We went back for two weeks the next winter and even had thoughts about retiring there eventually, but there were a lot of restrictions on where off-islanders could buy or build houses, and there seemed to be tensions directed at tourists, european-americans or off-islanders in general. We decided to look around at other islands.

For a few years after that we spent a couple of weeks in the Caribbean every winter, but we divided it between two islands. We visited (not in this order) St. Kitts, Nevis, Puerto Rico, Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad, Dominica, Martinique, and Guadaloupe. We skipped over the dry islands like Aruba because, from our standpoint, they were mostly tourists in beaches and nightclubs, and we were interested in seeing how real people lived. We skipped over the Virgins and St. Martin because they had a reputation of being touristy and expensive. For a long time we didn't go to St. Vincent because all their official tourist promotion seemed to be directed toward people who chartered yachts to sail the Grenadines. That is a wonderful way to spend a day, or maybe even a week, but it didn't make sense to us as a potential retirement life. (We found later that the then Prime Minister lived in the Grenadines.)

Finally Sally pointed out that St. Vincent had a botanical garden with one of Captain Bligh's original breadfruit trees and was the oldest botanical garden in the Americas, so we said "Why not?". Within a couple of years we had bought a house and now we try to spend half (or more) of our time down here.

St. Vincent was just what we were looking for.

It is a beautiful green island and our house is just up the hill from a lovely beach.

Sally grows orchids outside.

We have made many friends there in the last few years, local people as well as members of the Republic of China (Taiwan) agricultural mission and other ex-pats.

The people are exceptionally friendly and there is very little racism. That's important when you are in a single-digit minority. There are other islands where you can cut the tension with a knife.

Sally spent a couple of years working along with peace corps volunteers on a project, and I've worked with a couple of committees since the new government came in in 2001. Sally won a prize at the horticultural society exhibition in 2002. Generally we are working our way into ordinary life in St. Vincent. Which is exactly what we hoped would happen.

So why did we choose St. Vincent over the other islands? Click on "next" below.

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