Caribbean - The Final Words

Following the uncontrolled bemusement of the two ladies in the St George's Museum when we said we were travelling with LIAT (they called it Leaving Island Any Time), our last sector was actually on time, without a change of flight number, even a few minutes early to Barbados, to connect for the long haul home, with our luggage! With several hours of stopover, Brian picked us up at the airport and whisked us home to where Josie had prepared a lovely lunch, which we enjoyed before he returned us to the airport for the BA leg home. BA was also a tad early and the luggage came through quickly, enabling us to get on the road just after 6 am. Beating the M25 rush hour, we had an excellent trip back to my place in just a few minutes over 2 hours.

The trip was memorable, but already the earliest parts now seem to have been ages and ages ago, instead of just a few weeks. In all, we visited 9 islands and flew over another (Montserrat) in a helicopter, learnt much about their physical similarities (volcanic origins) and differences (some more dense rainforest than others), their different histories and economic fortunes, how the British & French contested control of them for trade benefits in the past, with them sometimes changing hands many times. Cultural distinctions were also evident and we concluded that the Grenadian people were the most naturally friendly of all, although a smiley or jocular greeting can quickly brighten an initially sullen reception from others. We stayed in a mixture of accommodations and enjoyed a Reunion with 2 guys I hadn't seen in over 41 years. We explored by road, walked around towns some, took a few tours, lazed about on the beach, bobbed about in the sea to get cool, got bitten by mozzies (although Jean had the greater trouble from this), clambered along a testing trail to a spectacular waterfall, snorkelled with turtles, saw the most amazing colours in crystal clear waters, listened to steel bands, consumed some fine food and a few cocktails, and even got used to the vagaries of LIAT in the end! A fine trip indeed, especially being cut off from the (bad) news of the real world for most of the time!