Day 7 – Wednesday, March 5, 2025 – Kingstown, St. Vincent – ALERT!!!!!! FLOWER/PLANT OVERLOAD, LOL!
After an early rise and breakfast, we caught the tender to the port in Kingstown and headed to our bus to take us to Montreal Gardens. The drive up to the gardens is about a 45-minute drive that provided us with a great opportunity to enjoy the rich scenery of the island. The gardens are part of an estate which occupies 7.5 acres and is located at an altitude of 1500 feet. It is surrounded by banana plantations and rain forest. The gardens lie at the head of the Mesopatmia Valley, a rich agricultural area, where it is tucked close to the central mountain range. There are winding paths, bridges, steps, a tunnel and a river. There were some beautiful plants and flowers (wish I knew the names of them all!) so I was in my element and could have stayed there all day. Joe and Marguerite were with us on this tour, so it was fun hanging out with them!
After our tour of the gardens, we were treated to some rum punch to quench our thirst before heading back into Kingstown. Our guide was Zelisha and our bus driver was Augustus.
Some info about the island – The island is volcanic, and they had eruptions back in 2021. Per Wikipedia, the volcano is known to have erupted 23 times in the last 4000 years and had been dormant since 1979.
On July 1, 2024, Hurricane Beryl landed as a Cat 4 and roughly 36% of the total estimated population was affected.
The tour lasted about 3 hours, and we returned to the ship, where we enjoyed a beverage with the gang and caught up with each other. The ship then pulled up anchor and we headed to Admiralty Bay in Bequia, where we all got off the boat and roamed around the town. Tonight’s dinner theme was Pirate Night, so we were looking for pirate paraphernalia and were able to find some. We then found a great little bar, Frangipani, right on the water and had a couple of drinks while people watching.
Dinner was great seeing everyone dressed up in their garb, as well as the crew, so it was a fun night! I was wiped out from the sun the day before, so I called it a night after dinner and John hung out with the gang and they played some games. I knew we also had an early morning for tomorrow, so I caught up on sleep!
Tomorrow we will be in Fort de France, Martinique for a food tasting/history tour, which all of us will be doing!
