One of the main reasons we visit Bequia each year is to see our Canadian buddies Tina, Rick, and Pete and Jeanine (we missed you this year). When all of us get together, trouble usually ensues. This year did not disappoint. Due to the fact that Pete poorly planned his travel schedule to have a departure from Bequia two days after we arrived (or maybe that was intentional…), we only had one full day of debauchery as a group. As the wise islander says “you can’t drink rum all day unless you start in the morning,” we heeded this advice and scheduled our rendezvous for 11:27 a.m. at the quintessential Caribbean bar- Beige’s Rum Shack.
Here we are above at Beige’s Bar all bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 11:27 a.m. Cajun was the official group photographer for the day and Pete has the unfortunate Canadian propensity of lateness so he missed the first group photo.
Because Beige’s Bar can be a scary place during the day when you are sober (it is easier to notice things like dirt, rodents, men with machetes who mumble to themselves, the lack of running water, etc.), we quickly got down to rum-drinking business. One of the reasons we love Beige’s is the impeccable table service. Somene simply plops a bottle of rum on your table and then you are on your own. Refills of ice and mixers are kept to a minimum as the bar management (aka Beige or some other random barkeep) often go missing for long stretches of time. Pete and Rick are so frequently at this establishment that they are welcomed to go behind the bar to procure ice, beer or additional bottles of rum.
As you can see in the pictue above, everyone loves to quench their thirst at Beige’s.
After our first few drinks, we decided to move to an “outside table” which was really just a block of cement and some upside-down bucket stools.
We were all smiles after we polished off our first bottles of booze at Beige’s Bar. The time was 1:15 p.m. and we decided to go on a stroll to another of our favorite local establishments.
As you can see above, there was lots of traffic that day- good thing we were on foot.
Our next stop for rum was the New York Bar. This place was different from Beige’s in that it had things like a floor, chairs and a bartender.
As you can see above, after a few more rounds of rum our smiles are getting wider and the Canadians’ jokes are getting funnier. It was 2:00 pm- time to continue our rum crawl to the next watering hole…
Our next stop was the large and rowdy Buddy’s Well Come Bar.
We were able to snag the prime (and only) table.
Pete tries to blend in whereever he goes. It is hard for him though… he is just a little “different” from other folks.
At 2:45 pm we continued our rum crawl to the next establishment. Again, the traffic was heavy.
Our next stop was CoCo’s, where Pete led us in song. Since he is from the country that gave us Celine Dion and Jusitn Beiber, it was no surprise that the song he taught us was simple and monosylabbic. For some reason it also required us to stand on our chairs in order to sing it. His song also included goofy hand gestures which aided him in remembering the silly lyrics about “friendship mountain” and “reaching for the rainbow”. During our singing, the rum continued to flow.
After several verses of the song and many attempts at singing and gesturing in unison, it was time for a short nap.
The time was 4:30 pm and we were on to our next stop at Sailor’s Bar and Cafe. By the look on our faces in the three pictures below, we were feeling the effects of rum and song.
We were all fading fast, it was time to rally. Pirate led us in the rally-dance just in the nick of time…
We continued our rum crawl to Pappa’s Bar where we participated in Karaoke and deep conversations aimed at solving the world’s major problems. For some reason, the official photographer did not capture these moments but she does vaguely recall them happening. Once the problems of the world were sufficiently solved, we continued our rum crawl and made it full circle back to the initial scene of the crime- Beige’s Bar.
On our second stop at Beige’s night had fallen and the place seemed cleaner. We ordered more bottles of booze and even took a chance by ordering a few rounds of chicken wings aka “street meat”. Beige grills chicken wings only and the polished table server slings them down on your table on a square of tin foil. There are no side dishes, no silverware, no napkins. But when you are drinking rum from the bottle, you don’t really seem to care about those sorts of things.
After finishing off our bottles yet again, we had more deep conversations and more Karaoke…
The last picture of the night really sums it up. The Canadians look a little worse for the wear, and the American looks as bright eyed and bushy tailed as when the day began. This is something we are used to when hanging out with our Canadian friends.
A great time was had by all. We ended our festivities at 8:00 pm when someone fell off of a bucket chair and the rum was gone. It is probably a good thing that we only meet up a couple of times a year- we are not sure our livers could handle any more than that.
While we tease our Canadian friends quite a bit, it is all in good fun. We genuinely love these guys and look forward to seeing them again soon. They are special friends who we would do anything for. After all, it’s not their fault they are from Canada, eh?
Posted by gumbopirate 
