Day two of the Caribbean adventure in St Lucia.

The Caribbean adventure in St Lucia and Bequia continues with the next hotel visit to the wonderful East Winds Hotel.

East Winds hotel

When you arrive at East Winds Inn, you feel you have entered into someones’ Secret Garden. There must be credit to the team of gardens who maintain this beautiful landscape with over 100 different varieties of plants, trees and shrubs. There is a guide book in each room, describing the all the species within the garden and you can walk around and learn heaps with that as your aid.

As I ventured around the gardens I met one of the gardening team taking these incredible 6 inched black and yellow caterpillers from one shrub to another. If he had not transplanted them, they would have devoured the leaves of the plant. They looked scary but were harmless. I have never come across so many sea crabs in a garden also. It was fun watching them scuttle away in their holes once they feel the vibration of your footsteps.

The gardens at East Winds St Lucia

It writes in the East Winds welcome pack “nature is the dream weaver at East Winds”. I can understand even from my short visit what that means.

East Winds beach, St Lucia

East Winds is situated on the West Coast of St Lucia along the bay close to the Windjammer Landing Resort. It is truly authentic in feel. The pace is slow and relaxed. The service and comfort of traditional St Lucian standards are high – staff very friendly. The rooms are private and independently situated around the grounds. This is the place to come for a real off the beaten track experience.

For that exclusive all inclusive boutique hotel East Winds has a quality and charm of its own.

From St Lucia to Bequia…..a Caribbean adventure continues…

Our 8 seater prop plane took off from St Lucia International airport and headed for its 30 minute transfer to Bequia. It was a pretty noisy transfer (no ear muffs but it added to the atmosphere) This is very much part of the Caribbean adventure – real island hopping.

We flew over the Caribbean Sea, passing St Vincent into Bequia to be met by quite a surly customers officer taking his job very seriously. “Anything to declare? What no cigarettes or alcohol?”

We had a 10 minute transfer by open top truck through the streets of Bequia to the hotel. The island has a total of 5000 inhabitants and is only 7 square miles.

The Bequia Beach hotel

The hotel is located in the beautiful Friendship Bay. See Bequia Beach Hotel We were met by the Swedish Guest manager Carina, who personally showed me to my stunning ocean front room. The rooms here are gorgeous, very spacious with beautiful bathrooms. Bengt, the owner of the hotel and Garfield, their very attentive bartender, poured lethal rum punches (not for the faint hearted).

Bequia Beach Hotel Bequia

What is there to see and do on Bequia?

Although the island is small, there is plenty to see and do. You can charter a schooner and head to for neighbouring Tobago Cays or visit the turtle conservation centre. The island has a long sea faring heritage and offers a wide range of activities from sailing, dingy sailing, kayak rental, scuba diving & snorkelling, sport fishing. If not travelling by air to the island, there is a regular ferry service which operates between Bequia and St Vincent with a journey time of one hour.

Our time in Bequia is short but very sweet. Gideon of Gideon Taxis took us on a tour of the island. The small gem is easily explored. We stopped at the white powdery sandy beach of Lower Bay. There is a Princess Margaret bay (named after her when she visited the island and enjoyed that particular beach)

The island of Bequia

A visit to Orton Kings “Old Hegg” turtle sanctuary is a must see. Orton is a retired skin diver and saw the diminishing numbers of turtles in the sea so set up the sanctuary as a project and a real labour of love.

There are amazing sailing opportunities from the Grenadines with easy access to St Lucia or Barbados. We had a short stroll around the port town of Port Elizabeth at Admirality Bay before taking the ferry to the mainland capital of the Grenadines – St Vincent. The adventure continues.

Rush hour in Bequia