First of all, you have to be at the airport two hours early. The gate for Grenadines Air is the very most farthest away from anything else in the Barbados airport. The planes are small, and the personnel from Grenadines Air will find you in the waiting area and take you out to the plane when it's your turn to go. The thing is, I didn't know that, so when the first group of people were gathered up, I jumped into the line to go with them, only to be stopped at the door with a firm but polite, "Not you." I tried it again with the second group. Again, not my turn. I was close to tears. There is only one flight a day from Barbados to Union Island. Where were these other people going? Why couldn't I go? We were supposed to leave at 4:20, and it was close to 5:00. This is when I learned to relax. They are on island time, mon!
There was another couple sitting near us. The lady looked just how I felt, kinda sad and lost and unhappy not to be on a plane on the way to Union Island. Come to find out, those people would become our friends and neighbors on Palm Island. You'll hear a lot about Jennifer and Ridgely in the posts to come.
Finally, it was our turn to board the plane. The Grenadines Air people let us out onto the tarmac and instructed us to climb aboard the 16-seat plane and to leave the last three rows empty to balance the plane. Yikes.
Once we were all aboard, the airplane fired up the propellers and the throttle was opened up. The whole plane shook. All the passengers sort of looked at each other and made a little comment or laughed nervously. I'm sure we all thought, "We might just die on this little plane." It doesn't take much runway to get a little plane like that into the sky. The view of the island of Barbados was pretty cool.
It takes about an hour to fly from Barbados to Union Island. Here's a view of the runway on Union Island.
I thought we would come in from the ocean side and fly in, but no. We circled around and landed heading toward the water. When we landed, we sort of bounced and skidded just a little. Very exciting! Six of us got off at Union Island. The rest of the people were headed to other islands. I didn't envy them more take-offs and landings!
Oh! You have to see this picture. It's a view of the water just off Union Island. You can totally see the reef. Check out the colors of the water!
At Union Island you go through customs - very quick - then the Palm Island people greet you and get you into a golf cart that takes you to the Yacht Club where you get on a boat that takes you a mile across the bay to Palm Island.
When you get to Palm Island, a group of people, including the resort manager, Chris, is there to greet you and offer you a rum punch. Yum! I love rum punch. Like I said, there were three couples that arrived at Palm Island: us, Jennifer and Ridgely and Matt and Pat. We were escorted to our rooms by beautiful island ladies who explained what we were seeing and what would be happening. Our room had a view of the pool. Jennifer and Ridgely (I'll just call them J & R from here on out) were in the room right next to ours, so we talked with them for awhile before we headed over for cocktails and dinner.
Here's some pictures of our room:
The bed with mosquito netting
The bathroom is huge!
Dinner that night was fabulous! We were really hungry and were not disappointed with the five course meal. It started with an appetizer of steamed clams or breadfruit. We each ordered one and shared. Both were delicious. Then there was soup; there was always a chilled and a hot soup. I had the gazpacho which was tasty. MT had the West Indian pinto bean that was extra good to me. We actually traded soups. The salad course was interesting. It was beet and pineapple. The pineapple was good. I'm not a big beet fan, but I tried it. (Yes I did!) The dressing tasted a little like fry sauce, which was strange. I dipped the beet in the fry sauce and it was ok, but not great for me. Then they give you a little sorbet to cleanse the palate. For the main course I had beef medallions. MT had grilled wahoo. Wahoo is a very meaty fish. It was delicious. My beef was excellent as well. For dessert MT had chocolate ice cream. I had the apple crisp and it was sooooooo good I wanted to roll around in it. :-)
So that's what it's like the first day at Palm Island. I have a few more stories to tell and pictures to show, so I hope you come back to read more about it. I really love to talk about our vacations!
So that's what it's like the first day at Palm Island. I have a few more stories to tell and pictures to show, so I hope you come back to read more about it. I really love to talk about our vacations!
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