WE GO TO TOWN

It's Tuesday,

October 16th and we've moved out to Calivigny Island. It was a very uneventful move involving picking up the anchor and motoring a short distance to where we dropped anchor again. We have company all around us still and can see the sailing community we were a part of up until this afternoon.

Yesterday we climbed aboard a land vehicle, otherwise known as a bus, to travel in to St. Georges for the day. It was hot with our beloved Trade Winds not nearly so effective at keeping us cool.

Our first stop was amidst a bustling, narrow street with people walking along sharing the road with buses.

It reminds one of San Francisco with it's mountainous terrain and streets that seem to dive downwards to the sea at amazing angles of descent. Driving here takes nerves of steel and a fore-knowledge of what to expect people, buses and other cars to do.

It's impressive that there were no accidents seen during our travels including a walk through a one lane underpass that had clearance of 7'.

You would imagine that taking a picture while being inches away from on-coming traffic was ill-advised, however, there was a very wide person ahead of the photographer running interference.

We walked up to the top of a hillside to arrive at a beautiful vista from an ancient cemetery. Interestingly, all the graves were mausoleums, many stacked on top of one another with an automatic mowing service provided by goats tethered intermittently throughout. One of the oldest grave sites we saw marked a man who had been Attorney General of Grenada for 35 years in the early 1800s. We also stopped briefly to see a Catholic Church on the climb uphill.

As we walked downhill in search of some lunch we passed a number of businesses including The Salvation Army, multiple lawyer offices, a dental clinic, a physician's office and an open air market. John struck a deal with one of the merchants to buy three necklaces made of island spices that we've hung on Elephant's Child. The docks for the cruise ships were close by, their arrivals to start around the 26th of this month. Lunch was at Deeyma's. It was refreshing to find it air conditioned. We both ordered the chicken with salad and rice with beans. AND plenty of water, please! Surprisingly lunch was served with no bread fruit or plantains so John went up and asked for a sample for his new-to-Grenada friend. He returned with plantains and cooked unripened bananas. Different, but very good!

Next stop was The National Museum of Grenada in a building built in 1704 out of bricks that were sent over from England as ballast. The limitations in the quantity and quality of exhibits was offset by the enthusiasm of the retired gentleman who guided us through the museum. From fading photographs to crumbling curiosities.

Up the street a couple doors was a local farmer's market where we stopped for some produce, once it was identified (yes, John, that is an avacado) . Jan, of course, was seduced by some of the local sugary treats. We came home with a HUGE avacado, some garam masala, coconut patty and some tamarand balls. The price of the produce was a pleasant surprise after the IGA.

The bus ride home was another white knuckle experience right up until a second grader piled in just ahead of us looking perfectly relaxed as the driver put the pedal to the metal yet again as we hurtled toward the dingy dock.



John's bit

The bus system is usually closely regulated but things have got a little free and easy with passengers getting dropped off and picked up in places that would usually earn the driver a stiff and on the spot fine.