Last Dance in Grenada

I have been in the Caribbean for 2 months and am currently in Antigua getting ready to tell the tale of my last 5 weeks in Grenada. I have only been in Antigua for a few days but you will hear about it in the Antigua edition of my Caribbean chronicles, which won't be for at least another month.

So when I last left you, I was telling the tale of Carriacou (one of Grenada's very quiet sister islands). Well I actually finished that story without talking about my last week there which was actually the most fun I had in Carriacou. I was staying on the windward side of the island at a place called Bayaleau Point Cottages. I highly recommend it. The owners are super friendly and they have plenty of water sports to choose from. In the time I was there, I did activities such as Sea Kayaking, Snorkeling, Spear Fishing, WindSurfing and Sailing to name a few... oh yes and I also did some work ;) I would like to thank Dave, Ulla and their kids Max, Alex and Ea for their hospitality, good food and source of constant entertainment. Last but not least there was also Popo, the local handy man. They are all a very interesting mix. Dave is from NY, Ulla from Denmark and the kids were born in Grenada. I was surprised at first to see Caucasian kids with local accents but they are able to switch accents at will.

Spear Fishing

So there I was on the first day with this family eating BBQ fish (cooked over a small camp fire) that the two boys Max and Alex had caught spear fishing that day. I figured that would be very cool to try... and so a few days later I had the chance to snorkel out to the reef with a spear gun. I went out alone which in retrospect was a bad idea considering I had never been out there and it was my first time with a spear gun! Anyway, I went out and discovered that I couldn't find any big fish worth spearing...After what seemed like a very long time and the fear of being humiliated by coming back empty handed I decided I wouldn't get out until I found something that I could eat. Finally I see swimming in between the coral these big eyes on what appeared to be a Red Snapper. So I pulled on the trigger and Bam!!! I got him...fresh fish for me and the family. So I surfaced to inspect my catch...

Before I continue let me stress to those who have never looked through a mask under water that fish appear to be 4 times bigger under water. When I looked at it, my heart just sank, I felt so guilty, I just killed a minnow!!!. I think it would have been less humiliated coming back empty handed than with this little guy. I wanted to cook and eat him so his death wouldn't have been in vain but what was there to eat??? Dave tried to console me and said he could use it as bait on one of his fishing trips. And so ends my spear fishing days.

Windsurfing

As for Windsurfing, all I can say is that its allot more difficult than it appears. I spent most of my time falling off the board. Granted, I only had a five minute tutorial on it but it took me 3 days just to manage to stay on the bloody board for more than 10 seconds. I was rather discouraged to say the least. By the second day I almost gave up. What was really frustrating was seeing Alex, a 10 year old wizing bye me, surfing like a champ. I will likely try again some day.

U.W.O.

There are mysteries in Carriacou that the locals don't mention to the tourists. In the same way that strange things happen during the full moon, things from the Twilight Zone come out when the moon is completely dark. And so on the darkest night of the month they come out to terrorize unlikely tourists. I was walking back from a party to my cottage at midnight on just such a night. It was very dark and I could barely see if I was on the road or not. I luckily found the path that lead to my cottage. As I approached my door I saw some kind of white object on the ground somewhat smaller than a football blocking my path. I suddenly heard this sound Click Click Click as the hazy white things quickly moved 3 feet to the left. It appeared to know I was there and Click Click Click it scurried back in the other direction. It was a U.W.O... Unidentified Walking Object! It then returned to the darkness from whence it came leaving me quite puzzled and slightly worried. Later the next day I found out that Land Crabs come out at night when its safe for them to eat. And so the mystery of the U.W.O. was solved.

Sailing to Grenada

When finally came time for me to leave Carriacou to head back to Grenada, Dave had the wonderful idea to sail back to the main island on his friend Paul's beautiful sail boat/yacht The Venus. Paul was great! He was a cross between a British hippy, a Sailor and Santa Clause. I really enjoyed the 5 hour trip even though I made the mistake of going below deck to take pictures which rendered me sea sick for a bit. However, Paul did have a very good herbal remedy for sea sickness and in combination with sitting against the main mast I was back to myself soon enough.

