Day 7, Kingstown, St Vincent

14 knots per hour overnight brought us to Kingstown. The harbour area is surrounded by green hills with a sprinkling of houses and palm trees and the sound of steel drums floats on the morning air. This is the Caribbean I had in mind.

The walk from the quay is torturous, only because of the sheer number of taxi drivers touting your business for a tour of the island. We engage one or two but decline all. We have a walking tour planned. Obtaining a map , we are advised not to walk to the fort, up the hill. Not because of the distance, it's only a couple of miles but because the map doesn't show the roads and we may get lost! Really?

The seafront main street is vibrant and filled with friendly people. Every now and then a taxi stops to ask if we want a tour.

Passing KFC (no WiFi this time), we come across the police station, which dates from the 1770s. Catherine decided to pop in and ask about walking to the fort. Inside, you step back in time 200 years. An office with original stone walls and flooring  is accompanied by an iron gate which leads to the cells, with old style wooden doors. Catherine asks if they are still used. "Yes" comes the response from the desk sergeant, "I just let someone out this morning ".

We ask about the walk to the fort. He would advise against it. "There are some shady characters in that area, who will take your bag, sunglasses, everything. I wouldn't even walk there myself. Bus is $2".

We find the bus station. Though it is almost impossible to tell what is bus or private taxi, as all vehicles are Toyota minibuses. One guy says he'll take us to the fort for $20. We decline. A local points us in the direction of  the Bus. Guy wants $5 and waved us away when we said we were told $2. So we decided to abandon the idea and carry on our walk to the botanical gardens. 

$2 got us into the gardens. They are not huge but well laid out with some interesting trees, not least, the Cannonball Tree. 

Cannonball Tree flower.

We stopped occasionally in summer houses and chatted to other cruisers.

We came across two chaps knocking down coconuts with long bamboo poles. "What happens to them now" asked Catherine.  "We eat them" came the reply. He offered a small piece to taste, whilst his mate went to work with a machete. Next thing he hands one to us. OMG! the milk was fantastic. So sweet. Then he split it open and gave us 2 pieces of husk, to scoop the 'white' out with. I have only ever come across hard white coconut innards, not this soft creamy jelly. This was almost like a cooked egg white and again, beautifully sweet. Incredible, it was that tasty. We thanked them profusely and carried on to the parrot enclosure. The St Vincent  parrots are some of the most endangered birds on the planet, with only about 500 left in the wild. At the gardens, they are trying to breed them, to help maintain the species for future generations. 

From the gardens, we made our way back to the ship, had some lunch and chilled until sailing time. We watched the casting off, then as we were reversing, I spotted some whales in the bay just behind us. I just got my camera up, when the ship's horn sounded and the whales disappeared under the waves.  Damn!

Kingstown from the ship.

This is the last night of the cruise for many and tomorrow we will be back in Bridgetown, 96 nautical miles away. 

As it is my birthday (six oh) we have an excursion planned. More about that tomorrow though.

Bye for now.