This week, I am going to challenge the Biblical teachings of childhood. We were all taught that Eve fell to the temptation of the serpent and ate the apple thus getting she and Adam driven from Eden. At least, that’s what we were told. Are we sure that’s how it happened? Really sure? I have been to Eden and I am here to tell you I would have eaten the apple without the serpent’s coercion. I promise you that Eve did not eat the apple for knowledge or out of curiosity. She ate the apple to get kicked out of the garden of Eden so she could escape the bugs. Our exploration of the island of St. Vincent led us to gritty towns, old forts and the Garden of Eden. We spent our first day exploring the city of Kingstown. It was the first actual city we have had in a long while. The Vincys are just as creative with naming things as the other islanders so Kingstown was made up of Bay Street, Middle Street and Back Street. The city reminded me of one of the New York City boroughs. A little gritty, a lot of street vendors and a lot people. We finally made our way to a hole in the wall restaurant called the Pirate’s Pub. It was dark and seedy and had amazing food! Most of the British islands have not had much variety of food so Bill was excited to have the difficult choice between curried rabbit and curried mutton. He settled on the rabbit and even I, the picky eater, had to admit it was delicious. After lunch, we walked (uphill, of course) to the oldest botanical garden in the western hemisphere. The garden was established in 1765 by a local doctor. He imported plants from all around the world and the gardens had many plants we had never seen. Our tour guide would say the name of the plants three or four times with the hope that we might recall at least one but no deal. We both decided we needed Bill’s mother, the Master Gardener, on this tour. One interesting thing we learned that day was that mace and nutmeg come from the same pod so a very useful pod….spice up your drink and take out an attacker at the same time!
On the way back to the marina, we met a taxi driver named Khalvin who offered to take us around the island the next day. We started the tour with a trip to Fort Charlotte which was built by the British in 1806. The crazy part of this fort was that the cannons were constructed to point inward to the land. The reason for the land facing cannons was the British feared the Amerindians far more than they feared the French. After much bloodshed, the British conquered the island and St. Vincent remained a British territory until 1979. We then headed out to the countryside to visit the Montreal Gardens. We drove through the region of the island called Mesopotamia which is their farming district. It had beautiful rolling hills and tall mountains with acres of farmland. The gardens were located at the end of a road which had definitely seen better days but as soon as we turned into the gardens, we knew we were going to get some incredible pictures. The garden was lush and full of beautiful flowering plants….and bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. As we walked, I had to be sure to keep my mouth closed so I would not eat bugs for lunch. It had never occurred to me that the Garden of Eden had bugs but if Eve was eating bugs on her daily walk, I am guessing that apple option looked like a possible out. On the way down the mountain, we stopped for lunch at a roadside stand where the women were grilling chicken, pork and breadfruit. We enjoyed a delicious picnic on the beach which was a great way to wrap up the day. Our plans for this week are to make our way up the St. Vincent coast which promises a bat cave and several Pirates of the Caribbean movie sets. After a massively overpriced PCR test ($180.00 each…What a racket!), we will make our way over to St. Lucia. We are looking forward to exploring St. Lucia since we were unable to get off the boat last year on our way down the islands due to the lockdown. All aboard for St. Lucia! *****Many, many more pics on the Pictures tab***
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
|