Carriacou

Hillsborough, Carriacou	Beth and Marvin on Carriacou	Sugar Windmill Ruins	Plantation on Carriacou
Windward, Carriacou	Windward, Carriacou	Wiindward, Carriacou	Mandalay and Sandy Beach Island
Snorkeling off Sandy Beach Island	Sergeant Major	Foureye Butterflyfish	Doctorfish
French Grunt	Blue Tang and Black Sea Urchins	Two-handed Coconut Milk Drinker	Sunset from the Mandalay
Seagull, Sailboat, and Sunset	Solar Symphony Steel Drum Band	Solar Symphony Steel Drum Band

On Monday, we took the guided island tour of Carriacou, which led us through the capital Hillsborough, up the mountain to the local hospital (where there were some excellent views), and down through Windward, a Scottish town known for its boat builders. There was a boat in progress whose frame had been completed and a few of the side planks in place. I wish I could have taken a picture of the boat, but we were warned the the boat builders usually don't like pictures taken of a boat in progress, because it steals some of its soul. And there were no builders around at the time to ask for permission because two of the local residents had a boating accident several days earlier, and one of them was a poor swimmer and had drowned. His body had been spotted earlier that day and was in the process of washing up on shore a little ways down the beach. So many of the locals (especially teenagers) were constantly scurrying by us, headed down the beach towards the location of the body. We walked around Hillsborough after the tour and then spent the afternoon on Sandy Beach Island. Snorkeling was excellent, there were literally thousands of fish just as you entered the water (the first snorkeling image above is a little out of focus, but it still gives an idea of the number of fish that were present). Once we swam through that first mass of fish, there were a fair amount of colorful, larger fish a little farther from shore. The evening entertainment back on the Mandalay was the Solar Symphony, an excellent pan drum band from Carriacou. The lead drummer was very good and used three drum sticks, two in the right hand and one in the left. He also shared the history of steel drums and how they are made (he claimed that Texaco barrels make the best bass drums, Shell the best mid-size guitar drums, and Amoco the best smaller sized lead drums). This was the first of many steel bands that performed for us on this trip.