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JANUARY 2008 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 38<br />
Basil’s Bar<br />
Mustique<br />
Visitors to Mustique are invited to:<br />
BASIL’S BAR AND RESTAURANT: Basil’s Bar in Mustique was named one of the<br />
World’s Ten Best Bars in 1987 by Newsweek magazine and today lives up to that tradition.<br />
Recently renovated the new face of Basil’s Bar in Mustique is all that and more<br />
offering the freshest seafood, steaks and pastas for dinner. Terrific lunches and breakfasts.<br />
Now equipped with WIFI you can enjoy sunset cocktails and catch up on the web.<br />
Basil’s Bar is home and originator of the Mustique Blues Festival, January 23 - February<br />
6, 2008. Breakfast service begins at 8:00 AM, Lunch is served 11:00 AM - 6 PM,<br />
Dinner at 7:30 until late. Come to Basil’s for Cocktails anytime and plan to attend the<br />
Wednesday night Jump up and BBQ. Call 784-488-8350 or VHF 68.<br />
BASIL’S BOUTIQUE Fabrics as bright as the sea and as light as air... perfect for<br />
island joy. Elegant island evening and playful day wear. For women, men and children,<br />
plus lots of T-shirts to take home. Basil’s Boutique also offers silver and gemstone jewelry.<br />
BASIL’S GREAT GENERAL STORE: There is nothing general about Basil’s<br />
Great General Store - stocked with fine French wines, cheeses from Europe,<br />
sauces and gourmet jams. Imported cigars. Fine foods in Paradise. Call 784-488-8407<br />
ACROSS FOREVER: Imagine, decorating your home with Antiques from Bali<br />
and India - contemporary pieces and fabulous lighting. Across Forever has<br />
a magnificent collection of furniture and home accessories from Asia.<br />
Shipping is easily and efficiently arranged. Call 784-488-8407<br />
Visitors to St Vincent are invited to:<br />
BASIL’S BAR: In St Vincent - near the port of Kingstown is an 18th century cobblestone<br />
building where you may find Basil’s Restaurant and Bar. Air conditioned,<br />
you will enjoy cocktails most delightful, the staff most welcoming and the meals, some<br />
of the best on the island. Call 784-457-2713<br />
Visit Basil’s in Mustique or St. Vincent<br />
www.basilsbar.com basils@caribsurf.com<br />
WE SHIP AROUND THE WORLD!<br />
Ask any cruiser who has dropped an anchor in Isla Margarita’s Porlamar<br />
anchorage and you will likely find a sailor who knows Juan Baro and<br />
who has benefited from Juan’s knowledge and his cruisers’ services.<br />
As far as cruisers are concerned, Juan Baro might be called “The Mayor<br />
of Margarita”.<br />
Juan is a small thin man with a big presence. His bushy goatee and the ever-burning<br />
cigarette wedged between his fingers are trademarks of sorts. You can find him every day<br />
but Sunday, sitting at his computer in his little office at the base of the dinghy dock at<br />
Marina Juan’s, listening to music ranging from classical to Bob Dylan. If not at his computer,<br />
he’ll be sitting in a plastic chair outside, chatting with some cruiser or other in<br />
French, or English, or Spanish, or whatever is needed to communicate.<br />
I don’t think I’ve ever read a cruising article about Margarita or spoken to a fellow sailor<br />
who was offering me advice about my upcoming visit, where Juan was not a topic of conversation.<br />
The advice is usually, “As soon as you drop anchor, go see Juan and he will get<br />
you cleared in and tell you where you can get whatever you need.” And if you are looking<br />
for an ice-cold can of 25-cent Polar beer at happy hour, Juan’s got that covered, too.<br />
What’s Cooking<br />
with ‘The Mayor<br />
of Margarita’<br />
by Jack Foard<br />
We loved our stay in Margarita. When we arrived we announced on the net that we<br />
would be moving on in three or four days. Laurie, the net controller that morning,<br />
laughed and said something like, “That’s what they all say.” We ended up staying several<br />
weeks. Looking back at the possible places to hole up for hurricane season, I think<br />
Margarita is the place to be next hurricane season. It is not below the hurricane belt<br />
as far as most insurance companies are concerned but it is just a day sail to some<br />
excellent hurricane holes along the coast of Venezuela, officially below the belt.<br />
The water in the anchorage off Juan’s dock is usually clean for water-making and<br />
swimming. “The WiFi Guy” provides the best WiFi service we have seen in all the<br />
<strong>Caribbean</strong> and provisioning is easy, thanks to Juan.<br />
Three days a week Juan lines up a free bus to a huge supermarket complex where<br />
we bought large quantities of case goods, beer, soft drinks, a new computer, and vegetables<br />
and we didn’t have to carry a thing. It was all carefully boxed up and delivered<br />
right to Juan’s dock where Alviz carried it all down to our dinghy. Prices are<br />
great. We bought baguettes for 12 cents and filet mignon for less than US$4 a pound.<br />
I’m always curious about people so I sat down and sipped a few beers with Juan<br />
one warm Saturday afternoon in October. I learned two important things about Juan<br />
right away. He has always been passionate about travel and he has always had a<br />
passion for understanding the significance of his life.<br />
Juan was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1952, the son of a successful businessman.<br />
He became infatuated with the idea of world travel as a Boy Scout. The trips he made<br />
with the Scouts lit a fire in his soul to travel and as a very young man he started a<br />
log where he wrote down all the places around the world he wanted to visit. He went<br />
so far as to make a pledge to himself to set out to tour the world when he reached<br />
his 18th birthday. He kept his promise.<br />
What better way to see the world than by ship? Juan’s first travel was as crew on<br />
a cruise ship, the SS Donicetei, and his first port of call was in Peru.<br />
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