Grenada
February 1 – February 8, 2019
We connected through Barbados on Liat, our flight was delayed about 10 minutes waiting on a passenger coming in from Guyana. C&I were a breeze since there weren’t many people on the plane. Grabbed a taxi to Grand Anse Beach Palace Hotel, where we always stay. The new mega resort, Silver Sands, is open but we never say more than a dozen guest at a time. It looks very opulent with full grown palm trees lining the huge pools. It looks a little out of place on Grand Anse, maybe more suited to Mystique.
This trip was just about beach time for Kim as it’s her last week. We made arrangements with Marley for a weeks rental and went to the beach every day, sitting near to the vendors market.



Our hotel is the one with the arrow pointing to it, we had a waterfront room for $125 a night including tax and service charge





The view from the hotel grounds

The annual Work Boat Regatta was held on Saturday and Sunday just up the beach from the market near the cut through to the bus stop. This is always a great event and we try to time our trip around it when possible. Small home-built wooden boats from each town race to see who is the best. In the initial series they use their own boats with an assortment of rigs from aluminum to bamboo or a combination of both; the sails are sometimes cut down from old yacht sales. Upwind a guy hikes out over the side using a line tied to the top of the mast; the four-man crews usually seem to consist of a driver, a guy working the sails, the guy hiking out and someone bailing water.



Upwind battle





Hiked out









Work boats on the beach



Taking a rest between races

Plenty of stalls serving local food. I had oildown, souse, jerk chicken and BBQ pork over the course of the two days. Kim got a nice sized lobster dinner for 40 EC, it was nicely grilled and served with salad, provisions and plantains.



Oildown, the national dish of Grenada

If you're not familiar with oildown here's a song about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykds2AqsaFc



My lady loves her lobster

We made it to St. Georges a few times buy fruit and vegetables at the market, we also picked up a nice chunk of tuna for 8 EC a pound. The fruit always taste better when its fresh off the tree.
We did get to try a new dish that we hadn’t heard of before, tannia log porridge, it had the texture of porridge was sweet as condensed milk is used in making it, and seasoned with a little nutmeg, it is made from the root of a plant, the leaves of which resemble callaloo; one of the stalls was offering a bowl of fish broth or the above with each drink purchase.
We have never seen the beach as crowded as it was on this trip; there was a ship carrying 3000 passengers and the beach chairs were stacked 4-5 rows deep. We are going to have to look for other options on the beach where we can rent chairs, get drinks and has plenty of shade so I don’t have to sit out in the sun. We did have one funny experience, Kim was talking to an American couple off the big ship, that were sitting next to us. She mentioned that we had been in St. Lucia and they had also stopped there on the cruise. The guy said we spent the day at Pigeon Point and met this guy, Trendy; yes small world. Kim always used to say Grenada was our favorite island, now it’s Grenada and St. Lucia are our favorite islands, I think the magic is starting to wear off; we even talked about taking the late SVG flight directly to Carriacou and bypassing Grenada and maybe just stopping a couple days at the end to see our friends.



Morning Bloody Mary on the beach



Getting all the sun she can before returning to Buffalo



Grand Anse Beach



Small World

Our friends, Dan & Em from Skyelark, had a one-way trip to Grenada; they planned to sail back up slowly stopping on Union for a few days to kite surf, but the winds forecast for the next week were unfavorable so after meeting us at the marina at 1:00 for a beer they set sail directly back to St. Lucia right after dusk. I had hoped to send a bag to Carriacou with them because I had too much weight for the plane, but I shipped it on the Osprey for 20 EC and picked it up at the office in Hillsborough the next day; you just show up at the dock in St. Georges with whatever you want to send and pay right there getting your receipt/claim check.
Next stop Carriacou!



A small fishing boat with a "long line" setup, it takes nerve to go off in a boat with only one engine, they don't have radios or any safety gear to speak of, if your engine quits all you can do is sit back and wait to die as you drift off to Central America





Sunset photos

Once again Sammy great report and pics. We have been to Grenada a few years ago and loved it. Very peaceful and quiet with great friendly locals. All it takes to ruin a peaceful island is the monster cruise ships and their rowdy cruisers!

thanks for another great report, Sammy!! We always feel like we're right there with you!

Really enjoying this! Keep it coming!!

Thanks for the report, Sammy, brings back recent fond memories of our stay on the island. With your appreciation of local dishes, I'm sure you've been to Patrick's Local Homestyle Restaurant, and for other's who haven't been, I highly recommend it. I ordered their tapas plate, which had 20 different tastes on it (bring a big appetite) for, I believe, $57 EC. Best Callalou soup I've had yet, and dishes I've never seen offered elsewhere, like kale fritters and rabbit. And I was fortunate as they had Manicou (possum) and iguana that night. Iguana was too much work because of the bones, but the Manicou was excellent--more flavorful than goat stew. Too bad they only served oil down as a main course, and most other places we ate at had an excuse for not offering it, bread plant not in season for one, so I have to come back to get my first taste of it.

Again, nice report.