A Weekend in Grenada

I feel a bit like a rockstar poser putting that title: "blah, blah, ... we jetted down to Grenada for the weekend...just had to spend a couple days on our big fancy yacht...met my good friend Keith Richards there..."

So the truth is there were a couple of purposes for our trip. First, our visitor's visa expired on Nov. 15th (our work visas were still being processed when we arrived in August) and our 3 month grace period for driving also ran out. In order to take care of these seemingly small "paper work" items, we would both need to take at least a full day off work.  The system can be quite slow here for some things -- licenses especially.

We figured out that we could leave the country and upon return we'd have our passports stamped properly and we'd be able to drive again! The closest option for foreign travel is Venezuela. Although we can see it from the beach, the 7km swim is just too far and that part of the country is a little "rugged". And, well, it's not overly safe there right now.  The next best option is Grenada, so we decided to make a weekend of it and booked the 40 minute flight.  Luckily, it's not the busy season and one of the all-inclusive resorts was offering a decent sale. Wins all around.

We trekked to the airport on Friday night and were in the air by about 8:45. By 9:45 were checked in and having a late dinner. I created a stir by entering the dining room in my shorts.  Oops! There is a dress code for men after 7pm!

Saturday morning we had a great breakfast that included bacon. It's the first we've had since moving.  Most of the bacon we can buy in Trinidad is turkey or very expensive. I've eaten 3 months worth in one weekend.

After a quick tour of the hotel facilities we could see that the weather wasn't going to be great so we decided to jump on the bus to the local market. We speculated it would be quite busy because we saw a large cruise ship come in around 7 am. Upon arrival, the first of many downpours started and we quickly found the tourist mall that was crowded with visitors from England on a 5 week cruise. There were many souvenir shops, with made in China items stamped with the word Grenada.

When the rain broke we freed ourselves from the mall and were greeted by Herman, a local who was claimed to be the "big man around here". He toured us around St. Georges, the markets, the fort and told us stories of the history of the country. We initially thought about ditching him, but he was really a good guide.  He stayed with us for about an hour and a half and showed us things we'd never have seen without him.

At noon we returned to the hotel and played -- snorkeling, sailing, kayaking, eating for the rest of the weekend. It was so nice to have been able to take a break from school.

Upon our return, our passports were given a shiny new red stamp showing July 2015!

Check out the pictures in the gallery.