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General Information Area: St Vincent: 344 sq km (133 sq miles). Grenadines: 45.3 sq km (17.3 sq miles). Total: 389.3 sq km (150.3 sq miles). Population: 111,000 (1998). Population Density: 285.1 per sq km. Capital: Kingstown. Population: 16,132 (1996). GEOGRAPHY: St Vincent & the Grenadines make up part of the Windward Islands and lie south of St Lucia. St Vincent, like all the Windwards, is volcanic and mountainous with luxuriant vegetation and black sand beaches. The highest peak of St Vincent, La Soufrière (1219m/4000ft), is volcanic, and deep down in the crater is a lake. The ‘tail’ of the comet of St Vincent (the Grenadines) is a string of islands and cays that splays south from Bequia (pronounced Beck-Way), Petit Nevis, Isle à Quatre and Pigeon Island to Battowia, Baliceaux, Mustique, Petit Mustique, Savan, Canouan, Petit Canouan, Mayreau and the Tobago Cays, Union Island, Palm Island and Petit St Vincent. All of the Grenadines are famous for their white beaches, clear waters and verdant scenery. Government: Constitutional monarachy. Gained independence from the UK in 1979. Head of State: Queen Elizabeth II, represented locally by Governor General Frederick Ballantyne since 2002. Head of Government: Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves since March 2001. Language: English. Religion: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and other Christian denominations. Time: GMT - 4. Electricity: 220/240 volts AC, 50Hz. Communications:   Telephone IDD is available. Country code: 1 784. Outgoing international code: 0. Mobile telephone TDMA network operated by Cable & Wireless Caribbean Cellular (website: www.caribcell.com). Compatible with most US handsets but not with GSM phones. Unregistered roaming is available – visitors with TDMA handsets can make calls without registering, provided they can give a credit card number. Fax Faxes can be sent from most hotels. Internet ISPs include Caribsurf (website: www.caribsurf.com). Telegram Facilities are limited to main towns and hotels. Post Airmail to Western Europe takes up to two weeks. Post office hours: Mon-Fri 0830-1500, Sat 0830-1130. Press All newspapers are in English and most are published weekly. The most popular papers are The Vincentian, The News and Searchlight; The Herald is published daily. BBC World Service and Voice of America frequencies: From time to time these change. BBC (website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice): MHz 15.19 12.10 6.195 5.975 Voice of America (website: www.voa.gov): MHz 13.79 9.455 6.130 5.995 From www.columbusguides.com, Copyright © 2004 Highbury Columbus Travel Publishing Terms and Conditions apply.