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Town of Stark Contrast
Hillsborough is a unique and interesting
little Caribbean town because it is a beehive of activity
during the day, and a virtual ghost town at night. The
contrast is difficult to comprehend.
By
day, hundreds upon hundreds of people fill the main
street. They are either en route to some other part of the town, engaged in some
form of commerce, or simply hanging around chatting. Its
loud, noisy, and very busy, but not quite like New York City. When the
sun goes down, they roll up the sidewalks, close the curtains,
and turn out the lights. You can walk down this very
street at 10:00 PM and not see a soul or hear a sound. The lights
in the homes are turned off, and there are few street lights,
providing the feeling you are walking through a ghost
town. Its spooky. Even the cats have gone to bed.
Getting There
Hillsborough Bay is an hour and a half sail
from Union Island. Just pass outside of Jack A Dan Island
and head right in. It is a forty minute motor from Tyrrel
Bay that will take you around the point, just inside Mabouya
and Sandy Islands. Do not cut the shoreline too close,
because there
are reefs that extend out a bit. Hillsborough is 3 hours
from the northern tip of Grenada, and 5 hours from St. Georges. Once you
are in Hillsborough Bay, head towards the main commercial pier,
but do not anchor too close. This is a busy port. You
will be anchored in deeper water, about 20 feet, so be sure to
leave plenty of scope. Strong gusts of wind will cause you
to swing on your anchor, so be mindful of other boats, given
that you have considerable chain out. Its a huge
anchorage, so there is really no need to be near anybody else.
The Dinghy Mafia
The main commercial pier is the
only place to come ashore in your dinghy. Unfortunately,
its not really a dinghy dock. There is a single ten
foot block of concrete off to one side of the pier. Every
few minutes, a launch from some ship anchored in the harbor, a
Boat Vendor, or small fishing vessel tries to land at this one
spot. A half dozen boats hover around like bees.
There is really no room to safely leave a dinghy for more than a
few minutes. This dock is serviced by a number of professionally trained
youths with Union Cards waiting to watch your dinghy. For
$5 EC, one of them will take care of it for
you. Im
really not sure what would happen if you told all ten of
them to take a hike, but for $1.85 US, I dont
personally recommend that
you experiment. There will usually be a bit of infighting
amongst themselves in an effort to win your business. They
employ negative advertising similar to our politicians, so dont be alarmed when you hear
somebody say that the youth you have selected is a bad guy who
shouldnt
be trusted. If
you are only coming in for a few minutes, leave a crew member at
the dock to watch the dinghy. Be sure he is prepared to entertain
these youths. He will also be quite busy
moving the dinghy out of the way every few minutes. Dont
even think about a shore entry unless you have been a Navy SEAL
for several years. There are only a few places that are
protected enough, and you will have about a foot of surf to
contend with.
Customs and
Immigration
Hillsborough is the only Customs
and Immigration center on the island,
so if you are passing to or from Union Island, you must go through
here. Unless you are
staying on Carriacou for several days, you will not likely be
anchoring overnight in Hillsborough, as Tyrrel Bay is the
recommended choice. Consequently, you have two options for
clearing Customs, neither of which are convenient. Option
one involves anchoring in Tyrrel Bay and taking a taxi into Hillsborough
to clear Customs, at an additional expense. Option
two involves facing the Dinghy Mafia. Since you are just
passing through, you will not want to mess
with anchoring or the outboard motor. It is possible to
bring the boat in real close to the pier, drop the Captain and a
crew off in
the dinghy who can row the final 100 feet to the dock. The
crew can watch the dinghy, the Captain can go to Customs, while
the remaining crew can perform doughnuts in the harbor for 20
minutes.
Main Street
 This is a busy and colorful town
during the day. A walk down Main Street is a must, as
there is no town in the Caribbean like Hillsborough.
Shops, markets, sidewalks all teem with noisy activity.
Cars are double-parked everywhere, when theyre not cruising
main street, bumper to bumper.
There
are numerous shops that sell pretty well everything you
need. You will find a hardware store, grocery store,
fruits and vegetables stands, a bakery, and a bank. Grammas
Bakery is recommended for fresh baked goods, as well as
very reasonably priced home-made roti and other local delights.
John The Printer
John Ingram owns a print shop
and Internet Cafe on Main Street. He is also
Webmaster for the Carriacou
Caribbean Connection at grenadines.net. This is one of
the most comprehensive websites for Carriacou and The Grenadine
Islands. Before his business really got busy, John used to
post a diary of the events that had happened that day. It
was a very entertaining window on daily life in the
Caribbean. A stop at the cafe and a quick chat with John
is worth a few minutes of your time.
Callaloo By The Sea
Callaloo
By The Sea is a quaint little restaurant with a nice
patio overlooking the Bay. The food is good but the
service is painfully slow, even by Caribbean standards.
They used to have a dinghy dock, but Hurricane Lenny took care
of that. It is not certain when it will be rebuilt.
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