This man has spent the last 40 years of his life sailing around the world. His home is the boat which he designed from bow to stern... a very beautiful ship I must say. This man is a genius, at one time he was revered by other sailors to be one of the best sailors in the world. I believed this because he showed me some sailing books where him and his boats were featured. He was quite the character and I was very happy to have met such a free spirit.

One of the other remarkable things about him (besides the fact that he is an encyclopedia of good stories) is his uncanny knack to date beautiful young women around the world. I guess its true what they say about sailors!

The Island of Grenada

To be honest, my first week in Grenada was not so great so lets just skip to the second week. What can I say I was in awe... when I arrived at this new property I thought I must be dreaming...Spice Island Beach Resort. We are talking five star accommodations here. Service second to none, all inclusive open bar, beach front rooms... I did not have this in mind when I signed up for volunteer work in a "developing country". Lets just say that the monthly allowance that VSO provides for me would not cover one night at this resort. Needless to say, I was very happy and extremely pampered. I had a jacussy and bar in my room. And then there was the food!!! Holy mother of God, I have never eaten so much and so well in my entire life... Imagine a different menu every night and 7 course meals. The staff and management were great and really helped me feel at home.

As a side note: If you recall I mentioned in my tales of the first month in Grenada that Jack Iron was unbelievably strong dark rum (99 proof)...well they happen to have something stronger. Clarks Court Rum...the clear variety is 138 proof!!! The only time I had some was to use it to erase graffiti on the wall from a permanent marker. I thought Jack Iron was potent... Clarks Court was just scary.

Canadian Film Crew

Just when I thought it couldn't get better, I meet a really great group of Canadians from Toronto who kindly invited me into their circle to party and just hang out. They were actually filming a Canadian travel show called "Suite and Simple" where one host (the spitting image of Robin Williams) travels in the lap of luxury and the other hostess (a beautiful blond actress) follows more of a shoe string budget... I spent the rest of the week with them and had a really good time. I also met a great couple from England...Cheers!

Looking forward to seeing you all soon! To be honest, from that moment on, for the next 3 weeks I was meeting people and making friends like crazy.

Grand View Inn

The following week I spent at the Grand View Inn (walking distance to the Spice Island Beach Resort). Although the accommodations were much more modest, I made some good friends there as well. I got along quite well with Darryl and Eyon. Eyon is Grenadian and Darryl was one of 3 hotelery interns/students from Trinidad. They taught me wonderful sayings such as "Limin wit da cat skins" (hanging out with beautiful women).

The Last Week

My final week in Grenada was spent in the lap of luxury once more. I found out that one of the properties had canceled on me and so after Grand View Inn I returned to Spice Island Beach Resort for my last week... Life is hard ;)

Scuba Diving

I Finally found time to scuba dive. Actually I made time since it was my last week. It was an easy dive at approximately 35ft of depth and so I was down for only 50 minutes. I saw many wonderful things such as the "quarter" wreck. A small ship that sank and all that remains is the back section (approximately 1/4 of the ship). I also saw lobsters, morey eels, sea slugs, urchins, giant hermit crabs, a small school of squid and a dozen other fish of varying shapes and sizes. The most amazing thing however was the large school of sardines. There were thousands of them all beautifully silver swimming in unison as far as the eye could see and all around me. As if there was an invisible protective bubble around me, they all swam perfectly outside of it. It was realy quite amazing.

International Party

It was that day during the dive that I met a very nice couple from Boston, Michael and Leigh (pronounced as Lee). The first time I saw Michael he appeared to be a mix between the macho Mr. Clean and a Cross Dresser. As I got to know him I realized he merely had a unique taste in clothing, shoes and makeup. They hosted a pool party one late Monday night (after we all closed the bar) with a large group including people from Ireland, England and Germany. The next day everyone was moving much slower with little motivation to speak or eat (keep in mind that this resort has an open bar policy). Needless to say work was not very productive for me that day.

By mid week almost everyone was gone except for Brian and Emma (brother and sister) from England. I hung out with them the rest of the week as well as with many more young people from England. Saturday night was my last night in Grenada and I left for Antigua early the next morning (July 21st 2002).