5
Easy Islands
The Last Best Undiscovered Paradises
Roatán - Cayman Brac - Carriacou - Vieques - Salt Cay
Carriacou Charm
Myths, Tradition, and
Peaceful Bygone Days Reign on This Grenadian Outpost
By Laura Randall
It took Gordon Patric a year and a half and a team of seven
men to build the Alexia V. It took the people of Carriacou three hours
and a couple of tug boats to send it to sea.
On this tiny time-suspended island 16 miles northeast of Grenada, boat building and the subsequent all-day launching celebrations are as important as the day's catch. Most of the island's 7,000 residents gather by the water for the once- or twice-a-year launching fests, honoring the centuries-old traditions of their Scottish and African ancestors with dance, drink, and unusual boisterousness.
"I am a happy man," says the boat's owner, Jervins Alexia, after the Alexia V is safely anchored in Tyrrel Bay. On his way to partake in the post-launching food and drink ritual, Alexia waggles his finger at me. "You are very, very lucky."
He is gone in a swirl of back-slapping and laughter before I can ask him to elaborate.
I know I was fortunate to have witnessed this remarkable event
during my three-day stay on the island. But maybe Alexia also meant I was
lucky to have stepped into a bucolic time zone - one of the rustic fishing
villages and munching goats, of the way the Caribbean used to be.
Part of the three-island nation of Grenada (together with Petite Martinique), Carriacou takes its reputation as an undisturbed tropical paradise seriously. There are no highrise hotels; rum shops and goats outnumber cars; and making dinner reservations usually means stopping at one of the island's few restaurants in the morning and asking if the cook is working that night. Visitors, who have included writer William F. Buckley, Jr., and members of London's Royal Shakespeare Company, tend to keep to themselves - perhaps afraid of spoiling the islands too-good-to-be-true serenity by opening raving about it.
Some satisfy their get-away-from-it-all goal on a one-day trip
to Carriacou from Grenada, snorkeling in the iridescent waters of nearby
Sandy Island and lolling on one of the countless palm-shaded beaches for
an hour or two. Others can easily spend weeks of willful abandonment on
the 13-mile-long island, touring the lush mountainous interior, watching
schooners and yachts drift in and out, and "liming" with locals
over shots of Jack Iron rum.
"People here are genuine," says Oliver Bullen, a Carriacou native and owner of Silver Beach Resort in the main port of Hillsborough. "The pressures of life don't interfere."
Pressures, indeed, seem as distant as the silhouette of Union
Island as I take an early-evening stroll along Hillsborough's oceanfront
street. The earlier excitement of the boat launching is long forgotten
as the sun begins its orange and gold descent into the Caribbean Sea. The
few residents settled on stoops or leaning against shingled homes have
to make an effort to muster a nod or drawl "good evening." Even
the goats seem to chew slower on Carriacou.
Perhaps more than any other Caribbean Island, Carriacou has maintained its rich African heritage, most notably with the Big Drum dance that is still performed at weddings, boat launchings, funerals, and housewarmings. Dancers dressed in elaborate and colorful costumes celebrate the harvest of the sea by moving to the rhapsodic beat of conga drums and "chac chac" rattles. Straight out of Africa, Big Drum is also performed at the annual August boat regatta, which draws serious sailors from all over the Grenadines for four days of racing and festivities.
Not much has changed on Carriacou since Great Britain governed
the island from the late 18th century until 1974. In the village of Windward
on the northeast side, residents still build wooden boats without the aid
of plans or power tools, just as their Scottish ancestors did when they
were brought over by British plantation owners in the 1700s. In Hillsborough,
the unassuming shops along Main Street have kept their names, even if they
haven't kept their wares: The Little Corner Store, The Industrious Store,
The Family Store, The Favourite Store. A small collection of Amerindian
and European artifacts - spinning wheels, gravestones, maps, the island's
first phone - is on display at the Carriacou Museum, once a cotton ginnery.
The airstrip at nearby Lauriston Airport, where nine-seat commuter
planes fly in from Grenada several times a day, doubles as the island's
main road. (A loud siren sounds when a plane is about to land, but a sign
at the gate advises drivers to look in both directions before crossing.)
