We just returned from glorious 3+ weeks in the Caribbean. Grenada was our home base, and spent about 10 days exploring St. Vincent and the Grenadines by boat. What a beautiful area, an amazing group of islands to be sure!

Part One – The hard part…. Travel from Alaska To Grenada! Traveling to the Caribbean from Alaska is quite an adventure and about a two day affair. We left on a Sunday night (3 hr delay) and arrived Grenada on Tuesday night. We visited many airports – I think I could call it an airport tour perhaps… Our route – Juneau to Seattle; Seattle to Newark; Newark to San Juan; San Juan to Grenada. This trip we had a 5 hr layover in SJU, so we decided to venture away from the airport. We had lunch at the InterContinental Hotel at the beach bar. It was a nice transition from the reality of day to day life into a bit of island time as we were on our journey.

Part Two – Grenada – Land Based…. (Pre and Post sailing)

Pre Sailing - Our land based adventure began at Lance Aux Epines Cottages – Swallow Cottage. The minute we checked in, we were immediately pleased. As our arrival was on the late American Eagle flight, it was dark and we could really not see how beautiful the property was. All the signs of beauty were there – the singing of the tree frogs, the crashing of the waves.. The cottage was everything we had hoped for. It was made up of a nice size living room, dining area and kitchen, complete with ceiling fan. The entire wall facing the ocean is screened in – allowing the breeze to flow in and the sounds of the ocean to be a part of your living experience. The bedroom was air conditioned with a ceiling fan, and a nice size bathroom attached. The kitchen was well equipped and we had absolutely everything we needed in the way of pots/pans and utensils. The cottages are exactly that – a beach cottage. Do not expect luxury, instead more like a beach home you would go visit for vacations and weekends. It was perfect. For entertainment, we spent a few evenings at the LAE’s game room – The Roost. The Roost has a billiards table, ping-pong, kooz ball, a computer to check e-mail, and a big screen TV. We had not played ping-pong in years, so enjoyed the amenities of the game room and had a great time seeing how badly we played!

We need more practice with provisioning properly on a small Caribbean island! The day after our arrival, we visited the large grocery store in Grand Anse. I must say – slim pickings described what we found. Lettuce, tomatoes, and produce in general were horrible and expensive. The meat selection was scarce. We finally agreed (and found ingredients) to cook two dinners, as well as sandwiches for lunches, and snacks. Later in our trip (before we left for home) we visited the supermarket again, and obviously a container had come in – as the selection was much different than what we found on our first trip – LOTS to choose from. At that point however, we did not need groceries. So, I guess one needs to be prepared for anything… or lack thereof.

After our time on the sailboat, we ended our stay at the Flamboyant Resort. We have stayed at the Flamboyant pre-Ivan, and after sailing – that king size bed and a bathtub felt very luxurious! The Grand Anse area has so much to offer and it is easy to catch a bus into town. We enjoyed the freedom of being able to wander just about anyplace we would want to go.

During the land based portion of our trip we did a lot of relaxing, exploring, eating & shopping. Some of our highlights were…
1. Dinners at the Red Crab. (yes, multiple dinners!) I had heard this was a very good restaurant, but it turned out to be one of our favorites! The shrimp newburg was wonderful, as were the scallops mornay. Excellent dinners each time we visited. I don’t think you could go wrong here. Love their house salad dressing – a type of creamy garlic.
2. La Sagesse – We managed to fit in 2 trips to La Sagesse where we lounged and relaxed the day away. As I said last year and will repeat this year – this is the perfect “get away from it all” beach experience. Very few people, no vendors, good restaurant/bar. This is not a snorkeling beach, but a very relaxing float in the water kind of beach. Those two days were perfect!
3. Shopping downtown – We repeated this experience many times throughout our weeks in Grenada. While at the market, stop by the North Pole Bar (back in the corner) for a cold drink. The owner remembered us from our trip last year! Last year I decided to bring lots of nutmeg back for the staff at my school. I decided this year to bring cocoa balls back, so that is what I will do for the staff on their first day of work in August. I think I ended up with 55 cocoa balls! And, one can’t spend a day in town without having lunch at Nutmeg. I am addicted to their cheeseburgers, while my hubby loves their boneless chicken roti. I discovered a store this year called Art Fabrik. If you love batik fabrics, clothing and/or accessories – be sure to visit. I could have done some serious damage in the store, but only came away with one blouse.
4. Lunch at Spice Island was wonderful! I had a pasta dish – a carbonara that was excellent! Hubby had grilled fish and was quite pleased as well.
5. Finding La Bolangerie… what a wonderful place! We had breakfast here one morning, dinner here one night, and our favorite was the pizza for lunch one day. Yummy pizza! Casual, inexpensive and very good.
6. Fish Friday – what a great experience. I am not the biggest fish fan, so was a little apprehensive. I easily did find items that I enjoyed – shrimp kebobs being my favorite. The steel drum band was fun to watch as well. This is a must for visitors to the island to get a feel for the culture of Grenada. The weekly event is frequented by both tourists and locals. Find the homemade ice cream stand as well!
7. Island Tour with Mandoo – Mandoo is the best. He has grown to be more of a friend than just a tour/taxi driver. We did a full day tour with him again this year. We did see different places, and some of the same as well. This year the monkeys were very cooperative and came to give us quite a show. They love the bananas to be sure. The chocolate factory is not doing tours any longer. I had heard some rumors as to why, but Mandoo said they have a new piece of large equipment and there just is not room. It is quite small, so that is easy to understand (although disappointing that we can’t visit). We did buy some Grenada Chocolate Factory chocolate bars before we left the island. It has to last us quite awhile now.

Part Three to Follow…