Petit St. Vincent (July 23-27)

Wading pool at edge of PSV's harbor (Jul 23, 2004, 11:37am) We arrived on Petit St. Vincent just before 11:00pm. We then went to check-in. Our cottage was not ready, so we hung around the dining area and had lunch while we waited for our cottage to be prepared. This is the view from the dining area on Petit St. Vincent (PSV), looking south towards the PSV harbor. You can see small wading pool at the water's edge that is used by families with small children (or so we were told). The island on the other side of the harbor is Petit Martinique.

Baby turtles freshly collected from the beach (Jul 23, 2004, 10:52am) When we first arrived on Petit St. Vincent, on the ride from the jetty to the office, we were not alone in the little cart. Sharing the front seat with driver was this box of baby turtles. These turtles were recently hatched and collected by the PSV staff from the beach (Atlantic Beach, I assume). The turtles were destined for the turtle research facility on Bequia, where they would be raised for one year. Then, the turtles would be brought back to PSV and released into the wild. In fact, just a few days after we arrived, there was a turtle release on Atlantic Beach (of the previous year's turtles). You can see the pictures of the year-old turtles later in this gallery.

Daphne admires the view from our PSV suite (Jul 23, 2004, 12:48pm) By the time we finished lunch, our cottage was ready. A little cart (you can see pictures of the cute little PSV carts later in this gallery), took us to cottage 4, on the bluff, and we got our first chance to look around. This picture was taken from the deck of cottage 4, looking south. That's Atlantic Beach you see in the distance with the jetty used to reach the deeper water for swimming. The hill above the beach is called Windy Hill. Needless to say, that's Daphne occupying the foreground and admiring the view.

Petit Martinique seen through the palm trees (Jul 23, 2004, 01:38pm) This is a view from the dining area on Petit St. Vincent, looking south. Just south of PSV is the island of Petit Martinique, which you can see here through the trees. Petit Martinique is actually in the country of Grenada, unlike PSV which is in the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However, much of the staff at the PSV resort actually live on Petit Martinique and commute across the harbor daily.

Petit St. Vincent's Harbor (Jul 23, 2004, 01:43pm) This is a picture of Petit St. Vincent's harbor, on the island's south shore. In the picture's center you can see some beach umbrellas and a small beach. This is not one of the main beaches (which are the Atlantic Beach and the West End Beaches), but I guess you could go swimming here. At the right-hand side of the picture you can see the dock house, where you can borrow kayaks, small sailboats, etc.

The staff uses these little cars on PSV (Jul 23, 2004, 01:46pm) One of the cute featurs of Petit St. Vincent are the little carts used by the staff, and shown in this photograph. The staff uses the carts to get to the various cottages, deliver food, carry luggage, etc. They are also happy to pick up passengers if you don't feel like walking. You can schedule a pick-up, or as we discovered, just flag one down.

Petit Martinique seen from PSV (Jul 23, 2004, 01:54pm) We start a hike up Marni Hill, the tallest peak on Petit St. Vincent (all of 275 feet high). Part way up the hill, we are treated to a good view of Petit Martinique to the south.

Waterway between PSV and Petit Martinique (Jul 23, 2004, 01:55pm) Looking a little more west than the last picture, here is a shot of the western end of Petit Martinique as seen from Marni Hill on Petit St. Vincent.

Daphne hikes up Marni Hill (Jul 23, 2004, 01:56pm)

The overlook at the top of Marni Hill, PSV (Jul 23, 2004, 02:07pm) At the very top of Marni Hill is this pair of chairs. I guess that the resort expects people to sit in the chairs and enjoy the view, but there really isn't much of a view from the very top. All of my pictures were taken from lower on the slopes of Marni Hill, from the trail.

Bluff cottages 1 (left) through 3 on PSV (Jul 23, 2004, 02:04pm) >From the slopes of Marni Hill on Petit St. Vincent, we get a good view of the rest of the island. In this picture, I am looking west from Marni Hill. If you look close, you can actually see three of the PSV cottages. Cottage 1 is on the left near the water's edge. Right of that is cottage 2, right near the road. This part of the island is called the Little Bluff. On the right side of the picture is cottage 3, facing away from Marni Hill. Cottage 3 is the first cottage on the section of the PSV known as The Bluff. Just south of cottage 4, which corresponds to a point just off the right side of the picture, is cottage 4 where we stayed. The beach on the left side of the screen is called Conch Bay. We never went swimming there, but Conch Bay is a regular feature in the foregound of my sunset pictures.

