{"id":432,"date":"2015-02-02T22:37:04","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T22:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/?p=432"},"modified":"2015-02-04T01:39:27","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T01:39:27","slug":"monday-st-vincent-and-bequia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/monday-st-vincent-and-bequia\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday – St Vincent and Bequia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015-02-02<\/a><\/p>\n

Today has been a day of two halves. It began at 7am in St. Georges, on the island of St. Vincent, the largest of the Grenadines (a chain of 32 islands, only 9 of which are inhabited). I was on tour yet again, which meant an early alarm call so that I could be breakfasted and on the quayside for 7:30am.<\/p>\n

All I can say is; what a difference a guide makes. While yesterday’ guide was unenthusiastic, bordering on manic depressive, today’s couldn’t have been more different. Today our guide was bursting with energy, wit and humour; young and attractive, she had everyone eating out of her hands. Our driver, Andy, was the perfect accompaniment to her, and as a double-act, they made the whole tour run like clockwork. Our first stop was to Fort Charlotte, high above the harbour, from where stunning views were to be had in all directions. From here, we headed back down into town, and to the Botanical Gardens. Not only did our guide know her stuff, but she really seemed to care about the passengers; pointing out all the awkward, high steps in good time, and making sure everyone got undercover successfully when the heavens opened.<\/p>\n

A drive through several small villages was accompanied by clear information, and humourous asides. St. Vincent has an airport, but they’re currently in the process of building a new one… an international airport. When I asked how long it would be before it was finished, she seemed uncertain; they’ve been working on it now for 8 years, and at the rate it’s going, it’ll probably be another 8 years before any planes will be flying into it.<\/p>\n

\"2015-02-02<\/a><\/p>\n

Our final stop was at Paradise Beach Hotel, where everyone was treated to a complimentary rum punch… always a surefire method of leaving people with a good feeling about a tour!<\/p>\n

By 11:30, we were back at the ship, and at 12noon, the ship set sail for one of the more southerly of the Grenadines, Bequia.<\/p>\n

At Bequia, we dropped anchor, and passengers were taken ashore by tender boat. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why we had to up-sticks and go to a second island all on the same day, particularly since the anchorage meant undergoing a tedious tender operation. Don’t get me wrong, it was a pleasant enough island, but the weather turned against us again, and when I came ashore a second time, all I was really interested in was finding a bar with free wi-fi (which I did… and it was great).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today has been a day of two halves. It began at 7am in St. Georges, on the island of St. Vincent, the largest of the Grenadines (a chain of 32 islands, only 9 of which are inhabited). I was on tour yet again, which meant an early alarm call so that I could be breakfasted and on the quayside for...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}