26 January 2015 Port Elizabeth, Bequia: The Island of the Clouds

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Our first port on this cruise is the “island of the clouds”. That’s the meaning of Bequia in the language of the pre-European settlers, the Arawaks.

Bequia is part of the independent nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, about 9 miles or 15 kilometers south of the nation’s capital, Kingstown, on the main island, Saint Vincent.

And then below Saint Vincent is a chain of small islands called the Grenadines, a chain of more than 600 specks of sand and rock in the Windward Islands. The Windward Islands are the southern, generally larger islands of the Lesser Antilles. As a group they start from Dominica and reach southward to the North of Trinidad & Tobago.

Bequia is the second largest island in the Grenadines, second only to Carrioucou, which might make you think it is big, but it is only 7 square miles or 18 square kilometers.

The population of Bequia is about 5,000 people, which is less than the capacity of some of the monster cruise ships that sail nearby.

The good news, though, is that the huge ships pass it by. We are the only cruise ship at the island. I’ll drink to that.