It seems the time stood still in this archipelago, formed by many small islands, some of them diminutives, with a great natural beauty, surrounded by the deep blue sea (map)

Saint Vincent and its neighboring 32 islands and keys, constitute a perfect refuge for those running away from massive tourism. Here you won’t find neon lights, big hotels, traffic jams, crowds or noise. In fact, only eight of these islands are inhabited, located between St. Lucia and Grenada, at the end of the arc formed by the Little Antilles and the Windward islands. Most of the 113,000 people in this archipelago, live in St. Vincent, the largest of them, with a surface of 30 km long x 18 km wide. The craggy coasts emerge, abruptly, from the crystalline waters of the sea, and in the inner lands, wonderful landscapes will delight nature lovers. La Soufriere, a volcano 1234m high, still sleeps after the last eruption in 1979. The Grenadines, whose total surface reaches some 44 square km., are completely free from crowds and contamination. These are “virgin” islands, natural beautiful paradises, with beaches where those searching for privacy arrive, and with waters exhibiting all the types of blue you can imagine; besides they are perfect for navigation and diving.

Mustique and Petit St Vincent are now a refuge for rich and famous, while the abundant coral reefs in Bequia, Canouan and Mayreau, provide submarinists and scuba divers, a wide range of underwater landscapes to explore. Union, is the most southern island in the archipelago, and is the center for lots of sailing fans.

Visitors looking for new and interesting destinies, far from the massive tourism, discover that going to an almost “virgin” place, means also suffering the inconvenience of being so far apart from the world, but in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, this is not the case.

The Belligerent Caribbeans
At the beginning of the XVIII century, the French took control of St. Vincent, after having many disputes with the native Caribbeans. This tribe of warriors, that previously had eliminated the Arawaks, keeping their women for themselves, was not ready to give up their land without fighting. In 1675, a ship carrying African slaves sunk between Bequia and St. Vincent. Survivors that reached this island ended mixing themselves with the Caribbeans Indians. That merge produced the “black Caribbeans”, different from the “yellow Caribbeans”; according to chronicles of that time, both tribes fought each other on several occasions. However, they joined forces against the European intruders, and cohabited for some time next to the French pioneers, after a truce was agreed.

In 1722, the British invaded St. Vincent, and during the XVIII century, the island witnessed the battles between French and British, for the control of the place, where the first plantations of indigo, cotton, tobacco and sugar were already established, At the same time, the “black Caribbeans” declared war on the British, which is known as the Caribbean war, which was followed by the brigand wars that ended in 1795, when the British expelled 5,000 Caribbeans, sending them to an island in front of the Honduras coast. Even now, you can find some descendants of the “black Caribbeans” living in a little town near Sandy Bay. North of St. Vincent.

British Owners
The battles between French and British ended with the signing of the Versailles treaty that granted the latter the sovereignty of St. Vincent. With them at the helm, in 1829, there were 98 sugar cane plantations, with thousands of slaves. Most of the owners lived in Great Britain, where they received the huge profits these plantations generated. At the end of the XIX century, almost all the productive lands in St. Vincent were in the hands of five owners that after the abolition of slavery, had to hire emigrant workers coming from, mostly, Portugal and the East Indies.

However, natural disasters halted the prosperous economy of the island. First was a hurricane in 1898. Then, in 1902, and only two days before the tragedy of Mount Pelée in Martinique, the volcano La Soufrière erupted, causing the death of more than 2,000 people, putting and end to the economy based on plantations.

In 1979, Great Britain granted the independence to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Few months before, a new volcanic eruption caused a major setback to agriculture in St. Vincent, which previously was severely punished by many hurricanes. As a consequence of these series of natural disasters, the island has being less affected by modernity. The airport of St. Vincent, the E.T. Joshua, doesn’t have a long landing strip, and only small planes can use it, which means that few tourists arrive to the island.