Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Leeward Side Boat Tour

Fantasea Tours offers a day tour in a speedboat to the leeward side. This extends from the Young Island Pier in Villa to Baleine Falls, and includes many of the sights along the Caribbean Shore.

Leaving Young Island dock in Villa


Paradise Beach Hotel and Fantasea Botique in Villa


Cruise Ship Pier in Kingstown



Things look different from the water. This is the Administration Building in Kingstown


Immigration Office and Jail, Kingstown. A beautiful example of colonial architecture.



Fort Charlotte. You can see how it might be difficult to charge up to the walls. As a matter of fact it isn't that easy to drive up now.


Leper baths. The leper colony used to be halfway down the hill.


Ottley Hall is a shipyard with extensive repair facilities.


Camden Park is the most concentrated manufacturing area on the island.


I don't know the name of this bay.


Bat cave. It goes right through the headland.


Volcanic debris--lava over thermoclastic ash. One of the clearest examples of how the volcanos built up the island.


New resort area in Buccamen. The apartment condos sell for a quarter-million to a million pounds.


Barrouallie (pronounced to rhyme with merrily). The local fishermen will occasionally bring in a blackfish or pilot whale. A quartet of Barrouallie Whalers has gained an international audience for singing shanties. There used to be a line of stores and houses on the beach side of the road, but they were washed away by Hurricane Lennie and replaced by the breakwater,


Peter's Hope. An estate that was once owned by the Gurneys. The houses up on the hill comprise a low income housing project.


Chateubelaire Island with Mt. Soufriere (the active volcano) in the background.


Swimming in to see Baleine Falls. I will add some new photos taken by Chris Snow to the Baleine folder on flickr.


Back to Wallilabou Harbour. The sets for Pirates of the Caribbean are still here but they are falling apart.


Lunching. I'll add additional photos to the Pirates of the Caribbean folder in Flickr.


The Captain. Not only a good boatman, but a knowledgeable guide.


There are larger versions of these pictures, and many others, on the Flickr site you can reach
at http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlek/