Marsh Harbor!! That brings back memories from a few years back…

The blue waters were up, close and personal as we sped down the runway. Reminded me of the airport in Honolulu!

While seated in our flight, looked up to the roof and saw this. I don’t recollect seeing this ever before. Have you?

It is like somebody framed a picture!

Some these pack quite a punch.

Our cottage is a bit high up on the hill. About 50 steps or so. The View from the balcony is incredible. Most of the time, we see the blue waters but not from this perspective. You can see our beach below, in between the trees.

When we got down the airport, there was a sign that the island is trying to get its plastic problem under control. The resort has a nice park and garden as part of the property. We saw quite a few sculptures done with plastic bottles.

For all that, I am a bit curious, why they give our water in the room in plastic bottles.

See here for the background

See here for the background

We were taking a stroll thru the greenery adjoining the beach when suddenly, we came across this art studio!! We went up and explored all the paintings by a local artist. However, the artist himself was not there. We enjoyed the paintings, nonetheless.

On an aside, twenty years back, I would have just walked past this. Being married to an artist, now I am sucked into exploring art in every place we go. Appreciating art, of course, still escapes me. Till somebody comes up with a painting of the picture proving Pythagorean theorem, I suspect, this is not going to change much.

I was a bit surprised to see all this in the peak of winter.

Called Monkey Bar, this is a bar set up in the green forests right on the beach with a lot of seating spots, hammocks, and all that to relax around. You now know where to find me this evening!!

I was a bit surprised to see so much hard rock in this side (south west) of island. It is also the drier side. For that, the greenery is impressive.

To go to the lobby and main area of the hotel, we have to get out of our cottage and take flight of 40 steps. This is the view as you starting climbing down!

We came back from our walk in the hills. Getting ready to go to St. George’s. This is the view from inside the room!

Did not mind the “island time” of waiting!!

Grenada carries the moniker of “The island of spices”. The islands that make the country – Grenada. Carriacou and Petit Martinique produce a robust amount and variety of spices. St. George’s market was full of them. One difference from other markets that we have been to in other Caribbean islands. Nobody was trying to push he tourists to buy aggressively!

Puzzle me this. Where is oncoming traffic supposed to go? It comes straight onto the foot path that I was standing on!

Reminded me of Malta!

Grand Anse beach. Enjoyed the view with a rum punch. It was crowded. Had to wait for 30 minutes to get a seat at the equally famous restaurant on the beach – Umbrella’s!

Sharmila and I were out and about in St. George’s market when I got a message from our first friends in this country – Rema Deo – “Where are you? And which hotel are you staying in?”

As a background, Rema and I got to know each other in 1992 while working at Citibank in Mumbai. Then we moved to Citibank in Florida, where they had already moved some time back. And then we moved to Citibank in Dallas. But, of course, always kept up with them. I think they were the first ones to visit us when our first daughter was born. And Sanjay, not knowing what to do with a newborn, assembled a barbecue for us, instead!!

Rema and Sanjay are crazy travelers, too. They have been to 65 countries, if I am not too mistaken. I figured they were going to give us some welcome tips.

Turns out, Rema and Sanjay were sitting on the tarmac on an American Airlines flight in Miami when she saw my Facebook post of “Island time again!” I had not mentioned which island, though. However, she had the presence of mind to go through the comments, and sure enough, somebody had asked where we were headed. And I had said “Grenada”.

Incredibly, that is where their flight was taking them! In fact, they had even booked at the same hotel as us and changed it at the last moment. Never mind, it is only a 15-minute walk away!

And that is how we met our friends from Florida over dinner this evening in this island of Grenada!

In a nod to George Bush, Sharmila practices “No mangoes left behind” policy. We could not get any street side mango vendor here. Not the proper season now. I remember in many islands – Aruba, Fiji, Cabo, Cancun, Costa Rica (well, last one is not an island) – stopping on the side of the road so she could try out the local mangoes! In Grenada, she had the hotel folks procure local mangoes for breakfast the next day!

The black rocks nearby – remnants of the volcanic activities that created much of the Lesser Antilles – get pulverized by the waves and bring in this color to the sand.

At first glance, it is a bit unnerving!

We are off to explore the island. We could see the Morne Rouge Beach (also called BBC beach) from top of the hill. We will target to see the sunset from there this evening.

And the water colors are divided sharply along those lines!

Apparently, the previous one was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. This was built much higher up after that.

You can see Grand Anse Beach, The Quarantine Point and then way behind is our hotel

If you can see the towers right on the top – that is the highest motorable point in the island. We will be there soon. And to the left, if you can see another tower, that is where we are headed – the Anandale Falls.

Richmond Hill Prison. It used to be a military hospital once upon a time.

While driving up the mountains to Anandale waterfall, we stopped at this spice place where the dad – and the owner, I presume – will give you a whole history of the various spices in the island. He took us thru the production process. John is his name. He took great pride in showing off his knowledge and spices.

Eventually, we bought quite some and then hit the highway again!

As we started entering the Anandale park, almost immediately, I saw a Mona monkey. Turns out that would also be the last one we would see. These monkeys are very shy. I had barely gotten the phone out when it scooted up. You can see the monkey – especially the face – if you carefully notice the black path in the middle.

Like I mentioned, that was the last spotting of a monkey this trip! Also, apparently they are not native to the island. They were brought in from West Africa.

The local kids were having fun at Anandale Falls.

This a famous eucalyptus tree that was planted in 1977 after Hurricane Janet. Its bark peels to reveal striking shades of green, blue, purple, orange, and maroon.

Situated 1910 feet above mean sea level, it offers some sweeping views of the island.

From the picture, it is not evident, but if you stand by the shore of this 36-acre lake and look around, you will see that you are surrounded by high hills on all sides. That is when you realize that you are looking at a crater lake! This was formed about 12,000 years ago.

But the moment we threw some crumbs into the water, literally, schools of koi came over to fight for them! The video looks better than the picture. The shine off the water surface makes it very difficult to see.

That was not to be!

There are two country capitals that I am aware of that have an apostrophe in them. One of them is St. George’s – the capital of Grenada. There are other capitals that have the quote mark – like Sa’ana or N’djamena or Nuku’alofa – but that is because there is a special way of pronouncing them locally. Why the posessive noun?

Finally, I have found the answer!

Turns out Grenada has seven parishes – St. Andrew, St. John, St. George, etc… In the early days, there would always be one important city – usually a port – in the parish where most business would be conducted. That city, usually, would be referred to as the “city of that particular parish”… in other words… St. George’s, St. John’s, or St. Andrew’s. Each parish in Grenada follows that rule.

Checked out Antigua and Barbuda. Sure enough… There is the St. John parish, which has the capital, called St. John’s!

Who turned out to be our friend, philosopher and guide. Learnt a lot about the local culture, people and history from Alberto Monteram. That last name has an Indian bend to it because his grandmother was Indian from both sides!

Hope to see him again in our next trip!