Welcome to our site. This is a travel journal describing Daphne and Joel Gould's two week trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in July of 2004. On this and the following web pages, you will read all about our adventure and look at the wonderful pictures we brought back. If that doesn't sound like a great way to spend a little of your free time, maybe you will be more interested in visiting here.

The text on this site was written both by Daphne (who kept a journal during the trip) and by Joel (who edited the journal and added additional text). I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out who wrote what. Joel took all the pictures and put together the web pages.

We were married on June 10th, 1984. That meant that the summer of 2004 was our 20th anniversary. For both our honeymoon and our 10th anniversary, we spent a week on Bermuda. But for this occasion we wanted to do something different, and longer. Anyone who follows our travel journals knows that we like to visit the Caribbean (Grand Cayman in 1998, Eleuthera in 2000, St Thomas in 2000, Virgin Islands in 2002). It's warm and inviting, the snorkeling is good, the flying time is reasonable from Boston, and you do not have to change time zones (1). So the Caribbean was an obvious choice, but which islands?

Well in advance of the trip Daphne started the research. A visit to the local Barnes and Noble results in a general guide to the Caribbean (Fodor's 04 Carribean). Daphne studied this book over the course of a few weeks to select which islands to visit (2). We like to snorkel, so good snorkeling and coral reefs was a must. But, there also had to be some interesting hiking. Also, I like to take pictures so we wanted a picturesque island. That meant that we wanted one of the the volcanic islands, instead of the flat islands like you find in the Bahamas. Finally, we were looking for some place that we hadn't visited before (3).

After working her way though the guide books. Daphne proposed two possible trips. One idea was to spend a week on Dominica (an unspoiled and underdeveloped natural island, just north of Martinique) followed by a week on St. Lucia (a more upscale island, just south of Martinique). The plan was to spend the first week snorkeling and hiking around Dominica, then the second week in a fancy resort on St. Lucia recovering from the first week.

The second possible trip was to visit St. Vincent and the Grenadines, including a sailboat trip among the islands of the Grenadines. With two weeks at our disposal, we could take our time and visit many of the different small islands that make up the Grenadines. Daphne also like the idea of including a multi-day sailboat trip after our successful sailing trip in the Virgin Islands (4).

I went online and ordered all the books on Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines that I could find. These islands were off the beaten track so the book choices were limited. We ended up with Adventure Guide to Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Diving and Snorkeling Dominica, Dominica & St. Lucia Alive!, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

After reading the guide books, and talking about it, We decided on option 2 -- St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Our thinking was that we could see either Dominica or St. Lucia when we had only one week to spare (look for these trips in future years); but two weeks gave us time to see lots of St. Vincent and the Grenadines at a leisurely pace. The next step was to work out the itinerary.

To get started, Daphne read the tour books to get the names of possible places to stay in the Grenadines. But then used the internet to fill in the details. On the internet you can find the web sites for each of the hotels we considered, as well as other people's travel logs and comments which can give you better insight than the hotel's own web site. Daphne also researched places we should see and day excursions we should consider, again using a combination of the guide books and the internet.

When the dust finally settled, we decided on the following itinerary:

• Four nights at Petit Byahaut, a secluded eco-resort on the coast of St. Vincent. On St. Vincent, we would do our most organized (and strenuous) activities including a trip to The Falls of Baleine and a hike up the 4000 foot La Soufriere volcano.
  
  
• Five nights on the sailboat Fortitude, with just Daphne, me, the captain and his mate. The sailboat would pick us up at Petit Byahaut and take us snorkling in and among the Grenadines for a few days, then drop us off at our last stop.
  
  
• Four nights at Petit St. Vincent (PSV), a private 113 acre island at the southern end of the Grenadines with just one resort, consisting of 22 individual cottages. Our plan for PSV was to simply relax, and recover from the rest of our trip.

On the left, you can see a map, showing where we stayed, and all the places we visited.

The next 14 pages are a journal of our trip, one for each day, along with some selected pictures, and some general comments about the various places we visited. Within these pages, you will read all about the trip -- the good, the bad and the ugly. You will learn all the details you need to know about the basics including sections on eating, drinking, sleeping, washing clothes and even using the toilet. The last page of this web site lists the photo galleries, from which you can browse through the hundreds of digital photographs we posted. Not everything will be of interest to everybody (especially if you are an employee of US Airways), but I hope everyone finds something they like.