Kingstown, St Vincent

Most cruisers take advantage of “local services” that can clear St Vincent customs and immigration for you, or go to the nearby airport. But it was one of those rare days when my captain was up for a land adventure so we elected to take a taxi into Kingstown, only a few miles away just past the airport, to clear customs (near the cruise ship terminal) and immigration (at the downtown police station). We wouldn’t recommend this method of checking in but it all turned out fine for us. We had a great local taxi driver who waited for us at each stop (apparently this is how they do things here) and answered my numerous questions about St Vincent, and we experienced unusually short lines at each official stop. Best of all, it was a market day (Friday & Saturday are the main market days) so Kingstown was bustling. As my readers know, going to the local market (ideally outside stalls) is always at the top of my to-do-list at each new port of call. So while our taxi happily waited, I dragged my captain through the market rows to exam more mysterious root vegetables and fruits, and down a few streets trying to absorb the culture of St Vincent. Our taxi driver delivered us back to Villa village at a cost only slightly above the published roundtrip taxi rate. Of course, he didn't have change...