To catch up on the latest news, islanders rely on word of mouth or they head toward the town of Harvey Vale, where a makeshift chalk board on a grassy corner informs them of the Grenada Senate's latest vote and other recent happenings. Just beyond the chalk board, Carriacou's most famous citizen provides his own colorful interpretations of island events. Canute Caliste, a 78-year-old folk artist and lifelong island resident, lives with his wife and dozens of children and grandchildren in a cluster of simple stilted cabins on a hillside overlooking the sea. His primitive paintings, originally done in house paint until a visitor sent him acrylics, capture Carriacou and its traditions through eyes that have seen no other world. Recurring themes include the graceful quadrille dance (for which Caliste plays the violin), a mythical mermaid that he says he sees in his garden, and the artist's version of the White House in Washington, D.C. (actually a simple guesthouse in Hillsborough). In his tiny gallery/studio, I buy a pastel painting of a boat launching that hangs on the wall. Caliste promptly hands me another, smaller painting featuring a jewel-bedecked Carnival queen. "Take this one, too," he generously offers. "See, she's short, like you." He is still cackling to himself as I walk down his grassy path clutching the two paintings.
Not only do Carriacouans have their own brand of humor, they also have their own vocabulary list. A local guidebook offers translations for a hundred-odd words, so the visitor will "better understand the locals." Some examples: a sea bath is a swim, a transport is a taxi or bus, and to have tabanca is to be in love. Even the delicate pink flowers that permeate Carriacou's roadsides and hills have a local name. "We call them dead vines," says Lincoln Raymond, a taxi driver. "Because they grow in all the cemeteries."
Raymond and I pass scores of this unfortunately named flora
on my final ride across the island in his red mini-van (named Both ah Dem,
"because I got two," he says). We also pass tamarind trees, cornfields,
black-bellied sheep, and an 18th-century lime factory, a dilapidated symbol
of a once-prosperous crop. A quick detour to Belair Point, high on a hill
above the village of Bogies, yields spectacular views of Hillsborough and
the western coastline. As we gaze at the faint image of Grenada on the
blue horizon, Raymond recounts a recent emergency at the nearby Princess
Royal Hospital. A pregnant woman with labor complications needed to be
flown to Grenada for immediate medical attention. But it was late at night
and Carriacou's airport has no lights on the airstrip, so Raymond and the
other mini-van drivers were called out of bed to illuminate the runway
with their headlights. So in the sweet night air on an island where myths,
tradition, and peaceful bygone days reign, a few citizens and battered
vans with names like Speak the Truth, One Love, and Extranaked helped to
save a fellow Carriacouan and her baby
"That's the way we live here," Raymond says. "There's no
artificial flavoring."
Welcome to Carriacou.
Laura Randall is editor of The Affordable Caribbean
and Latitudes South.
Visit our Carriacou Artists and enjoy their Impressions of Carriacou
Read what Caribbean Travel and Life has to say about Carriacou
The
owners and managers of the businesses here on Carriacou Welcome
You! Carriacou
"The Isle of Reefs"
is often called the island with one gasoline station and 100 rum shops.
The 5,000 residents on this little island just five miles wide and 15 miles
long are hard at work to take care of your every wish and the following
commercial directory will allow you the opportunity to see what I
mean. PHOTOS
The information is organized into land-, sea-, travel-, music- and yellowpages-related
activities.
Click on graphics to enter:
We have just over 100 rooms on the entire island. Come visit
us!
Ade's
Dream Apartment HotelAlexis
Luxury ApartmentsBayaleau
Point CottagesCassada
Bay ResortRoundhouse
CottagesPatty's
VillaGramma's
Luxury ApartmentsMillie's
ApartmentsPeace
Haven GuesthouseScraper's
CottagesConstant
Spring GuesthouseThe
Sands GuesthouseRico's
CottagesHope's
Inn GuesthouseCarriacou
Yacht ClubTom's
Back-Packer's RetreatOcean
Ranger Floating HotelSilver
BeachAnnik's
Cottage
Carriacou is in the Atlantic Time Zone which is UTC - 4. Its climate is tropical with temperatures The electricity supply in Grenada is 220 volts, 50 cycles. Appliances rated at 110 volts (US Standard) usually work satisfactorily with a transformer. Most hotels provide dual voltage shaver units. Bring an adapter plug for small appliances. US, Canadian and British citizens need only two documents proving citizenship, one with a photo. An onward or return ticket is usually required as well. Intransit passengers must have a passport.
There is no restriction on the amount of foreign currency which can be brought into Grenada. Personal clothing and other belongings are also admitted freely.
Grenada's official currency is the Eastern Caribbean dollar. The exchange rate is EC$2.67 = US$1.00 at the banks for cash and EC$2.68 = US$1.00 for Traveller's Cheques. Money can also be exchanged at most hotels, but the exchange rate is better at the banks.
This page last up-dated 3 April 1998
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