Monday December 18, 2023
Hi All! The word for today is TURTLES, but more about that later. Today we were at the island of Bequia, which is the largest island (at only 7 miles long!) within the Grenadines island chain. It is part of the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines. They actually still do whaling here but the entire island is only allowed to catch 4 whales per year and they have to use the old traditional method of catching them with spears so some years they never get 4.
When we arrived there in the morning it was pouring rain. I felt bad for the people who had morning excursions but ours was luckily an afternoon excursion. So we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast. When we got off the ship to start the tour at 1:30, it was raining again but it quickly stopped once we started our tour and was just overcast the whole tour.
We did the tour with our friend Barbara from Buffalo and several friends she had met on the cruise from Atlanta. We had a nice group of 7 of us huddled in the back of a covered pickup truck. Our tour took us all over the little island and up and down some steep hills so we had to hang on for dear life!
Our first stop was to a place called Mt Pleasant which was the lookout point for the island to spot whales offshore. It was named that since the breeze makes the air so pleasant up there!
After there we went to the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary. It was where they rehabilitated the endangered Hawksbill turtles. They had tons of turtles swimming around in these big tanks that were situated right along the ocean. In a way it was kind of sad to see the turtles being kept in these tanks but fortunately they care for the ones that are injured and may not survive if not for this place. Can you believe these turtles can live to be 100 years old!
After that we went up to Fort Hamilton which was a British fort back when the island was under British rule. It was high on a hill looking out over the bay with lots of boats moored there. Had it been a sunny day, that picture would have been spectacular. Funny thing was we were in port with the Seabourn Ovation ship which we went on last March and are going on again in late April of next year. We love that ship!
After the excursion we did some shopping and got back on the ship. Bequia is smaller than Dominica but even more natural and rustic. Again like the Caribbean was probably like 50 years ago.
For dinner we went to Alantide and had dinner again with Barbara but this time we also ate with her two friends from Atlanta. We had the nicest time talking travel the whole night!
After dinner we just chilled and listened to some music since we have an early excursion tomorrow. On to Martinique!
The Wandering Italian 