Each day better than the last
12 December 2010
Karen
Sunday, December 12th, 2010
Well - it's been quite a week here in Grenada. Our engine part is still in transit from the UK, so we found a few other things to occupy our time here.
Wednesday December, 8th - Denise, Frank & Patrick picked us up early and we were planning to go hiking at the 7 sisters waterfalls, which are a series of waterfalls that tumble into each other. We made a few 'wrong turns' such as they are and went up the coast so we ended up taking a rum and chocolate tour instead. Again I tell you this is a beautiful island and with the exception of some steep inclines, and the complete lack of road signs, fairly easy to drive. We stopped at the Belmont Estate and watched a little of the chocolate production, and bought some chocolate then found the rum distillery again and took another great tour of the facility. We found the bakery and stopped for some wonderful hot, melty cheese bread since we didn't have any lunch then finally made it back to the marina for a quick dinner.
Thursday, December 9th -on Thursday we made arrangements to go over to St. David's and help Ocean Jedi shut down their engines, etc. We got both engines and both generators flushed, got the stainless polished, helped hoist the dingy back into the locked and loaded position and misc other tasks. For lunch Patrick made some amazing Chicken with motzarella cheese and sun dried tomatoes and later in the afternoon we all jumped in the sea for a swim (some were scuba diving) and a kayak. I have been thinking about getting a kayak for a while, but this was my first Kayak ride and I LOVED IT!. A kayak is definitely on our list of things to have. After the swim, we all came back to Regenero and Patrick grilled up some Lo Mitro that they picked up in Venezuela (or Tenderloin for us US types!) YUM what a feast.
Friday, December 10th - On Friday we headed to a small town north of here for their Fish Friday. It is a mini 'Taste" festival with food vendors selling their specialties and music pumped out of speakers at HIGH decibels. We sampled Fish cakes, grilled snapper, Lambi (conch) cakes, fried breadfruit and plantains, skewered tuna, sailfish, and more. The only thing we missed was the coconut shrimp...the main draw for all of us to go, but that vendor wasn't there..oh well, maybe next trip. It rained a bit on us but we all just pulled on our rain jackets and ponchos and just kept on going. At one of the tables we sat with some medical students who were from the states who had just finished their finals and were celebrating with grilled lobster. They were fun to talk to for a few minutes.
Saturday was a brilliant day. We headed out all five of us and went up to the Grand Etang nature Reserve up in the rainforest, carrying a bunch of bananas as our friends on Hanco told us the monkeys will come and eat right out of your hand. Well they weren't kidding. Within minutes of our arrival a monkey came running along the fence and very politely accepted out gift offerings. Patrick had stuffed a banana in my pocket to free up his hands to take pictures and in the excitement I forgot...well the little critter saw it and just reached out, climbed up on my arm and helped himself right to it. A pretty amazing experience! After the food was gone, so was the monkey - so we took off to see the Grand Etang Lake, and then headed a little further on to the hiking area.
We grabbed a tour guide for the trek and they provided walking sticks which turned out to be a godsend. The hike goes down a road thru the old plantation, which people now live on and farm for themselves. Then it goes down thru a mucky (due to the rain) rocky, boulder and bamboo strewn path that at times seems near vertical. The hike was strenuous, but very manageable ...although long legs helped a lot! 30-40 minutes later we arrived at the lower two of the 7 pools. We hiked thru a smaller stream and came up on a small ridge which overlooked the two pools and the boulder strewn river flowing out of them. Our guide, Cliffon, clambered up a little further to the base of the third pool and then amazingly executed a backwards dive/jump off the 30 foot fall. Once in the water, he swam out and then did a rock to rock jump and sprang off into the lower pool. None of our group was willing to take either of those risks - but we stripped to our suits and clambered into the pool for a refreshing swim. These are elevated mountain streams, so the water was cool (not quite brisk) but certainly not bathwater. It felt great!
On our hike back out it was ALL UPHILL...which was work, but actually a little easier on the knees. We passed a group of college students heading up to the falls, and they asked if we jumped all seven..of course we said, Yes! There is a small open air bar where the path meets the road, and thankfully it had plenty of shady bamboo benches for us all to rest on.
After rinsing the mud off our feet off as best we could back at the car, Denise made us all a quick sandwich and we drove back down the mountain to the marina, where we jumped in the pool!
For dinner Patrick roasted potatoes and onions in foil packets and roasted garlic and grilled rib-eye steaks they brought from the freezer cleanout. We had another amazing dinner courtesy of Patrick the grill master.
Today - we have dinner plans, and may go up the mountain again to visit our friend, the monkey, or check out the forts. We have burgers and dogs planned for dinner and a german chocolate cake sitting in the ice box to share.
To those I usually celebrate this day with...I wish you were here too to share this wonderful place!