56 ZiNG October - December 2009 ISLAND PROFILE coming from the benches beneath the harbour- side almond trees. Known locally as " the house of parliament", it is a popular place to rest a while and catch up on island gossip. Near the port's fi ne old colonial era customs house, there is a colourful fruit market run by some very relaxed dreadlocked Rastas, a couple of rum shops and a bakery. I walked along the Belmont Walkway, a narrow beachside promenade, shaded by palms and frangipani trees, beside the sparkling clear water of the bay, to Jack's Bar on Princess Margaret Beach. Sipping a rum punch, I watched the sky turn deep orange as the sun set behind the moored yachts in the harbour and waited for a taxi to arrive and take me across the island to Friendship Bay. There is little need to hire a car on Bequia: distances are short and taxis plentiful. Some of the best places, like Hope Bay ( a great arch of deserted golden sand, looking over a deep blue swathe of the Caribbean towards Mystique) can only be reached on foot. On a walk there from Friendship Bay I encountered a timeless, bucolic scene of local villagers in a fi eld engaged in the traditional method of making fl our from cassava roots. They were using a pedal-powered mill, an ancient hand mangle and giant iron pans over an open wood fi re. The fl our is used to bake bam bam bread, a fl at pancake- shaped bun eaten with fi sh stews to soak up the fl avour. The beaches on the western leeward coast south of Port Elizabeth are the island's calmest, and the best for children. The bars and restaurants along the seafront are popular haunts of the cosmopolitan yacht charter crowd. Locals tend to head down the back streets to cafes like the Hibiscus, where the charismatic owner, Beige, serves up deliciously- spiced freshly- grilled fi sh and homemade rum punch. Until now the majority of visitors to St Vincent and the Grenadines have been windswept sailors and ex- pat owners of opulent villas. With the opening of several new hotels and more regular inter- island fl ights, it looks as if a more diverse type of visitor will be exploring these shores - and if they keep the promises made to protect what makes this group of islands so special, surely that's no bad thing. It seems only right that the delights of these magical islands should be shared. ? A good day at the offifi ce Pirates Ahoy It was no accident that the Disney fi lm studios chose SVG as the location for their Pirates of the Caribbean fi lms. It was here in 1717 that Blackbeard made his name by capturing the French slave ship La Concorde and marooning its crew on Bequia. The set of the fi lm's fi ctitious town Port Royal was built at Wallilabou on the leeward coast of St Vincent. Much of it is still there, and many residents have fond memories of picking up some glamorous ' extras' work. The scene in which Johnny Depp and Kiera Knightly are marooned on a desert island with a bounty of rum was shot in Tobago Cays The success of tourism in SVG will be as much about the local people as the beautiful sights on offer