A trip to Grenada

Another Trip into Town, the Cottages, Snorkeling, and More Pina Coladas

On day 3, our vacation really got going. Yvonne and Susan were getting relaxed, and we switched to our final lodging and car. The Suzuki arrived that morning, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, packed, and I checked out while the women took the luggage to storage at the Lance Aux Epines Cottages on the south coast of Grenada.

A local in St. George's Click to see larger image

They returned to collect me and we set off into St. George's, where we visited the Grenada museum, an old church, an art gallery, several shops, and then spent a large amount of time in the open air market. The museum had some interesting artifacts, the church had a beautiful view of the city, and the gallery had artwork out of our price range. We did buy some rum at one of the stores, though. :)

The market was interesting -- used by locals and tourists alike, it offered all manner of spices, fruits, food, and other goods. But especially spices and fruit. Yvonne was disappointed to learn that mangos were out of season, but then excited to find the market still had a few! We also picked up some other fruit, drank coconut juice from a fresh coconut, and bought many spices. Yvonne and Susan were probably called "Honey" or "Sweetie" as much today as they normally hear in a month: "Hey Sweetie, got the best spices here!" (verbalize that with a Caribbean accent). At first I kept asking if each spice was locally produced (I didn't know they made vanilla on the island!), but after being told "It's the spice island, honey" a couple of times, I wised up. :)

Y & S with a woman in the market Click to see larger image

View of St George's coastline.	View of St George's from the old church.
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Between yesterday and today, we also came to appreciate various drinks bottled on the island including "Ting", a carbonated grapefruit soda. We had lunch at the Baywatch cafe (no relation to Pamela Anderson), where we ate chicken "roti", which is a tortilla like wrapper with a chick-pea lining filled with potatoes, spices, and meat. Very similar to some south Asian cuisine. We lugged our many purchases back to the cottages, got our luggage out of storage, and settled in. This was the first time I had seen the inside of the cottage we were staying in -- it was really nice. It was huge (maybe 35 feet long), with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining area, a sitting area, and a full kitchen. Like most of the buildings on the island, it had permanent openings covered with screens to let the warm ocean breezes blow through the building; in this case, the entire seaside was screened in this way, making the sitting area seem more like a veranda or porch.

Pretty flower on a bare-branched tree Click to see larger image

The dock at Coral Cove that we snorkeled off Click to see larger image

We rested a bit and then went to nearby Coral Cove Cottages (which has a sheltered cove with a long pier for snorkeling) on the same peninsula as the cottages to go snorkeling. It was getting dark, but we still got in a good hour of snorkeling. It was my first time, and I was pretty clumsy. I found myself wondering if I had become so jaded that a new experience like floating in the water looking at all kind of fish, vegetation, and coral didn't impress me more, but later realized that it was more because I was concentrating on the mechanics of not drowning. Not that I was in any danger of drowning. Since I'm not a terribly proficient swimmer and was new to the snorkel gear, I stayed in the shallow, calm area while the gals explored further out. I would check where they were every so often by looking for their snorkels -- I could tell by the amusing sight of Yvonne's white fins in the air if she was in a shallow area over coral. Later I found that Susan had brushed against some fire coral, and I saw several sea urchins scattered through the sandy area I was in, but I managed to not injure myself. It was on the way back from snorkeling that I drove the Suzuki for the first time, and amused everybody. :)

Did I mention that our cottage had a dedicated housekeeper who also cooked? I don't think she cooked this day, but I can't recall where we had dinner. It was either this night or the next that we ate at "Coconut's Beach Restaurant". This was a delightful little restaurant on Grand Anse Beach. There was a live band, a soft sea breeze, and moonlight illuminating the palm fronds. We ate lobster, lambi, callalo (a local spinach), and generally enjoyed ourselves. It was a beautiful night. We also had entertainment besides the band! A number of tourists were dancing, including one very energetic fellow who must have had too much to drink...

This was a busy day.

Inside of cottage, seaside, facing front door	Outside of cottage, seaside
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Back to Day 2

On to Day 4