Classroom lesson · Wallilabou - Pirates of the Caribbean · 🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Wallilabou - Pirates of the Caribbean

The sheltered bay that became a famous film set

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Wallilabou Bay on the west coast of Saint Vincent is a pretty, sheltered cove surrounded by green hills - and it also happens to be where the Pirates of the Caribbean films were partly made. The film crew sailed in, built a pirate port set on the bay, and used the stunning scenery as a backdrop for swashbuckling adventures. Today visitors come to see the leftovers from the set and imagine they are stepping into the movie.

Tell me more

Film crews chose Saint Vincent partly because of its dramatic scenery - steep green mountains plunging into a turquoise sea, lush tropical forest everywhere, and the beautiful natural harbour of Wallilabou. The bay is so calm and sheltered that it is also a favourite stop for real sailing yachts making their way through the Grenadines.

When the Pirates of the Caribbean crew arrived, they brought huge wooden ship replicas, rum barrels, market stalls and all sorts of props to turn Wallilabou into the fictional pirate port of 'Port Royal'. After filming, some of these props were left behind, and you can still see old cannon, chains, anchors and wooden structures scattered around the bay.

Making a big film like Pirates of the Caribbean takes an enormous team - hundreds of carpenters, painters, costume designers, camera operators, lighting crew and stunt performers. Many local Vincentians (people from Saint Vincent) worked on the films, learning new skills and earning money that helped their families and communities.

Wallilabou is also a great spot for snorkelling around the rocky edges of the bay, where sergeant major fish, wrasse and small moray eels peek out from crevices in the reef. The bay has a small jetty, a café and a gift shop, making it a popular stop for day-trippers arriving by boat or bus from Kingstown.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why do you think film crews travel to faraway places to film movies instead of building everything in a studio?
  2. 02When a film is made in a place, it can bring lots of visitors afterwards. Is that always a good thing? What would need to be managed carefully?
  3. 03If you were a set designer for a pirate film, what would you include in your pirate port to make it feel real?
Try this

Classroom activity

Imagine you are a set designer for a new adventure film set in a tropical island. Draw a bird's-eye plan of your film set - include at least five named features (e.g. a market, a harbour, a forest path, a lookout tower). Write a sentence next to each one explaining why it would look exciting on screen.