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speak good English on this French island. An English speaking cab driver helped me call the Club Med in St.
Anne's. They had a room for me, so I took the hour cab ride south along the coast. The roads and highways are
the best I’ve scene in the Caribbean. We went through a number of small towns along the way, some of them
fishing villages. I checked in to the Club Med and took a nap until dinner. At dinner I met Anne and Frank from
France and Karine who works at Club Med. This is her 11th Club Med. I guess some people make it a career.
Anne was very nice. We spoke for a while. After dinner was the show. They had many songs by various
performers and a few short, themed fashion shows. I was pretty good for amateurs. Even-though it was mostly in
French, I could grasp the emotions in the songs, similar to Opera. After the show, the younger people headed to
the disco. I met a French couple living in NYC there. The young man was getting his MBA at Columbia. She
was working. I danced a little, checked out how the French partied – nothing special, more independent, then
went to sleep.
Monday, January 5: After breakfast, I walked along the beach, first south of the Club Med grounds, then north
to the point where Club Med has its windsurfing. There was one older man that was blowing by everyone. He
must have been 50-60 years old. Gives us all hope. The regular public beach was mostly families, not such a nice
beach. After walking, I relaxed at the main Club Med beach. They had music playing, volleyball and an
occasional water aerobics class. I wrote in my journal and read my Kaballah book. After lunch, I went
waterskiing. I attempted to get out of the water on one ski, slalom, without much luck. In the past, I had been
able to drop a ski, then slalom. But, I have never been able to start on one ski. I did learn some technique
though. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do it one day. After that I relaxed on the beach watching volleyball, swimming
in the Caribbean and reading. I had dinner with my new friends Eric from Nice, France and Jerome from France,
but living in Amsterdam and a group of four others that they knew. The show/entertainment after dinner was
awful. Afterwards, I watched a night volleyball tournament for a while. Then I headed to the disco, where I only
lasted about 15 minutes before calling it a night. I did talk with my new friends, Anne and Frank. They are very
nice, especially for the French.
Tuesday, January 6: I slept in this morning. I sat and chatted with Eric and Jerome by the bar for a bit, then
Jerome and I went for lunch. After lunch I read about were I wanted to go next and decided on St. Vincent, the
northern most island of the Grenadines. I booked my flight and taxi to the airport, then headed to the beach for
my last afternoon on Martinique. I read my Kabalah book, wrote, and watched some beach volleyball and the
sunset. I had dinner with Frank, Anna and Karina. I got a couple of pictures of me and my new friends. After
dinner we hung out by the bar until the show started. The entertainment tonight was really pretty good. They had
local performers doing some of the indigenous dances. One was the Forbidden Dance, which was pretty graphic
and the children of the troop members were watching. I assume it is part of their culture. After the show I went
to the disco for a little while. I said some final good byes, then time for bed. (*Very French, most don’t speak
English well. I really only saw/experienced the Club Med here, but the attitude bothered me, I felt like an
outsider.)
Wednesday, January 7: Awoke at 6:30 for a 7am taxi ride to airport. Since there were no direct flights from
Martinique to St. Vincent, I had to fly first to St. Lucia, then to Barbados, then to St. Vincent. In addition, my St.
Lucia to Barbados flight was delayed over an hour. So, I missed my Barbados to St. Vincent flight. They
booked me on the next flight out, which put me in St. Vincent a few hours late. Once in St. Vincent, I booked a
room at the Beachcomber at Villa Beach. This is a quaint little villa with about 20 rooms, a restaurant, a pool, a
small spa and a short beach. I was worn out from all the traveling, so I stayed in this evening.
Thursday, January 8: I slept in then had lunch at the Beachcomber restaurant. From here you overlook the
pool and the bay where there are boats moored and a resort on a small private island. After lunch, I went to the
pool to lie out. There were a couple cute girls lying out topless next to me. Too bad they were too young. I
read, napped in the sun and took a dip in the pool. After sunning, I went for my message. I know, it is a tough
life, but someone has to do it. The message was a good one. She did get a little too close to my private parts
sometimes. But, I was too embarrassed to say anything. After a shower, I walked down the road at Villa Beach
checking out a few different restaurants. They were all pretty slow. So, I caught the bus into town. I asked the
bus (really a van that has four rows of seats) driver to drop me at Vee Jay’s Rooftop Diner, which I had read
about in my Fodor’s Travel Guide. Vee Jay’s was quiet also, but there were a few people at the bar, so I ate
there. I met the nice couple next to me. They offered me advice about where to travel in the Grenadines. The
food was really very good. I had the fish of the day, a grilled King Fish. It came with baked potatoes, a baked
breaded zucchini, cooked carrots and a couple of other items of which I wasn’t sure. I intended on heading over
to The Attic, a Jazz and Blues club, but it was closed this evening. The cab driver who took me told me that
Thursday nights were slow in St. Vincent. He took me back to my place.
