St Vincent and the Grenadines

Or more commonly known as SVG ....

These islands are located south of St Lucia, North of Grenada, and on the Eastern lower edge of the Caribbean. If you get a chance to visit, I can definitely recommend it. 

Travelling through this area over around 8 weeks in July/August 2020,  we managed to visit most of the islands. and got a really good feel of the culture, the history and the economy on this unbelievably beautiful, but also very sad place. 

You would be shocked - it seems there are some of the richest people on earth on these islands, and yet, also some of the very poorest. 

Since we visited SVG, the economy overall has deteriorated further - with the downturn in tourism from covid, and later the eruption of La Soufriere volcano. 

We checked into St Vincent, which is the biggest island in the group and holds the big airport, the central administration and the biggest town (Kingstown) 

From there, the bigger islands in the group are Bequia, Mustique, Mayreau, Canouan, and Union Island. There is then, also, the Tobago Cays - a nature reserve consisting of numerous small islands, islets and cays. 

We received a mixed reception on these islands - of course we were here during Covid times, and the general population - most of them too poor to afford good health care, are absolutely petrified of being infected - the locals spend their days watching American TV with the associated scaremongering media. 

These islands - again very uncomfortable reading - were originally populated to work on the sugar plantations, by the African slave trade. 

Almost 200 years since emancipation of slavery, and there is still a very strong anti white man vibe on some of these islands which, after reading about the islands' history, we were really not surprised about.

It would seem, the islands which have been developed as tourist resorts, (eg Bequia)  are doing well financially,  but the islands which are not gifted with white sandy beaches - eg St Vincent, are not doing so well.