The Grenadines, Day 1: Mustique

The Wife and I spent the week before Christmas this year with her family on a catamaran in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean. Her mother and stepfather took the whole family on vacation as a Christmas present to us. What a freakin' present! It was amazing, and I've decided to take you, my faithful and lovely readership, on a tour of this unbelievable little island chain. Virtually nobody has heard of The Grenadines because the big cruise ships don't frequent their shores. Like the British Virgin Islands, this archipelago is more of a sailing haven than a cruise ship destination, so very few of us up here in the US are familiar with them.

Anyway, our first stop on the tour is the Island of Mustique, home of ridiculously rich musicians (Mick Jagger, Shania Twain and David Bowie have all owned homes here, and you can rent most of them for the modest price of around $30,000 a week!!!) and Tommy Hilfiger. It's quite a nice island, but that's pretty much what you get when the rich and famous clobber each other to get a shot at living there, right?

Anyway, at the top of this island is a super pretentious, very expensive and hypersnobby little restaurant called Firefly. It's probably the nicest eating establishment I've ever seen, and priced to suit its beauty. Since sensitive superstar types tend to frequent it, they don't let cameras in, but since I'm very, very sneaky, I was able to snap a couple of pics. Unfortuanately, we were the only ones there, so I couldn't get any paparazzi shots; but that lent a really cool air of exclusivity to our visit that we probably wouldn't have had were we being stared down by the rich and famous. Anyway, here's the view from their picture window overlooking the western slope of the island:



There was also a really exclusive looking resort on the island called the Cotton Club. They had beautifully manicured grounds that you never see in "real life" Caribbean islands. But it was nice nonetheless. Here's a photo:



There was also a pond on the grounds that was carpeted in what looked to me like lotus flowers. If anyone has any info on whether these suckers were in fact from the Nelumbium family, please let me know. They sure were purdy! Witness:



Also, there were quite a few Red-Footed Tortoises (Geochelone carbonaria) ambling about the island. So many, in fact, that there was even a statue dedicated to them along one of the island's few roads. Apparently, the island is populated by hedonist tortoises. That's awesome.



Well, that's about it for the first day. It was interesting, and we ended the day by drinking lime daquiris at Basil's beachfront bar, which is apparently famous or something. They were a bit on the tart side for my taste, but I could see how they might be really refreshing on a superhot day.

Next, the Tobago Cayes and drunken Christmas Carolling!