Back downtown, the Cobblestone Inn has a grand historic vibe befitting a 200 year old former sugar storage building, an imposing stone and brick edifice with steep stairs and wooden floors, it’s evocative of another time, a favourite of old Caribbean hands, a refuge for the cognoscenti; state owned and family run by the Joshuas for decades, it’s dated yes, but has great wi-fi, very moderate rates and a dedicated long serving staff with a roof-top bar and restaurant. Beware though venturing onto the adjacent timber lookout, more akin to a rickety stumble across the deck of the ghost ship Marie-Celeste (an issue about to be rectified apparently). www.thecobblestoneinn.com
The view’s nothing special either, unprepossessing at best, of container yards and dilapidated immigration offices unless one of those leviathans of the modern age, a cruiseship, is at berth which is always an arresting sight. But, feet up, clutching a cold Hairoon beer, with late afternoon zephyrs off the tradewind caressing your brow and Bequia’s western peninsula shimmering in the haze eight miles distant, you can dream of those idylls beyond.
Moreover, pushing through the smoked glass portals into the mood lit bar on the ground floor, you really do enter another world, symbiotic somehow with the Inn above, an oasis of quiet calm, simply the coolest gaff in town (quite literally, with the air con normally tuned to ice station zebra temperature). This is Basil’s Bar & restaurant, he of the eponymous, fabled Mustique institution whose ownership he relinquished some time ago. Still based in Mustique, he pops over regularly to ensure things are running smoothly and also leases out three villas near Villa beach. Menus are solidly West Indian, prepared to perfection as you’d expect, and underscored by excellent service, not a theme you can guarantee elsewhere.
It’s fair to say Basil Charles is a legendary figure hereabouts, a greying, well preserved 77 now, his father was a Vincentian fisherman with little involvement in his life, his mother died when he was nine and his grandmother brought him up. Moving to Mustique on a whim, he was employed as bartender at the Cotton House hotel by Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, the island’s owner and was then installed at a new beach bar on Britannia Bay…. which later became his own. Colin walked in one day and demanded a drink which Basil blanked by telling him to wait. Colin took umbrage over the delay and threw a glass of water over him, whereupon Basil leapt over the bar and smacked his Lordship in the mouth. They became firm pals thereafter with Basil holding court as friend and confidante to aristocracy, rock royalty and business moguls for forty years. The Mustique Mule became his signature cocktail, and there are many tales to tell. Few have been, though he admits to attending the Royal Wedding of William and Kate in 2011. The island’s long running Blues Festival is also still the main fund raiser for his Educational Foundation in St Vincent.
St. Vincent is an island that rewards exploration and inquiry like no other, save perhaps Jamaica, and for those intrepid enough the rugged, untrammelled interior virtually demands it. Large tracts are still inaccessible, especially the seaward bluffs and craggy indentations of the western, leeward coastline. Hiking really is the best way to appreciate new landscapes and an exceptional cohort of tour operators and private guides can help you on your way, some of whom, shall we say, can be, er, loud and excitable. Each to his own, but I prefer the quiet, understated disposition of people like Desron Rodriquez, “Lavaman” to all and sundry. His father was a bush farmer at Reeves Level near Biabou on the east coast, and he remembers as a kid going rock climbing in the mountains.
