Living in Bequia - utilities

St. Vincent (Vincy) is the bigger, more urban island, thus it has more urban access to utilities, -- water is from the mains, large power plants produce electricity, not sure about gas or sewer. Of course, most all phones are cellular.  There is 50-60% more rain in StV than BQ and they have central collection, etc.

On Bequia, you have to collect your own water, there is a small diesel generator for all island power, gas is available in propane tanks and sewer goes to large discharge septic tank systems (no leach fields since there is no flat land). We ended up buying a phone here and contracting with LIME, the local provider. Using Verizon would have been a costly joke. We have been avoiding long distance as it will cost somebody $1.99 a minute (international rates). Skype is preferred for long distance.

So far, we have lost the internet for a couple of hours and lost all power/cable/internet for about 3-4 hours - although both are considered "a bit unusual".

At Ravenala, it looks like this:

The unit on the left is for hot water. It works really well, since the water is quite warm enough. It works on the same principle as our western sun shower, although more high tech. The photovoltaics are not the primary source of power, it is used to feed the grid and reduce the cost of electricity (it drives the meter backwards)

 These are one set of water collection tanks. I think there are about 12 total on the property and they provide all water throughout the year. In addition, the way the house was built, (concrete and block) the "cellar" is a huge water tank. They seem to have a few thousands of gallons of water. (which drains down in dry season. It is all mostly collected from roof run-off.