Carriacou

Classes still haven't started so we still have a few more days of relaxation and exploration of our island home. Paired with this, some of our friends we made in Newcastle are visiting with their little girl. This combination seemed an excellent excuse to do some wider adventures. So at 7:30am, we caught a local bus to the Carenage (bay near St. George) to take a ferry to Carriacou. Grenada the country is made up of three main islands: Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. So far, we've pretty much stuck to Grenada. The bus was more timely than anticipated, so we had fun walking around the Carenage, gazing at the myriad wildlife just below the surface of the water. We spied an eel, black spotty crabs, sea urchins, tons of different fish, even a pair of squid.

The "fast" ferry is a 90-minute morning thrill ride along the western side of Grenada, a bit of open sea and then up to Carriacou. Here you can see us as the journey begins -- relatively calm seas because the island of Grenada is between us and the winds coming off the Atlantic. Richard and his daughter Evie (our visitors from Newcastle) are in the first picture, then Maria, Matt and Louise (Richard's wife). We had a great time watching the coastline from the viewing deck up top. We could see all the jagged, forested hillsides dotted with tiny plywood houses. It was a little tough keeping our footing, so I sat with Penny while everyone else took periodic trips to the rail. Dan spotted a flying fish or two and tried to capture them on film, but I can't quite spot them.

Then we got past Grenada and the fun really began. There were decent swells and the boat felt like it caught air quite a few times. There was that momentary weightlessness of a roller coaster just after the peak. It wasn't too too bad, but then there got to be some lateral moves as well. This part should have been short as we passed a series of smaller islands as well, so they should have shielded us from the big waves, but it still seemed pretty rough. We were doing well for a while, but the sea eventually got the best of us. Pale faces preceded some disgusting displays (which was probably unpleasant for the folks on the glass-enclosed floor below). One person even managed to puke right on the head of another person, though the recipient took it remarkably well. We were very happy to finally reach the shore, where a conveniently located beach served as a quick place to rinse various soiled garments.

After briefly hanging out on the beach to allow our stomachs to settle, gather some beautiful seashells, and purchase some dramamine, we headed to the interior on a driving tour with a local taxi driver. He took us to the local hospital - located at the top of a hill so they could circulate air through the hospital better (without use of air conditioning). So the local hospital had this spectacular view of Hillsborough, the island's capital, and the bay where we arrived.

We saw some old sugar mills (you can see one pictured on Dan's shirt), abandoned plantations, current schools, lots of reefs offshore and plenty of local sheep. You'll notice that local sheep look very different from sheep back home or in Newcastle.

The main attraction to Carriacou, which means "many reefs," is the snorkling and scuba diving, but also the more rustic nature of the island. With two folks under two years old in tow, we didn't plan on much underwater excitement. However, our 30 minutes on Paradise Beach were action packed as Richie captured a starfish the size of a dinner plate to show everyone. We also had a lovely view of Sandy Island (the low pale strip on the horizon here), which helps keep the water in the bay nice and calm. After everyone had a chance to enjoy the monster starfish and a refreshing dip, we returned the wildlife to the bay and piled into the taxi to return to the ferry.

Properly medicated, we headed back to Grenada. The sea was much calmer this time and we decided we'd try sitting in the glassed in deck in hopes of not moving quite so much. Penny had a blast crawling all over the luggage, ripping off the shipping labels on packages and jumping on Mommy's tummy. As you can imagine, none of these went over too well. As we approached St. George, I gathered her up and walked to the front of the boat. She had a blast and a half facing into the racing wind, sort of like that scene in Titanic. So despite the rough beginning, we had a great visit to Carriacou and we continue to have fun not having too full a schedule. It's hard to believe it will only be four more months until we get to head home!