Life in Grenada has been pretty quiet in the last month or so. We’ve had a few cloudy days and a fair bit of rain which we’ve collected from our new awning so keeping the water tanks full. Luckily Grenada does not seem to attract the frightening electrical storms that were a daily occurrence during the wet season when we were in Panama last year.
Having said that we got caught in the rain yesterday while hiking up to Concord Falls. It was a pretty drive through verdant hills and colourful villages to the start of the hike. Initially we followed a stony track built over 150 years ago to bring nutmeg and cocoa down to the coast to market. Then we followed the river through the jungle to a couple of waterfalls and enjoyed a cool swim in the pool.
As we started back the light rain became a downpour and the path became a mudslide. Somewhere along the way we disturbed a nest of tiny wasps and several friends got quite badly stung. To add to the drama was a pressing need to keep moving to get back across the river before the water rose and made it uncrossable. We all made it back with a bit of excitement to spice up a fun day.
Grenada remains almost Covid19 free making life here pretty relaxed. Masks are required on buses and in public places and clouds of hand sanitizer linger in doorways, but that’s about as far as Covid precautions go. Dengue fever is more of a problem with 118 cases this year, compared to 32 cases of Covid19. The same mosquitoes carry Zika so we have mosey nets on the boat and we try (but usually fail) to remember to take bug spray when we go ashore.
On the way back from Cariacou we stopped for a few days at St. Georges, the capital city of Grenada. We had spent 14 days in quarantine in the bay so not seen much of the town. It was fun to explore the steep narrow streets, poking around the market and in shops selling everything from fabric to hardware, accompanied by Christmas songs calypso-style.
While we were anchored in St. Georges we took the dinghy around to Grand Mal where a series of underwater sculptures have been erected. A dozen years since their installment corals and sponges are growing on the figures creating some strangely disturbing images. The other thing we found quite eerie while snorkeling there was the human figures that had fallen over and lay like bodies on the sand. Very spooky!
Talking of the underwater world we often see lion fish while snorkeling in the bays here. These predators are not native to the Caribbean but have spread here through the Panama Canal. Lion fish are considered the most damaging invasive fish species: each day one adult consumes nine times its body weight of other reef fish causing a catastrophic impact on local marine communities.
Spearfishermen kill them but removing the numerous poisonous spines makes them a slightly hazardous fish to fillet. However a local industry has taken on the challenge so I bought a bag of frozen lion fish pieces in the supermarket. Once I’d removed the bones the fillets were about 2” long but the white flesh tasted good in a Thai green curry.
On the subject of food I picked a couple of banana flowers while we were walking yesterday. In Indonesia I had heard that they were good to eat so I thought I’d give it a go. Preparing them was time consuming; peeling back the blade-like leaves to reveal the florets which have to be individually picked over to remove the pistil. Eventually you get to the white heart which can be chopped and the whole lot put in lemon water to keep remove the bitter sap. They were great in a curry but I’m not sure I’d bother with all the palaver again!
What else have we been up to? We went tubing on the Balthasar River a couple of weeks ago. It had been raining but not too much so there was some white water where we spun and bounced off rocks – great fun. Between the rapids in the long stretches of calm water, our guides tapped on the tubes to keep them moving while we drifted along enjoying the tranquil ride through the jungle. Fabulous.
The record-breaking hurricane season (29 at the last count) is almost over and we are looking at the options for cruising up island. The “green bubble” allowing yachts to move between islands without quarantine has sadly burst so we are monitoring the various Covid19 requirements and trying to make a plan. Can’t complain – life is good!
Suzy and Neil