Dining area, Windy Hill and harbor on PSV (Jul 23, 2004, 02:11pm) Another picture taken from the slopes of Marni Hill. In this picture I am looking southwest over the island of Petit St. Vincent. The cluster of buildings on the left side of the picture are the dining and adminstrative complex. And if you look closely, you can see the tennis courts just this side of the dining complex. On the right side of the picture is the PSV Harbor. There is a jetty at the far side of the harbor where the resort's boats are docked. (Among other things, the resort maintains a boat to ferry guest to and from Union Island.) On the shore at the end of the jetty is the dock house where guests can borrow kayaks, small sailboats and other water equipment. The hill overlooking the dock house is called Windy Hill. And if you look closely you can see the manager's house on the top of Windy Hill. The beach cottages are not visible in this picture, because of the elevation of the center of the island, but that cluster of palm trees on the left side of the picture marks where Atlantic Beach and the beach cottages are located.

View of PSV's harbor with two sailboats (Jul 23, 2004, 02:10pm)

View of PSV harbor with one sailboat (Jul 23, 2004, 02:11pm)

The entrance to cottage 2 at Petit St. Vincent (Jul 23, 2004, 02:20pm) This is the outside of cottage 2 on Petit St. Vincent, on the Little Bluff. As you can see, this cottage is more exposed to the interior of the island than many of the others. We passed this cottage whenever we walked between out cottage and anything on the western side of PSV. I also used the open area in front of this cottage as my viewing platform for sunset pictures.

The Atlantic Beach at Petit St. Vincent (Jul 23, 2004, 03:18pm) This is Atlantic Beach, on the east side of Petit St. Vincent, as seen from our cottage. Although you can't see it in this picture, there is a line of beach cottages just inland of the beach.

Resident of cottage 4's bathroom (Jul 23, 2004, 03:22pm) It turned out that we were not the only guests staying in cottage 4. This lizard seemed to be a permanent resident of the bathroom in cottage 4. During the day, he hung out on the counter top, although we did disappear at night. I do not think he was trapped; the windows in the bathroom were open all day long (no screens). This lizard was obviously not scared of people. He let me climb up on the counter and take pictures of him, getting as close as my lens allowed (boy I wish I had brought a macro lens).

Another picture of the bathroom lizard (Jul 23, 2004, 03:24pm)

Start of sunset over Petit St. Vincent (Jul 23, 2004, 06:33pm) Our cottage was not well positioned for observing the sunset since it faces east. In fact none of the cottages have a good view west except for cottage 1 and 2 on the Little Bluff. However, every evening I walked a little way up the road to the clear area outside of cottage 2 to get pictures of the sunset. In most of the subset pictures, you will see Petit St. Vincent in the foregound, since I was too lazy to hike all the way to the west end of the island (and hike back in the dark).

Sunset over Conch Bay, Petit St. Vincent (Jul 23, 2004, 06:34pm)

Sunset over Conch Bay and Union Island (Jul 23, 2004, 06:37pm)

Sunset over Union Island (Jul 23, 2004, 06:37pm) In this picture, I swung the camera around so that I was looking northwest towards Union Island. The cloud formation over Union Island really lit up as the sun set below the horizon.

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean (Jul 24, 2004, 05:50am)

Atlantic Beach in the early morning light (Jul 24, 2004, 06:54am)

Conch Bay on PSV's north shore (Jul 24, 2004, 07:26am) This is the view of Conch Bay that appears in the forground of my sunset pictures; however, here you can see the bay when there is light. The beach looks nice although we never went swimming in Conch Bay. (I think the absence of beach umbrellas is a clue that the resort does not expect people to swim there.)

Palm trees in the wind (Jul 24, 2004, 07:43am)

Purple flower (Jul 24, 2004, 08:02am) I didn't take many flower pictures during the trip. Mostly because I did not have my tripod or my macro lens. But I did stop to take a few shots, including this one here. Unfortunately, I do not have any identification for the tropical flowers that I took pictures of on this trip. (If you recognize a flower, you can always add a comment to this page.)

The small jetty at Petit St. Vincent (Jul 24, 2004, 08:20am) This is the small jetty in Petit St. Vincent's harbor. This was actually the jetty that we arrived on, ferried over from Fortitude by dingy. In this picture (and the next one) you see some PSV staff members floating towards the jetty to deliver supplies.

