Geography Now! ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES - VoiceTube: Learn English through videos!

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Now, I'm gonna admit, before visiting, I knew little to nothing about ST Vincent and the Grenadines.
So, naturally, when I visited you guys got me drunk on what is essentially illegal rum so strong it could light up a barbecue.
You also made me eat whale blubber and took a picture of me and a pirate hat.
You vincey subscribers.
I like you.
I like you guys.
Everybody.
I'm your host.
Barbs!
We have reached the last and final brother of the Caribbean Triplets, the Saint countries we've done ST Kitts, We've done ST Lucia.
And now the end is here.
ST Vincent and the Grenadines.
And huge thanks to the ST Vincent and Grenadines Tourism Authority and geography, Gordon, for hooking up an entire experience, showing me as much as you could in two days.
This is a country that definitely has interesting people and backstory.
If there was a Pan Caribbean party going on, you know Jamaica would obviously be the deejay.
Barbados would be passing out the drinks.
Little quiet.
Dominica would be reading a book in the corner.
But the really fun wouldn't start until crazy Uncle Vinnie pops in.
He's got the best hookups and everybody wants to talk to him and his crew.
Welcome to the cool uncle of the Caribbean Theory journal.
Name of the country was high room, which means land of the Blessed See in the Caribbean.
You're either in the single Main Island Club, the Double Island club, and then you get to ST Vincent and it's like, Oh, you gotta crew, maybe two islands and a few small rocks off your coast.
That's Ah, that's cute.
Well, say hello to my 32 sidekicks.
Not Savannah.
She's Vincent.
That's the creepiest visual effect you've ever made on geography.
Now, why would you make that?
Well, you told me to be creative anyway, to the Globe.
ST Vincent and the Grenadines Air located in the Caribbean, just at the southern tip of the Windward Island chain, which is part of the Lesser Antilles, which is basically all the small islands east of Puerto Rico.
The country is made up of ST Vincent, the main island at about 88% of the land mass, where around 90% of the population lives.
The remaining 12% is made up of the Grenadine Islands archipelago of smaller islands and islands shared between ST Vincent and Grenada, most of which, though 32 to be exact, belonged to ST Vincent, about 2/3 of the entire Grenadine Island chain.
Eight of these islands are inhabited or partially inhabited.
ST.
Vincent's Grenadine Islands extend from what is considered to be the very first of the Grenadine Islands, Young Island only about 200 yards from ST Vincent's mainland, all the way south to the furthest island Petit Saint Vincent, which sets only about a mile away from petite Martinique, which is the northernmost island of Grenada's Grenadine Islands.
The country is divided into six parishes, five on ST Vincent Island and the Grenadines.
All within themselves make up the last and final parish.
When you go to ST Vincent, everyone will say the island is shaped like a left hand, and the locations of towns and sites are always usually referred to being either on the windward side or the Atlantic coast or the Leeward Side being the Caribbean coast.
The capital and largest city is found on the south leeward side Kingstown not to be confused with Kingston, which is Jamaica's capital, Kingstown, whereas the next largest towns are Georgetown in the north windward side and barley in the mid leeward side.
The country has only one main international airport on ST Vincent Island Argyle International.
From there, the country has four other regional and private airports.
Back Way Mystique.
Can I Wan?
And Union Island back to ST Vincent, though The largest commercial harbour, of course, is in Kingstown, or luxury cruise lines, Doc, and you can catch fairies to the main inhabited Grenadine islands.
However, the largest cargo shipping harbor is just a skip away in Camden Park Industrial Zone, there are two main highways.
The Leeward Highway that ends in Walla Boo and the Windward Highway that ends roughly in new Sandy Bay Village.
However, you can take a rougher local road all the way to the town of Fancy, the northernmost point of the country.
From there, there are no roads that connect the entire uninhabited northwest quarter of the country between the two towns.
The government has considered maybe building a road but too many variables at play, and if a potential volcanic eruption should occur, it is likely that this area would be in the path of destruction.
And so that's about it all.
You need to know about the social structure of ST Vincent and the Grenadines.
Wait, you lied.
I'm looking at the satellite view, and it looks like there's another airport on ST Vincent Island.
You forgot about it?
Yes, there is.
But that one is not functional.
That is the former E.
T.
Joshua International Airport that used to service the country.
It was closed down because it was not large enough to accommodate the high demand for visitors and long haul commercial 7 37 airlines.
