite place yet, it’s no wonder we stayed there for so long.
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Jamie
non-member comment
Amazing
Hey you, i'm always excited to read about the new adventures. It still sounds so amazing. I wish I was there. Keep smiling and say Hi to Alex. Excellent pictures too. xx