Vinnies questions

[drnick07]

Is duty assessed on electronic devices etc. upon entering St. Vincent, as in Grenada?

Is there a baggage weight limit entering and/or leaving Vinnies? does this depend on the airline (Liat vs. BWIA)?

Is there a "mass transit" system like the reggae buses ?(hint: never use this term around locals)

Are the taxi fares as inflated as Grenada? (e.g. 35EC at night, 25EC during the day)

Do you really have to visit multiple grocery stores to get what you need?

And just for the sake of asking, is there a place i can get a motorbike or scooter in Vinnies? (apparently i'm not the only one who wants to know link (http://qp2.sgu.edu/QuickPlace/postit/Main.nsf/h_9D4D09FA63A4216604256CD1005896DD/435D0E8523B9D1FE04256E7E00806A06/?OpenDocument)) I think i'm having my mid-life crisis at my quarter-life.

[clinicalso]

Hi DrNick! I can answer a few of your questions. There is NO duty on electronics in St. Vincent, as in Grenada. They don't care what you bring in. If I were you, just for safety's sake, I would bring a receipt anyhow, but no-one I know of has ever been charged. They're not greedy.

There is a baggage limit, and it does depend on the airline (either 40 or 70 pounds usually). Since there aren't any big carriers that go into Vinnie's, the weight restrictions are more strict, but there are always ways around it, as I'm sure you learned in Grenada. (Put everything in your backpack, they don't weight it). The nice thing is most apartments in St. Vincent are so well-stocked you only need to bring your clothes. This is because students send their stuff from Grenada, and by the time they leave Vinnie's, they are ready to leave everything there. It's great. (Make sure you ask about what is included in your apt though).

There are reggae busses just like Grenada, but they don't seem to come as often, so you could wait a long time and you could be really squished (my record was in St. Vincent for 21 people in a reggae bus). We rented a car and never regretted it. We often ended up taking other students to school who had been waiting for a bus for a long time. A lot of people shared with roommates, which would be so cheap. No idea about taxis. I don't think I ever saw one, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

As for grocery stores, they are scattered and not really near the school. I got by just going to one main store (I think the best one is downtown- you go to the water (dead end- have to make left or right) and go left. It's immediately on the left. That one was comparable to Real Value in Grenada but lots cheaper. I only went to other stores for specialty items or if I only needed one or two items (not worthy of a trip downtown). There are a few smaller stores closer than downtown, and some people got by just going to those. There are a lot of choices in grocery stores, and it's not as bad as you've heard. I never had a problem finding anything.

As for motorbikes... I'm sure you can rent one there, but I honestly thought driving in St. Vincent made driving in Grenada look like cake. I SAW five accidents happen in the one term we were there- one being a nasty, head-on motorcycle crash. Also, a lot of natives drive drunk- in fact the driver who took the school on the volcano trip had bottles of beer under his seat. I didn't even feel safe in a car while on Vinnie's... but hey, if that's what floats your boat! (Just remember how much you have invested in your education and your need to use all your faculties to be a doctor).. :) But maybe someone else on this forum knows where to rent them... I'll leave that one open.

So have fun! I thought St. Vincent was a blast! I wished all of the two years were there. It was a happy ending to life in the Caribbean, and I actually left knowing I was going to miss it.