Prior to that, getting into ST Vincent was much more limited.
It was like, Well, yeah, we're typical lame tourists from the USA and Canada, and we want to go to ST Vincent.
Oh, but alas, there are no direct flights to their small airport.
We have to stop in like Barbados or ST Lucia for the first lay over Holy cow.
These countries air amazing.
Totally as my attention.
Let's divert most of our time and money in these places since we're already here.
Okay, that is it.
I am literally going to demolish an entire town, build an international airport using half of my nation's GDP.
What now they can take in the demand for trips up to 1.5 million passengers a year, four times more than E.
T.
Joshua.
If you visit, make sure you visit at least one of the Grenadine islands.
Keep in mind many of the Grenadine islands are either luxury resorts or privately owned, and access is limited to certain degree to outsiders.
We don't have time to explain everything about every single island or key in the Grenadines.
But if you want the incredibly condensed, rundown Beck way yes.
Pronounced back way, it is the largest and most populated Grenadine island at about 6000 people.
They even have their own flag that alludes to the whaling industry that they're famous for must eke the millionaire's island privately owned by the British Mystique Company.
And it even has a small village for the citizens Can Awan, the billionaire's island privately owned by the Bahamian Cartel, one resort development company.
This is where the stupidly rich people go to avoid the annoying millionaires.
Union Island is like the place where the actual people from ST Vincent go to Gavin get away down to Earth five with people that celebrate their own festivals and traditions.
My row, the smallest permanently inhabited island, the main town.
Everyone lives and doesn't even have an official name is a small resort in Salt Whistle Bay, and my role is technically part of the Tobago Keys, which is a Marine park uninhabited but totally popular for some of the best diving spots.
All of Palm Island was leased for $1 a year by an American couple as long as they agreed to build a resort to employ the locals.
Petite ST Vincent to southernmost Island is privately owned by the U.
S Freedom Resorts Company.
It has 22 Balinese inspired luxury cottage is a toga and ballast.
So are uninhabited, dry, shrubby islands that holds a dark, an important historical place in the nation's history.
And petite Mystique has a funny story about a dude that got caught in a real estate fraud scam.
Then you have the smaller, empty islands with pretty much nothing on them.
And so, yeah, that's just about it.
For all the Grenadine Island clusters, if you decide to visit, here are some of the top spikes you might want to consider checking out these fourths man made Happy Island.
There are 18 Petric left sites most famous ones, probably being in Connery and Lay You, Wall of Who?
Heritage Park or in Show Biotechnology Centre, Iron Man Statue, Kingstown Market, Black Point Recreational Park and Tunnel, while the Blue Bay is basically where Port Royal from Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed.
And you can also see the hanging arch there as well.
Moby on Island, which has just a single thatched umbrella on it and probably the top side of the entire country.
The botanical Gardens with over 500 species of plants.
And that's the thing about ST Vincent and the Grenadines.
They bank a lot of their tourism on nature, and they take conservation pretty seriously.
Let's discuss more of that in When you enter ST Vincent, you'll notice that the country is noticeably greener and lush compared to more commercialized, bustling Caribbean nations.
I mean, they're tourism motto is ST Vincent, the Caribbean you're looking for, and it's no wonder.
I mean not far from the airport, you have the most pristine black volcanic sand beaches.
First of all, the country sits on the Antillean Arc volcanic ridge that essentially created all of the Lesser Antilles islands in the Caribbean.
This means that the main island of ST Vincent is also volcanic, with the tallest peak, Sue Frey, being a strata volcano that last erupted in 1979 the Year of Independence.
Oddly enough, the country has no main natural inland bodies of water.
But the largest thing close to one would probably be the crater lake in Sioux phrase called Era.
From there, a small mountain spine runs along the island north to South, which collects enough water to create a wide network of streams and small rivers, including the longest one that empties into the Atlantic.
The culinary river just south of the river, lies the Mesopotamia Valley, known as the breadbasket of the country.
This is where the heaviest concentration of agriculture can be found mostly in fruits and root vegetables.
When we go to the South to the Grenadines, though, you start to see a slight contrast because of their size, topography and location.
The Grenadine Islands do not have any permanent streams or bodies of fresh water and are generally drier than ST Vincent Cat die and shrubs are more commonly seen growing in these areas as well.