Friday, January 9: I showered, packed and ate some complimentary Continental Breakfast. The same taxi cab
driver from the previous night, a kind older man, picked me up to take me to the boat docks to catch my Ferry to
the Grenadine island of Bequia. I got a couple decent photos at the dock, before and during our departure.
cont. Friday, January 9: It was a very pleasant ride over with the sun shining down through the sparse clouds
and a few islands on the horizon. The Ferry docked at Port Elizabeth in Admiralty Bay. After disembarking, I
stopped in at the Visitor Information office. The nice lady there helped me book an inexpensive room at Julia’s
Guest House in Port Elizabeth. After checking in to these meager accommodations (no AC or hot water,
mosquito netting over the bed, …), I went for a walk. The town has many nice boutique shops, especially along
Belmont Walkway. In front of one of the more upscale hotels on the water, The Frangipani Hotel, I caught a
water taxi (a small motor boat) to Lower Bay Beach, which is at the southern end of Admiralty Bay. This is a nice
beach with restaurants and hotels on the beach. I napped under a tree on the beach for a while, after eating
lunch. It was very nice. I walked back to Port Elizabeth starting at Lower Bay then up and down a rock
outcropping to Princess Margaret Beach – nice beach, private, no commercial establishments, then over and
down another ridge to Port Elizabeth. Once back in town, I stopped in at one of Bequia’s well known miniature
boat shops. I met one of the builders, who was running the shop, and took some photos. After resting in my
room, I walked back over to The Frangipani for dinner. The food and service were both better than expected,
very good, and the view of the harbor at night was beautiful, one-of-a-kind. After dinner I walked next door to
the Whaleboner Bar and Restaurant where they were having some live local entertainment. The lady singer was
belting out some American classics from the 70’s and 80’s. The yachting crowd (hard core, little ragged) was
enjoying themselves, dancing, drinking and yucking it up. After a mixed fruit juice, I headed back. I wanted to
get to bed early so that I could catch an early Ferry back to St. Vincent in order to catch a flight south.
Saturday, January 10: Sleeping last night wasn’t an easy feat, first there was the music and people chatting,
then came the dogs barking, then at daybreak the roosters crowing, and finally the birds chirping. I don’t think
that I there were more than five minutes of quiet all night, but I did manage to sleep some.
Yesterday, I had decided to push on to either Trinidad, Margarita or Aruba today. I took the 9:15 Ferry back
to St. Vincent, I grabbed a taxi to the airport where I learned that I couldn’t fly out until 6:30pm. The airline
required that I purchase a return ticket even though I explained that I was island hopping. As it turned out,
ironically enough, the round-trip fare was cheaper than the one-way (good for future knowledge). While
purchasing my ticket the baggage man saw the books that I was reading. He asked to see my book on Kabalah.
I let him flip through it. He asked me what it was about. When I told him, he started preaching to me about Jesus
Christ and that he is the only savior and essentially how non-believers will burn in hell in their afterlife.
Unfortunately, I let this brain washed individual get to me and I allowed myself to get a little angry and
confrontational. I need to learn to see the good (spirit) in all mankind, especially those damaged and/or misguided
souls and treat them with patience and understanding.
Since I had all the afternoon to kill and it was lunch time, I caught a local bus (van) back to the Beachcomber
Hotel for a bite, internet access and calling Trinidad to book a room at Maracass Bay Beach, a half hour drive
from Port-of-Spain. I went back to the airport early. I read, napped, watched planes take off and observed a
bizarre occurrence. A mentally unhinged and/or drunk older man was causing a scene in the middle of the
airport. After yelling statements like “I am bigger than this airport,” while prancing around and waving his arms
and lying on his belly in the middle of the airport while yelling incoherently, finally the police came to take him
away.