# 28 Find the end of the rainbow

Clearly, I have found the end of the rainbow... and unlike most people think it doesn't end at the end, but exactly halfway. And there is no pot of gold or leprechauns where it ends, but a colorful and tacky clothing store instead. Which makes perfect sense if you think about it...

Guadalupe Part 2

We’ve just spent the last 4 days in Guadalupe’s outlying islands sleeping on beaches and cooking us some (surprisingly) good beach BBQ meals.

It was great to see these smaller islands, both of which had music festivals going on while we were there so we got a good dose of beach, sightseeing and music too! In Marie Galante, a large crepe-shaped island we rented a scooter and scooted around the sugarcane fields to visit a rum distillery (hmm, I haven’t talked much about rum in the blog, but we’ve been making it a ritual to taste each island’s own, none of which have disappointed so far), more beaches (of course), little towns, des falaises (which took us about 2 weeks to realize its cliffs in French) and old towers and windmills.

Travel isn’t always fun and we had to get up the 2^nd morning at 4:45am to catch the 6am ferry to the mainland where we’d get the 7:30 bus from Point a Pitre to Trois Rivieres (almost complete opposite side of Gwada) to then take the 9am ferry to our next island, Terre de Haut. Well, the only time it rained during these 4 days was in the 30 minutes it took us to scoot from the sleeping beach to the ferry, and believe me, it’s never fun to drive a scooter in the dark being pelted by cold rain while you’re half asleep and knowing that the only clothes you have are now fully liquid.

But we made it and were able to enjoy the sunny and Bequia-like Island. We like small islands so much that we decided to fly directly to the British Virgin Islands, which are a group of around 50 small sandy things near Puerto Rico for the rest of our Caribbean trip.

Photos

Here's some photos from the 1st month of the trip

Around the Caribbean- the first month

Guadalupe Part 1

After our amazingly productive stint in Dominica, where we hiked and walked and swam our way around the island, Guadalupe has been our recovery island.


The first few days were a whirlwind of absolutely nothing, covered in late mornings, wandering around cities and villages and from cafe to cafe. I blame it on a mixture of laziness, bad weather and good food. Luckily being part of France we indulged in good coffee, pastries, and baguettes. Oh how I love sandwiches. And armed with string, color pencils, books, cards, scissors and markers we amply entertained ourselves until the sun came back out and we hit the (now) amazing beaches of Guadalupe.



Tomorrow we take the ferry to some outlying islands for our first bout of beach sleeping (on ultralight travel hammocks which we finally found!) and in 4 days we should be dirty enough to be impermiable to mosquitoes!! hoorah!

Tha Nature Island

We were stopped on the road on our first day in Dominica by a guy who over-enthusiastically began singing us poems about Dominica. He wanted a dollar afterwards, but that's not the point. These people are extremely proud of their country's 'nature island' image.

We often heard them boasting to us about its 365 rivers- one for each day of the year, the numerous hot springs, waterfalls, hikes and general greenness of the place. And its warranted.

You don't go to Dominica for the beaches simply because there are none. Believe me, we tried looking. Nothing but rocks. But the people are amazingly friendly, the place is insanely green and undeveloped (but still has good infrastructure) and there's enough hiking, river walking, hot springs, waterfalss and swimming to exhaust you indefnitely.

So we spent 8 days there doing just that, and wandering around little coastal villages, eating street food and trying the bush rum of this laid back little place.

Photos and more are coming soon!

Martinique!

Well on our way in our 2 month Caribbean backpacking trip our 3rd island stop was Martinique...



In Fort-De-France (the capital of Martinique) I spent most of my time taking photos of the city walls in various stages of decay. Looking at the photos you may think that we spent our days wandering the city streets with baguettes under our arms (when in rome...), which is not too far from the truth, but we did even go to some amazing beaches did some great hikes, explored the countryside and hilltops too.



But what we loved most about Martinique is its Frenchness. Its officially a part of France and to us was the first actual city in almost a year. They have Carrefours, cheese, proper coffee, sausages, road signs, good sandwiches, public bathrooms, parks, cultural centers and MORE!!! Return to civilization has never been this good. We even went to a movie- Alice in Wonderland (not in 3D as we would have liked, but still in an actual movie theater!). Yep, the French life was sweet.

Being French. The baguette disguise clearly worked cuz we were asked for directions more than once, which we happily gave by pointing the baguettes in the 'right' direction. Aah, if only I had a mustache to twirl afterwards.

