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The Island of Carriacou

Carriacou is a dependency of Grenada with a population of approximately 8,000 people.

The first settlers to Carriacou were the Amerindians and appropriately referred to Carriacou as the 'Land of Reefs'. Carriacou was settled by the French, but in 1763 was ceded with Grenada to the British.

Although Britain was hard pressed to overcome a pro-French revolt in 1795, Grenada remained British for the remainder of the colonial period. During the 18th century, Grenada's economy underwent an important transition.

Like much of the rest of the West Indies, it was originally settled to cultivate sugar, which was grown on estates using slave labor, but natural disasters paved the way for the introduction of other crops.

• Topography and Climate

  Through centuries of volcanic activity, the topography of Carriacou is hilly, rising up to as high as 956 feet, with an irregular coastline surrounded by coral reefs and white sandy beaches. The land is wooded with lush, tropical vegetation and is, for the most part, unspoiled.

  The dry season usually runs from January to May and the rainy season, or locally called "green season", arrives in patches throughout the other months, though prolonged rain is unusual. Hurricanes can occur in the Caribbean between June and October, but are rare in the Grenadines. The temperature year round in Carriacou is about 27-32C.

  Kick 'Em Jenny is an active and growing submarine volcano that located about 5 miles off the northern end of the mainland and about 10 miles south of the southern tip of Carriacou. Its cone rises some 4,300 above the sea floor and its summit is about 500 feet below the surface. There have been a few reports of Kick 'Em Jenny blowing its top and even ejecting eruption columns through the surface into the air, but such episodes have been rare and infrequent.

• Hillsborough

  Hillsborough is the largest town and port of entry in Carriacou. It lies along a stretch of sandy beach known as Hillsborough Bay and boasts several small shops and restaurants as well as a museum and botanical gardens. It is the landing point for all inter-island vessels and home to all of the administrative and governmental buildings.
  
  Lauriston Airport, with a runway of 1560ft, is located just southwest of Hillsborough. SVG Air (St. Vincent Grenada Air) is the main carrier and operates daily between Grenada, Carriacou, Union, Canouan and St. Vincent.
  
  

• The People

  The majority of the inhabitants today are of African descent with a very small percentage of the population of German, Scottish and French ancestry. Constant awareness that the past is immanent in the present has also meant that Carriacouans or Kayaks, sometimes written as Kajaks, have retained a culture of individual regional and ethnic African identities. The village of Windward was home to a group of Scottish boat builders who settled here in the 19th century. The Scottish names and boatbuilding skills have been passed down through the generations. Many locally built boats, from small fishing sloops to large trading schooners, are seen in the Carriacou waters. Boat building is still carried out in the traditional way on the beaches but fewer have been built in recent years.

• Culture and Tradition

  Although Carriacou is small in size, it is rich in African Customs and Traditions, especially when compared to some of the larger neighbouring Caribbean Islands. The Culture of Carriacou has many origins and is hence a rich and varied mix of cultures which has made up a whole new one.

• Industry

  Carriacou produced mostly cotton with some sugar, limes, coffee and cocoa. Today the inhabitants grow corn and pigeon peas for their own consumption and subsistence farming, live stock rearing, fishing and seafaring form the main occupations. The collapse of the sugar estates and the introduction of nutmeg and cocoa encouraged the development of smaller land holdings and the island developed a land-owning yeoman farmer class.

• Infrastructure

  The town of Hillsborough has 'borehole' or pipe water that is feed by a large well through pumps. The rest of the island depends mostly upon cisterns that are built next to or under each dwelling. The cisterns are feed by the guttering and downspouting that catch rain off the roofs during the rainy season. Those who live in some smaller dwellings that do not have cisterns depend upon government catchments or cisterns that are located in most villages. The island's power is supplied by Grenlec. It is diesel generated and is reliable and stable at most times. The total power output is currently over 4 megawatts. The system utilizes 3 phase high tension (11.5 kVas I recall) power lines that are routed throughout all the inhabited areas. Each dwelling is supplied with stepped-down single phase 230 volts of alternating current (AC). The frequency is 50 Hz (cycles per second) as opposed to the US standard of 60 Hz. Most appliances made in the US, or made to work in the US will work here, but timers that use frequency sensitive motors or digitally controlled appliances that use the line frequency as their time base standard runs slower or will not keep proper time. 5 Telephone system is usually reliable and current touch-tone technology and is available in all current inhabited areas. Most Caribbean Islands are connected by a transoceanic photo optic cable through the Cable and Wireless Telephone System. Carriacou; however, is connected to the mainland via a microwave link that sometime acts a bottleneck during peak usage times. Often the MW link keeps modems from achieving highest connect speeds available. Cellular service is both analog and digital capable, but most cellular service is limited to areas within a two mile radios of Mount Royal. Most northern and southern ends of island has only patchy cellular coverage, but Hillsborough is mostly covered