Nonetheless, the convergence of cooler, rougher Atlantic jet streams mixed with the warmer, calmer Caribbean air fronts causes the underwater biosphere to mix elements of both seas and flourish in a myriad of unique colorful reefs and marine wildlife hot spots.
Yeah, basically, if you want a rain forest, stay on ST Vincent.
If you want snorkeling, go to the Grenadines.
And if you want to just chill it a cafe try some of that really interesting see musty that they make.
Oh, actually, I just found out that that stuff is actually an aphrodisiac.
So maybe if you're feeling freaky, I drink that stuff.
Well, you know me with drinks.
All I need is my triple shot of espresso break, which means no one comes in for this second.
There is a little bit of one of these, you know, and I blacked out to worry about getting your hair lines all straight.
Now, Miss tensions have always been an industrious people, But essentially it comes down to three industries that drive the country's economy.
Seasonal agriculture, tourism and construction Service is agriculture makes up about 7% of the GDP, and today ST Vincent and the Grenadines is the leading producer of Beirut and a root flower on Earth.
Funny enough as it has been decriminalized, ST Vincent is also known widely throughout the cannabis world for having some of the highest grade marijuana, the world known as been seaweed or N C.
Ganja.
What did you Why'd you cut to me?
Am I supposed to say something, huh?
Speaking of which, one problem many of the Grenadine islands face is the demand for fresh water supply other than the luxury islands like mystique in Kenya, one from a desalinization plants for a consistent water source.
Most island communities in the Grenadines rely entirely within rainwater collection for fresh water and solar heaters installed on their roofs for hot water.
Once that reservoir runs out, there's only two options.
Uh, well, I'm done.
The wells are all dry.
It's not raining much.
I'm all out of fresh water.
Sorry to hear that, buddy.
What do I do?
Well, you could celebrate the Maroon Festival or the bigger islands can't either sell you water bottles, or they can ferry a water truck over to restock your supply for a fee.
So to sustain our country's outskirt areas, you make the residents pay for their own supplies when they need it.
Yeah, pretty much.
It's not an uncommon practice.
We should hang out sometime anyway.
A long time ago, Willing was a more prevalent industry, especially on Back way Island.
And today they still practice hunting whales and a man and regulated by the International Whaling Commission.
Now we really need to hang out sometime.
This is part of the town of barley became famous for their black fish dish.
Yeah, whales.
They can be found here it is her animal correspondent, Caleb Gary Harlow, whatever he's calling himself these days off the coasts, Clearwater's give life to reefs teeming with moray eels.
Angel fish be recouped sea turtles.
There's even a really cool to nor sanctuary on Big Way Island Inland, though the wildlife is mostly concentrated or in bids and reptiles and infect a new species of gecko with devious looking.
Redeye's was discovered on Union Island in 23 years and five otherwise, the national animal is the Amazon, a gorgon ing and commonly known gilding, commonly known as the Vinson Shin Vincey parent.
There are only about 500 left in the wild, but fortunately, breeding programs have helped revive the little guy and you could even say some of them at the Botanical Gardens in Kingston.
Thank you, Gary.
So as we come to a close this segment and you know what the deal is, it's time to discuss Boat in Saint Vincent.
The breadfruit is probably the most important source of nourishment.
Is even a common saying in ST Vincent.
Don't cut down my breadfruit, Drake.
Meaning something like Don't rip me off, Man is also black cake and cajole and the national dish being roasted breadfruit and fried jack fish.
On top of that, they have the strongest Roman, the Caribbean, sunset slash steel bottom room at about 84.5%.
It's not even allowed to be brought on planes that literally even have signs that say it at the airport at check in.
So natural You guys made me drink it when I visited the strongest in the Caribbean.
I'm gonna start you on a little bit.
That's nothing I could do that.
I have called just in case.
I don't need that way.
Yeah, Dissensions have a saying we don't party normal.
Speaking of which, that brings us to thank you, Noah.
Come to me, Emelia, Heimdall, open the bike.
Ross.
You know it's such a nerd.
Now, given mind, a person from this country is called either a Vince tension or Vincey like with a y.
Anyway, what does it mean to be of intention?
I have some of you guys the Vincey Geography Bs, and here are some of things you guys said Being of intention would involve one being able to meet the best use of every situation and challenge.
So some of the things that make us unique husbands engines were quite friendly and hospitable.
People are.
Creel is quite this scene is it's too big and small at the same time.
