 |
number  |
|
Welcome...
to ouR
 |
GrenadineIslandnetwork™ |
|
|
number |
|
Welcome...
to ouR
|
GrenadineIslandnetwork™ |
|
Destination: Union Island the diary starting on DAY ONE, the beginning in March CLICK HERE |
SCHEDULE UP-DATES FOR SUMMER |
Your Own Private Island ... |
Grenadine Islands
|
JOHN's ON-LINE DIARY LIBRARY |
|
|
|
Just a typical Sunday on Carriacou It's past time for me to write a bit about this tiny island called CARRIACOU that I have called home these past 12+ years. The COCONUT BAR located behind my office had a party last night so the boom-boom was booming until well past 3AM so I slept late this morning - until 7:30. Usually it's up wth the sun @06:00. Blue skies and brilliant sun streaming thru the windows. Temperature already 90°F+ in the shade. Tradewind
Breeeeeezes.......
the temperature actually feels at least 15° cooler. Again, year round perfect weather, really. ~ I get some laundry started and while it's working I take a walk over to the Matheson's Market to get BusterB (the cat) some Friskies dry catfood. In luck! Two boxes are mine today. Shopping here is rather like having a Scavenger Hunt List and it's a happy day when you can actually get what you're seeking any given day. A man riding a donkey passes me on Main Street and people amble toward their respective churches for Sunday Service. Later it's a Family meal together and perhaps some time as a Family on the closest beach. Most all business are closed so the people can spend this Sunday together. ~ Never saw a vehicle. Had a chance to enjoy the view on the walk back home. Corn planted with pidgeon peas grows green right here alongside Main Street shops and businesses. I stop to chat with a neighbor sweeping her front porch and Dr. Freddy, our local Cuban doctor, joins-in and soon we have a nice little group. Main topic: the water damage from Tropical Storm Lili. ~ It's really difficult to relay the feeling one gets here on Carriacou. The closest I can explain is to imagine any small community - yours perhaps - of around 5,000 friendly, hard-working people. We fix tires, sell food & drink, run small shops and all those things that 5,000 people need to function as a self-sustaining neighborhood. Now add-in some palm trees, miles-and-miles of wide, white sandy beaches. Connect everything with one lane country roads and a network of footpaths winding through the greenery surrounding the many villages. ~ What you'll end-up with a perfect tourism destination. IF... you want to experience this AUTHENTIC CARIBBEAN island as it is and as a welcome guest. Drop in for a few days, weeks or as in my case years. Treasure our nature. Socialize with the residents. Endure NOT having hot water, traffic, crime, pollution from industry, industry and the feeling that there are more tourists than locals. Here three tourists are considered an "invasion." So come visit with us and enjoy the AUTHENTIC CARIBBEAN. It wll be our little secret..... Ah...
just another day in paradise.
~ P.S. If you MUST have those things that we do not have ourselves as we go about our daily lives, just the basics really, then perhaps Carriacou is not for you. Personally I hate a tourist that stands in front of a perfect white sand beach that goes on for miles without as much as another footprint on it, seeing it sloping gently down into absolutely clear, warm water (83°F year round), with the gentle Tradewind Breeeeezes gently caressing his face. And I hear.... "The water pressure in my room wasn't .... "The markets don't have... and.... |
23 September - Monday
High Temperature 90ºF -
Low Temperature 86ºF
A rainy morning.