It was also really notable for us to see how much proper funding in public infrastructure makes a difference to places. This was definitely not the Caribbean we've been used to, but a pleasantly surprising change, and one which we can't wait to experience again once we get to Guadalupe!

St Lucia Photos

Belle Coco!

The St. Lucian flag, representing their 2 Pitons, which they have a bit of an obsession about (these mountains are on their national beer, water, photos, brochures, websites, plates, etc...)

Sunset in Gros Ilet, a fallint apart little fishing village where I had the best fish ever, with great Friday night parties and peeling walls for me to drool over.

The flag boat! Which it turns out sells fruit and not flags as we once thought.

Amazing sunset in Soufriere, a tiny wooden village at the base of the famous Pitons.

St. Lucia

I'm in St. Lucia!

And I have 5 minutes of internet time. So for a very short summary:

Flight! Pitons, Soufriere- wooden fishing village, amazing palm huts, snorkeling with crazy coral colors, waterfalls, trees, mineral baths, bus, vieux fort, more bus, Castries, touristy north area, another small wooden fishing village with tiny houses of all different colors stuck in 1903. And with amazing food and friday night parties. Then add a lot of beaches, unbelievably HOT sun, rum, hitchhiking and a good dose of sitting on piers watching sunsets and that's been our St. Lucian experience so far.

Tonight we take the ferry over to Martinique and begin couchsurfing! Can't wait! I will put photos and write more (eventually).

#18 Sell Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

This one we had to leave until the end of our stay, cuz as much as we love embarassing ourselves we, umm, well our sea shells were of questionable quality.



But we went ahead with it, and if we're gonna do something we do it properly, so we took an ad out in the paper and duly set up our sea-shell sale stand by the sea shore. With all 5 sea shells (and 5 books) for sale.

And we actually sold stuff! (see our first customer photo). We got 5 books and 1 sea shell sold. We were so proud that we went and blew our entire profit on rotis next door. It was so worth it.

Our first customer!

We made friends with the other sellers next to us and ended up donating our unsold shells to our neighbors. I promised them a prize if they managed to get them sold. They confidently told me that people buy weird shit. So true.

#24 Climb a mountain

The volcano from the beach

The view to the Caribbean side of St. Vincent

Walking along the ridge of the crater.

The view from the top of Mt. Peggy in Bequia

Some long overdue accomplishments

My time in Bequia is coming to an end so I've gotta tick off a few more tasks from my my 35 things list:

#3 Build an amazing awesome sandcastle:


We decided to go with the classic design, adding a little arabesque influence and some cookie-box bunkers out front for good measure.

#18 Grow a pre-decorated Christmas tree


No decoration needed, this one came with lights and tiny Santas straight form out of the coconut! Its true I tell you!

Flail your arms and legs to the music

Aah!!

Haven't been blogging in a while cuz work went all crazy with full hotel/weddings/Easter Sunday events then my family visited and now I've got 5 days of work left + 3 days to enjoy & pack before I leave my life in Bequia and begin traveling the Caribbean for 2 months!

So I'm trying to enjoy Bequia as much as possible while I'm still here, and am missing it already.

Photo by Gemmo

Some updates from this part of the world:

They caught another whale! Its the 2nd of the season, and was bigger than the first.

Photo by Gemmo

It rained! Yes, that's big news here with what has been apparently the worst drought in 30 years. The rain conveniently arrived when my parents did, and a week later is still here- I have never appreciated rain so much and I'm loving the smell of wet everything, the quiet feeling of anticipation just before and after rain, the cool breeze it brings with it, and all the changing colors of the sky.


Been out decorating old walls as much as possible- I wanna paint these ruins up before I leave, but there's too many walls!

Panorama by Nadja

The tourist season is officially over and the hotel has come to a crawl, which has given me some breathing room and time to finish off the last few projects before I leave.

Sponges are not meant to be used as earmuffs.

Pink cake is only good on birthdays.

Lovely dorito Bag photo by Gemmo today

Whale!

They caught a whale! A little while ago they caught the first whale of the season here in Bequia. Bequia is one of only a handful of places in the world which is legally allowed to catch whales as its part of their traditional customs. They're allowed to catch 2 per year, usually humpbacks as they are migrating in the waters between Bequia and Mustique.

Although catching 2 a year using traditional methods doesn't make much of an impact on the whales; it feeds into larger issues as St. Vincent is essentially being paid off by nations such as Japan (which is involved in mass whaling way beyond its waters) to vote in its favor on whaling matters.