To die was still like dynamic Vince N Shins are resourceful, resilience and self sufficient.
We are the rhythms of Africa, melodies of Europe, cards of Asia on homegrown lyrics off the Caribbean.
Thanks, guys.
Anyway, here's the demographics graft.
First of all, the country has about 111,000 people, and it is the birthplace of the Garifuna people found throughout the Caribbean.
The country is relatively more diverse, and other Caribbean states, the majority of the population is Afro Caribbean black at about 2/3.
About 1/5 of the country is mixed, mostly between black and white.
About 6% are Indian, as in from India, brought over during colonial times, about 4% are white, mostly British and dissent, and many are actually transferred from Barbados and our Beijing whites about 2%.
Our island Carib, Kali, Nago or black Garifuna Caribs and the remaining population is made up of other groups, such as people from the Middle East and the rest of Asia.
They use the Caribbean dollar as their currency, which, by the way, is pegged to the U.
S.
Dollar at a 2.7 ratio.
They use the types A and B plug outlets, sometimes British style G, and they drive on the left side of the road.
The official language, of course, is English cover.
When they talk to each other, they quickly switch it up to Vincey Creole.
It's a very fluid Creole that has its own varying degrees of intensity and intelligibility.
Depending on the context and person you speak to, for example, here's a conversation money for money, just, you know, just from to me, it kind of sounds like Jamaican patois, but don't say that to them.
They swear it's not the same today of intentions are divers, But people of all kinds have a connection to the native roots of the island and especially the Garifuna, who are the Garifuna?
Basically, in 16 75 a slave ship carrying people from the Mogul group of what is now Nigeria crashed near ST Vincent.
Survivors of the shipwreck, mostly Africans, eventually intermarried with the native Colleen Ah, go people.
Thus created the New People Group, known as the Garifuna, especially with this guy who led the biggest revolt.
And he's kind of like a hero of the nation.
And there's a lot more that goes into the story of this nation to expand a little bit more.
Here's random handle with culture stuff.
I wanted to do that, as mentioned the guard.
If Luna played such an important historical rule that all of March is considered heroes month and March 14th being Heroes Day on this day, there is a pilgrimage from Garifuna all across the Caribbean to visit the sites of their ancestors, including Wallace Oh island, where 5000 were exiled to die.
ST.
Vincent is also famous for its ICO are made of sustainable products found on the island, this guy being one of the prominent figures of the movement.
ST Vincent also celebrate some of their own unique holidays like nine mornings and nine nights, which are the nine days leading up to the day they celebrate Christmas.
In many of the Grenadine islands, you can witness the wedding cake dance done by the families of the bride and groom, parading to each other's homes and speaking of homes, Vinson shins are kind of known as the builders of the Caribbean.
Whenever there's a construction project going on in any country in the Caribbean, it's usually safe to assume that were most likely be Vinson Shin's involved in it somehow, and with construction, they take their own personal homes very seriously.
For most Caribbean countries, cars are a status symbol, but for Vince en tions, it's their house.
Often every home, even small ones are almost always built with a guest room so that they can have people over and show off.
Vince engines are famous for not only having some of the most beautiful pastel colored dwellings, but also some of the most structurally integrity's homes in all of the Caribbean that can withstand class five.
Hurricane eats reasons being because, Well, it's kind of like I just love wood paneled bungalows with tiled rooftops.
They just look so nice, don't you think?
Ah, yeah.
I mean, I don't really have the lumber industry for that type of house, though.
Then how do you make your homes actually do this cool thing where I infused the volcanic soil into the concrete for stability?
It works.
You should try it.
No, thanks.
Shut up.
I still prefer building with what?
The majority of incentives are Christian at around 82% the three denominations most people claim to be a part of our Anglican Methodists and Roman Catholic.
In fact, you can even see a street block in Kingstown, with churches of all three denominations facing each other and finally, out of all the Caribbean countries, it's often claim that ST Vincent and the Grenadines has one off, if not the most seafaring culture out of all the islands.
Due to the geographic layout of 32 islands and keys position close to each other, the intentions have had centuries of water transport, starting with Kali Nago canoes that date back over 1000 years, and the techniques still are used today.
And some of the most world renowned scaled model boats are handmade at the famous sergeant Brother shop, otherwise saying, Vincent and the Grenadines has a wonderful, vibrant music scene on with that, I bring you Florida man Keith.