Unloading supplies at Petit St. Vincent (Jul 24, 2004, 08:21am)

Boats and barrels around PSV small jetty (Jul 24, 2004, 08:28am)

Islands of the Grenadines seen from PSV (Jul 24, 2004, 08:38am) This is a shot looking north from Petit St. Vincent. The large island on the left is Union Island and the smaller island on the right is Palm Island, site of another exclusive resort. This picture was taken from Telescope Hill, near the dining complex.

Cottage 5 (right) seen from telescope hill (Jul 24, 2004, 08:39am) Another picture from Telescope Hill, an overlook at the end of the road near the dining complex. (However, there is no telescope on the hill that we noticed.) This picture is looking north from Telescope Hill. The cottage on the right is cottage 5, which is on The Bluff near our cottage. Cottage 4 is hidden by the trees, behind cottage 5. On the left side of the picture you can see cottage 2 on The Little Bluff.

Atlantic Beach seen from Telescope Hill (Jul 24, 2004, 08:40am) Looking west from Telescope Hill you can see the palm trees of Atlantic Beach. And if you look really closely you can see some of the beach umbrellas through the trees.

Lizard resident of cottage 4 (Jul 24, 2004, 08:51am)

Reef off PSV showing algae infestation (Jul 24, 2004, 11:22am) On the morning of July 24th, we went over to the West End Beach on Petit St. Vincent for some snorkling. We grabbed beach hut C, ordered lunch, stashed our books and towels and walked into the water. The reefs near the West End Beach were not that interesting. Much of the ocean floor was covered with an algae infestation of some type as you can see in this picture. There were not that many fish and the coral was not that impressive. That said, the next few pictures are all from our snorkling trip off the West End Beach at PSV.

Yellowtail damselfish (Jul 24, 2004, 11:27am)

Split-crown feather duster on brain coral (Jul 24, 2004, 11:36am)

French grunts over lobed star coral (Jul 24, 2004, 11:40am)

Grunts over star coral on PSV west side (Jul 24, 2004, 11:40am)

Trumpetfish (Jul 24, 2004, 11:44am)

Goldentail moray eel (Jul 24, 2004, 11:49am) We saw a lot of eels on this vacation. Here is the head of one goldentail moray eel. He clearly does not want me around since he is protecting most of his body in the reef and giving me threatening looks. (Now if the camera would just autofocus on the eel and not the reef behind it.)

Damaged lobed star coral on PSV west side (Jul 24, 2004, 11:52am)

Grackle in a tree, eyeing our picnic lunch (Jul 24, 2004, 01:10pm) Before we went in for our snorkel, we ordered lunch. While we were in the water, the staff picked up our lunch order and brought lunch to our beach hut at 1:00pm. Easting lunch at the beach is a common activity at Petit St. Vincent, and the local birds know it. In this tree you can see a grackle waiting patiently for us to turn aawy so he can steal some food. If you look closely at the picture you may also notice two other birds as well.

Beach hut C on West End Beach (Jul 24, 2004, 01:25pm) The West End Beach on Petit St. Vincent has a series of beach huts, convienently named A through M. Each beach huthas an overhang, hammock, chairs and a table. The beach huts are all hidden from each other by the trees so guests have a certain amount of privicy. This is beach hut C seen through the trees. You can just see the ocean thorugh the bushes on the left side of the picture.

One of the beach huts on West End Beach (Jul 24, 2004, 01:45pm) In this picture, I am standing on West End Beach, next to the water looking at another on of the beach huts. This picture gives you a good feel for the beach, which curves around the west end of the island, keeping each of the beach huts isolated.

The solitude of West End Beach (Jul 24, 2004, 01:45pm) Here is another view of a section of West End beach on Petit St. Vincent. In this picture, I am facing southeast. You can see one beach hut on the left and a little bit of the island of Petit Martinique on the right.

Union Island seen from PSV's West End Beach (Jul 24, 2004, 01:45pm)

Italian sailors at anchor off PSV (Jul 24, 2004, 02:36pm) This boat flying the Italian flag was anchored off of the west side of Petit St. Vincent for a few days at least. I took this picture of the boat on July 24th, while we were hanging out at the West End Beach. Two days later I took a picture of its occupants (that's all I will say for now).

The old solar distillation site on PSV (Jul 24, 2004, 02:49pm) On our walk back from the west side to our cottage, we past along the southwest shore of Petit St. Vincent, where there is an old water distillation facility. In the old days (not sure how old), fresh water was distilled from sea water using sunlight. Now a days, Petit St. Vincent uses a more modern technique (reverse osmosis, I assume) and the old solar distillation site has been left to slowly erode.