If you're interested in reading more there's a good article here going over both sides of the argument, as well as a lot of whaling past and present.


Opinions aside it was a fascinating thing watching the whale being brought in to Semple Cay (a little island just in front of my hotel). I headed out to the Cay (littered with huge whale bones) to watch the whale being cut up and sold, with loud party music already pumping in the background.


Its a big event here to catch a whale and there was chaos everywhere as the fishermen hacked off their squares of blubber and meat, throwing it at their friends or bringing it in to weigh and then sell. Apparently you cook the meat in the blubber and it tastes kind of like beef.

At the end of the afternoon they had only finished half of it, so they towed it out to sea to preserve it and the next day they finished it off. They say that if you melt the blubber into an oil a teaspoon of it will cure colds. It was definitely an interesting experience.

#31 Smuggle beer from Bequia to Denmark

This was a tough one. I didn't have any previous smuggling experience, unlike some people, so I kind of had to learn by doing.

Fortunately my years of beer drinking and border crossing (though not done simultaneously) gave me enough experience to be able to smuggle this bottle of Hairoun across continents to safely reach some thirsty Danes.

The beer in Bequia, getting ready for its voyage.

The beer visiting Karen Blixen- a famous Danish writer.

The beer in one of Copenhagen's touristy streets, about to be drunk by a super cool mustache- who I will assume is named Olav.

Yumm arty stuff I found

Alex Kopps

Ludovica Gioscia

Union Island

We stayed 2 nights in Mayreau and met a cool white Rasta (what everybody calls him) while he was climbing coconut trees. He had a nice little sailing boat and offered us a ride to Union Island- our next destination on the trip. This guy- J.D. - is a French guy about my age whose been living on his boat for the past 6 years and sailing around the Caribbean. A really nice guy, so laid back and friendly.


So we set sail for Union and spent the whole afternoon exploring the one street town (which is about 100 meters long), yep we saw all the sights: first spending a good 2 hours on the bench in front of the main roundabout, then moving on to Lambi's guesthouse where we left our stuff and then at the end of the street we found an amazing little labyrinth- like art bar/cafe/atelier built down a neverending alley leading up to a nice lookout point where we had a drink and played the coolest card game on earth (Bohnanza- which we're all addicted to now). After sunset it was apero time on the beach then a big local dinner and out for a little dancing.


Union Island is a bit smaller than Bequia but I really liked hanging out in town, watching life go by. Its less touristy by far, less picturesque and with hardly any foreign-owned villas on the hills. Just a quiet town- a base for some Yacht charters and entry point of the southern Grenadines.

The next day we walked the whole island- its lots of up and down, with amazing views from pretty much anywhere. After visiting Ashton, the 2nd and smaller village of the island we headed for the hills to Chatam Bay- a beach inhabited by Rastas, fishermen and an out of place fancy pants resort.


We found a shady tree and spent the afternoon eating, sleeping, listening to Irish stories and snorkeling with hundreds of fish just a meter from shore.


The next day we took the long and wavy ferry back to St. Vincent to re-climb the volcano...

Mayreau

I finally managed to get some time to travel around the Grenadines and explore the rest of the country! I not-so-coincidentally managed to get a week off work while my best friends were here visiting, so the past few days have been pure bliss.

The green team.

First stop was Mayreau- the smallest of the inhabited Grenadine islands and (I say) the one with the most beautiful beach. Probaby that I have ever seen. What I love about these small islands is that they are all one-street villages of a similar size but being islands they've developed completely differently, almost in their own bubbles. And it was so interesting to see the little differences in each town and people that really aren't so far away from each other.

For example there's a large french influence in Union Island with lots of French people around (ok, lots is relative), some signs in french and even locals speaking it.

Anyways, back to Mayreau. We took the rocking ferry (bought from Norway, still complete with maps of the fjords) 4 hours down and docked on the little beachfront pier. Walked up the hill to look for Righteous- the friendliest Rasta in the world who has a cool little restaurant and guesthouse.

We felt right at home, after going night-swimming and shooting star watching we slept with a hurricane fan and the next morning sat out on our balcony to watch the little village of 200 people wake up. The same 3 cars drove around in a circle, my barber walked past and waved good morning. The kids went up the hill to the school where we could hear them singing songs.I love little village life.


Oh and then we went to the most amazing beach ever and spent all day wallowing in the sand, floating in crystal-clear water and exploring deserted beaches. Check out the photos and die of jealousy.