|
Woke up this morning with what will no doubt become Hurricane Lili passing by. Frankly the dark skies and cooler temperature are welcome from that day-after-day sunny skies I report all the time. So far just a bit of drizzle. We shall see. ~ School today has been cancelled ~ the youth have gone back home. MaryLou said a supermarket was "packing-up" inside, whatever that means. Winds 35mph ~ moving west should bring it right over us on the way into the Caribbean Sea. So far just heavy overcast and a bit of drizzle. We shall see. ~ Around 13:30 I closed the internet cafe and took my swim, as usual. I could tell that today would not be so normal. The water clarity was bad. The waves were beginning to break before the shoreline. Bits and pieces of seaweed were floating past. And the fish were out in numbers - nundreds, thousands perhaps. Enough to attract the large Frigate birds to shore to scoop them up as they make passes practically on the shoreline. ~ Grenada radio and TV is repeating the Storm Warning. People are advised to go to their homes. ~ Rather like waiting for a kettle of water to boil..... We KNOW that the storm is out there but where are the signs? 9PM and except for a few brief showers, this has been just an overcast day. ~ The rain starts to pick-up. Not much wind but the sound of heavy raindrops on the roof is soothing. Not so soothing are those EIGHT five-foot by three-foot windows in the office facing the sea. We shall see.... ~ The clock says 11PM and I awake from sleep. BusterB, the cat, does, too. Rather like some one switching a switch ON, now it sounds like the storm is passing right over my head. Time to quickly close all those windows that normally remain open 24/7. ~ 12 Midnight and no let-up. 1:00 AM and on it goes. 2:00 AM - 3:00 AM - 4:00 AM Like rolling through a car wash. Will the windows hold? Will the roof do it's job? Will anything remain outside on the breeeeeezy back porch, the plants, the chairs? I fall asleep. ~ Awake and the first thing I notice..... NO ELECTRICITY. I have no idea about the time as my clocks all run on electricity. I hear people outside so I take a deep breath and head for the main office to have a look. What will I see? ~ ALL IS WELL HERE@GRENADINES.NET |
19 September - Thursday
High Temperature 100ºF
- Low Temperature 86ºF
Loads of sun. GREAT wind! Near
PERFECT swim conditions.
|
But those lucky few of you who chose to visit us notwithstanding all the hype about "The Hurricane/Rainy Season" already know that we have had just about PERFECT weather this entire peak Hurricane Month. But the tourists are somewhere else and life goes on nearly as you would imagine it would here on an isolated (read INSULATED) spec of sand in the warm, East caribbean Sea. We have just enough people living here, some guess around 5-6,000) to sustain a flourishing little local economy based upon the principle: Everyone Does what You Can Then relax and enjoy the day. Money tends to flow from one pocket to another until it hits one of the supermarkets where it stays put. I doubt if anyone goes hungry here and no one will freeze this winter being unable to pay high utility bills. Tourism would be dessert but here on Carriacou the table is nearly always nonetheless bountiful. So, Carriacouans go about their life and visitors here to the island seem to fit-in. Both seem to flourish. But unlike other islands where "tourism" was the business and then it stopped and then everyone went straight to recession ~ Do Not Pass Go ~ Here on Carriacou, we never had tourism so we surely don't seem to suffer from the loss of something we never had. We just go about today's Business. Today as an example..... I woke-up the regular time, about 4:30 AM with the newest staffer here at The Carriacou Internet Cafe giving me my wake-up call in my tiny apartment I keep here. Come 09:30 this same staffer will look like this....
~ Around 1:30PM it was time to slather-up with No.45 and hit the beautiful Hillsborough Bay. Just steps away to the warm, wide, white sand beach and just about perfectly clear, warm water ~ flat sandy bottom.
And just for me.... and a few friends.
|
9 September - Monday
High Temperature 100ºF
- Low Temperature 86ºF
Loads of sun. GREAT wind! Near
PERFECT swim conditions.
181 consecutive
swim days.
|
the dredded "September month." Now some will say the dread comes from the hurricane season and the usual peak month of storm development. Nonsense - our weather is year round perfect and this includes the month of September. Others will say the dread comes from the temperature that I always report as being 86-100°F. Nonsense - with our constant Tradewind
Breeeeeezes.......
the temperature actually feels at least 15° cooler than what the thermometer
reports.