Okay, now each Caribbean country kind of has their own specialty when it comes to the main John Rose.
You know what I'm saying?
You know, Jamaica pioneered reggae.
Trinidad pioneered Calypso, and all those ST Vincent didn't create it.
They are a soca country and totally re innovative genre.
In the 19 eighties, they started the Raja Soca Movement, with producer Frankie Macintosh being one of the leading figures.
Raja is described as a slower paced style, with a heavier emphasis on melodies and harmonization vocals.
In the two thousands, though, they switched up the game and created Power Soka, which is like an aggressively rush style of SOCO with nice bass riffs.
You know, Soca is the musical lifeblood of the country.
They played it all sorts of Carnival's music festivals, held in the last few weeks of June and the first week of July, called Vincey Moss on Everyone Knows the song Turn Me On by award winning artist Mads Art featuring Kevin Little.
Thank you, I'm Keith in.
Here's my awesome bass riff that you'll never be able to play because I'm so awesome.
Thank you, Keith.
And now it's time for the incredibly condensed history segment of the episode in the quickest way I can summarize it.
Caribs of South America take over the indigenous outer walk.
Christopher Columbus briefly visits shipwrecked Africans, brought for slavery, land on ST Vincent, intermarry with the locals and create the new Gary phone of black Caribs.
French come in.
Create the town of barley wars with British.
It ends up being taken over by British or slaves brought in first care of war with British second care of war.
Gary Fiona's exiled to balance.
So island survivors were deported to Mosquito coast.
Modern day Honduras.
Slavery abolished.
Indians and Portuguese come in 1902 Super eruption, self rule and independence must eke becomes the first luxury island.
Volcano erupts again in 1979 independence year.
Other islands follow the pattern of becoming luxury resorts.
Agriculture industry starts waning in favor of tourism Pirates of the Caribbean filmed here, which boost more tourism.
New airport built to accommodate travel demand And here we are today Some of the most famous people you guys that vincey jogger people suggested I mention in this episode include Duval Reverend lands down gilding Ebeneezer Theodore Joshua kept in human Zach, Reginald Mitchell, Bridget Blocher These athletes Ralphie Consol vis and Susan Dugan.
So by now, hopefully you can kind of get the feel of the vincey vibe seafaring construction experts that might occasionally go whaling and definitely love their drinking.
Okay, this is just getting weird.
Seriously, I'm buying you a drink.
And speaking of people that have ties to ST Vincent and the Grenadines ST Vincent, Uncle Vinnie, when the Caribbean needs a guy, they go to Uncle Vinnie.
I mean, there's a reason why they're the smallest country on the U.
N.
Security Council, and that's kind of how they play their diplomatic game for one.
The U.
S.
Canada and U.
K are the top visitors for tourism, which make a significant portion of their GDP.
And of course, the U.
S.
Is the top country for imports as well.
Interestingly enough, though, they keep things neutral and maintain relations with Venezuela and Cuba as well.
The president's have met each other in person.
They even have Portrait's dedicated to the friendship in their airport.
And many bilateral trade deals have been established, especially in the petroleum and energy sector.
As members of Caricom, they generally get along with other Caribbean countries and have family members in many of their neighboring islands as well.
Most of incense shins will claim they have at least one parent or grandparent that came from another island, so the populace is very intertwined when it comes to their best friends.
However, the two I have heard most while interviewing Dissensions our Taiwan and Grenada.
They're one of the few countries that recognizes Taiwan's sovereignty over the People's Republic of China and Taiwan invests heavily in ST Vincent's infrastructure, including the orange Oh biotechnology centre, where new crops are being grown to diversify the agriculture sector and also the construction of the new airport, which was like a big deal.
Grenada is kind of like the twin that blends in with ST Vincent and the Grenadines as they share the last third of the Grenadine Islands with them, and people have been moving back and forth between the two countries so often it's almost hard to tell who's from where.
Any more people in the south, close to Grenada even have a similar Grenadian accent.
In the end, they will always be close to each other.
In conclusion, ST Vincent and his 32 Grenadines sidekicks are kind of like the guys with the hook up in the Caribbean.
You need a house built it up.
Uncle Vinnie, you need a boat ride.
Hit up, Uncle Vinnie, you need the party round up or you better hit up Uncle Vinnie.
Stay tuned.
Samoa is coming up next.