Vans and Verdure

On our EC's penultimate day, we ventured into Kingstown using the local transport...minivans.

The minivans of St. Vincent (and other Caribbean islands) are privately owned but the government assigns routes, creates stops, and maintains termini. The result is that a certain number of competing vans charge along the roads, honk madly for fares, and cram in more humanity than can possibly be believed.

There are a few basic rules:
There is always room for one more.
Use all your skill and speed to get ahead of the competition so as to grab more fares.
Pour soca at a painful number of decibels from speakers in every part of the van.

It makes for exciting, deafening rides.

Don't bother being fastidious and persnickety. You won't necessarily sit with your friends. You'll be rammed into whatever space is available and will be expected to shrink as more passengers embark. The driver will have a couple of people up front with him. The "conductor" occupies the seat by the door and leaps out at stops to collect fares. If enough people are on board, he (I have never seen a woman as either driver or conductor) will cram himself into the space between the seat and the door, hunched over and hanging on for dear life as the van gallops ahead.

It was one such we took into Kingstown and then caught another out along the Leeward Highway to the splendid 20-acre Botanical Gardens.

Ian John was our guide. He said he had been working at the gardens for 30 years. He was definitely very knowledgeable. It was a grand tour. He would pick fruit, flowers or leaves, as needed, to illustrate the features of the plants he introduced us to.

Founded in 1765, these are purported to be the oldest botanical gardens in the western hemisphere. Mr. John followed this statement with the information that the oldest botanical gardens in the world are at Oxford, England. Last time I looked, England was in the western hemisphere, so I'm not clear on the exact ins and outs of this. However, nonetheless, regardless...these are old botanical gardens.

We saw banyan, baobab, ackee, gwi gwi palm, traveller palm, calabash, and a breadfruit tree descended directly from one brought by Captain Bligh in 1793.

St. Vincent Botanical Gardens guide Ian John telling
Dana, KMH and WW about the calabash tree
Photo by Enn

We saw trees from China, Japan, Indonesia, and a number of South American and Caribbean countries. We filed our nails with a leaf like an emery board (only lasts one day) and craned our necks to see the wonders of the screwpine. We tasted, touched and smelled leaves, fruits and flowers. It was a terrific tour.

WW and KMH in front of the hibiscus-lined bridal path
at the St. Vincent Botanical Gardens
Photo by Enn

Then it was back to the minivan and off to the terminal in Kingstown. We did a bit of shopping, then found the terminal that would take us back to Young Island. Another wild ride, particularly laden with people since it was about 3:30, when the schools get out.

That evening, we made our way ashore and dined at a very pleasant restaurant Xcape overlooking Young Island. The only blot on the excellent meal was the increase in price for a bottle of wine between selection and delivery.

That night it rained...sad, I'm sure, that the EC would be leaving next day.