Again, year round perfect weather, really. Yet others will say that the dread comes from the rain, after all ~ it is the RAINY SEASON and you know what that means. Nonsense - unless you know that we get only brief showers and these bring our lush green foilage and colorful flowers out, then you have us confused with other much more "Northern" destinations such as Florida, where a whole vacation can be spent socked-in by the rain outside. Personally, I Dread September Month ~ because..... The Canouan Beach Hotel is closed from 02-22SEP02 The Anchorage Yacht Club is closed until 04OCT02 Saltwhistle Bay on Mayreau is closed until 01NOV02 The Calallo Restaurant here on Carriacou is closed The Italian Pizzeria here on Carriacou is closed and THESE are some of MY personal favorites and since I will be OPEN... personally, I DRED September Month. Come Visit Us! The weather is GREAT!
|
|
Usually by now we have loads of advance reservations already in place for travel to our islands thru next year 2003. Usually by now we have loads of happy folks escaping their own overcrowded summertime beaches for our wide, sandy ones. Usually.....but not this year. This year arrivals in THE GRENADINE ISLANDS have dropped off 75%! We have the same sunny blue skies.... warm clear water loaded with fish and healthy coral and now empty beaches empty bars & restaurants empty hotels and guesthouses empty everything. EVERYTHING YOU NEED to book a trip is here @Grenadines.Net Come Visit Us! PLEASE. |
CARIBBEAN
ISLAND DESTINATION WEDDING
Six night / Seven Day Package for 6-12 people
via Barbados.
For our Auto-Responder Robot Wedding Up-date
Imagine, our friendly agent meets you...with a smile and a small sign as you deplane the steps from your flight arriving Barbados. Get there before 4PM any day and you'll sleep the night here in The Grenadines. No long lines for customs or immigration for Grenadines.Net "in transit" passengers so it's directly on to your gate and to the waiting private aircraft. We will worry with your luggage. Then it's a quick, low level 50-minute flight south to Union Island's quaint airport.
where you are again met and transferred onto
a real electric mini-cart vehicle
just like the one in the movies
and away you go for the quick ride
thruThe Anchorage Yacht Club
to the Wooden Jetty where your Speedboat awaits.
Depending upon time and amount of daylight remaining,
relax and have a cool, refreshing drink
at The Anchorage Yacht Club Hotel's outside bar.
Watch the definitely live sharks
swim around just a few feet away from you.
In a protected pool - NOT where YOU and I swim.
So you can relax now.
These are happy sharks either born right here or nursed back to health in the constantly refreshing natural pool
constructed for their health and happiness.
Then it's into the speedboat and a quick ride
across the channel
separating Union Island and Palm Island.
Your skillful boatsman will wind through
the living coral reef... all YOURS to explore.
to deposit you on the white sand beach in front of your villa where your friendly maid will be waiting to meet you and bring you inside your lovely beach house.
Then it's just relax and enjoy your all-inclusive escape
as it unfolds: internet access, daily maid service, private cook who does your shopping as well, your own private yacht bobbing at anchor outside your door ready for a day trip to Canouan perhaps and 18-holes of champion golf. Relax... it's all-inclusive, the house, the staff, the private yacht, the skipper, the hostess, the food and the drink....
are all-included and all exclusively yours,
if just for the day.
Ah...
GRENADINES.NET
ALL-INCLUSIVE Door-to-DoorESCAPES
Roundtrip Airfare from home to island getaway
Tell us your home airport, your planned start/finish dates, your island destination, and we will connect you with your island beach house, villa, hotel or apartment.
Make your decision to charter
a private yacht or private aircraft.
Grenadines.net will then offer you a no obligation,
all-inclusive package price.
2002
| Read John's On-Line Diary for August 2002 | |
| Read John's On-Line Diary for July 2002 | |
| Read John's On-Line Diary for May 2002 | |
| Read John's On-Line Diary for March 2002 |
Read John's On-Line Diary for April 2001 Read John's On-Line Diary for February 2001
