We have noticed that the schools in Grenada require the kids to wear school uniforms. When I was in St. Lucia in 2005, I saw the same thing. I am assuming that in the Caribbean, school uniforms are normal.

Day 2: February 11, 2017:

Like yesterday, we started the morning with Marguerite’s lite breakfast. Her homemade jam is wonderful as are the freshly-picked, tree-ripened fruits. Marguerite sits with us and enjoys hearing about our upcoming plans. 

Our plan today was to use the bus system to circle the whole island with stops along the way. Almost all the towns and cities are around the coast. There are a few roads that venture inland with some jungle, some historic plantations and factories, and some trails to check out. It is trickier to find transportation inland. Most bus routes favor the towns on the coast. 

One inland spot that we were able to find transportation to was Annandale Falls. I am a sucker for waterfalls. I dragged along my tripod so I could shoot a long exposure shot of the falls which turned out pretty well.

We rode through some thick jungles and got thoroughly jostled in the little collectivos as we zipped around blind curves and switchbacks. We stopped at several of the small towns and made a game out of looking for supermarkets that would take credit cards. (Credit cards, we learned, automatically charge the official currency exchange of the day without taking any fees. That also saves the cash that we have to use for transportation and fun meals.) We only found one store that accepted credit cards. We bought some water and apples at that store. 

One collectivo route took us all the way to the other end of the island to Sauteurs, a working village on the northern tip of the island. Although there wasn't much up there, it had its own non-touristy charm.

As beautiful as the countryside was, we decided to concentrate the remainder of our time in Grenada checking out the beaches. With 45 beaches to choose from and realizing that it will be 5 months before we can go swimming back in Wisconsin, we felt that each day needs to include a beach or two. Therefore, our tour plans changed: skip the other waterfalls, factories, and hiking trails. We will stick to beach bumming.

Annandale Falls.

Located on the northern tip of the island, 30 miles from St. George's, Sauteurs is a fishing town, not a tourist town. There is a beach, but the sand is a darker tan.

Above and below: The beach at Sauteurs.

Even in the island's interior, you are rarely far from the ocean.

Outside of the city, the houses are built very close to to the highway. There must not be any 'set-back' regulations in Grenada.

The jungle produces some amazingly humongous leaves.

This native fruit is called a wax apple and it grows wild. We got it from the school kids at the top of this journal entry. It looks good, but don't let looks fool you. It doesn't taste anything like an apple. It doesn't taste like much of anything - blah.

Day 3: February 12, 2017:

As much as we enjoyed riding the collectivos, when Marguerite offered to rent her scooter to us at a hefty discount, we jumped on the idea.

Of course, there was this little issue of driving on the left side of the road in Grenada. The very first turn that I made, from Marguerite’s road to the main road, I instinctually went to the right side of the road which brought me face-to-face with an oncoming car. Fortunately, the driver had slowed down to a crawl to make his turn. Yikes, the rest of the day my mantra was, “stay left, stay left, stay left.” That worked for the most part, however, traffic circles still gave me fits. Entering them on the left hurt my brain.

This was our new ride! It is the perfect means of transportation for island exploration.

Today was the beginning of our dedicated beach bumming. The first beach we scootered to was La Sagesse Bay, just 7 miles from Esulwini Cottage. We arrived at 7 am, just as the sun was rising. The beach was ours. 7 am? Yep, if we were going to pay for a scooter, we were going to get our money’s worth. 

La Sagesse Bay is a lovely palm-lined crescent with protected swimming, backed by a wall of jungle hiding saltwater ponds that are home to egrets and herons. It has a secluded vibe and feels a world away from the more developed coves on the west side of the island.

Our first hour was getting knocked around by some significant wave action that encouraged high jumps to get over the crest of the wave. If we didn’t get high enough we were tootsie-rolled under until we could find our feet and stand upright. After an hour of jumping and rolling, and then a good dose of sun, it was off to the next beach. Did I mention there are 45 beaches on the island?

Sunrise at La Sagesse Bay Beach. Notice the nice waves crashing on the shore.

A clear jungle river feeds into the bay.

Later in the morning, the one resort in the bay livened up a bit.

The entrance to the La Segasse Bay resort is nicely landscaped with some impressive foliage.

The next beach on our agenda was Magazine Beach. We took the scenic route to Magazine Beach which took us past Emerald Bay, an enclave where the wealthy people live. We heard that Morgan Freeman has a house in this area. The overlooks along the road were spectacular. The homes in the subdivision were mansions surrounded by meticulously landscaped and manicured yards.

You can see by the color of the water why this was called Emerald Bay.

Emerald Bay is where the wealthy live.

Magazine Beach is a party beach complete with beach bars and a DJ sporting his big woofers. Much of the beach was surrounded by a coral reef which would have made for some fine snorkeling. The beach was gorgeous and the sandy section was good enough to enjoy some wave-action. 

Our skin was getting toasty. Wanda’s 70 SPF sunscreen came in handy. We both slathered it on liberally. She has vitamin E capsules and Aloe jell, her secret weapons, back at the Airbnb to soothe any parts of our skin where the sun’s rays snuck past the 70 SPF.

Magazine Beach was tucked between two dark cliffs that extended into the water as a reef. The beautiful sand between the cliffs was perfect for swimming and the trees provided terrific shade in-between swims.

The last beach that we visited today was Mourn Rouge Beach. It was tricky to find as it is at the end of a side street, well off the main roads. Having the scooter made it easier to locate. We could cruise up and down the streets until we found the access road. 

Mourn Rouge Beach is a narrow spit of sand at the bottom of a tall ridge of mountains. Looking down onto the beach from the ridge is spectacular. The beach itself is also wonderful. The small trees lining the beach made natural umbrella-like shade so all one had to do was stake out a tree. Unfortunately, to step into the water, you had to bypass some sea shells. Once in the water, it was warm and calm; seducing us to just swimming and chatting.

A beach in Grenada wouldn’t be complete without a beach bar. The Le Mure, a bar and restaurant on the beach, took credit cards and had a place to sit outside facing the beach. We ordered a couple of rum-punch drinks and split a vegetarian platter.

Above and below: Approaching Mourn Rouge Beach from the top.

Like all the beaches in Grenada, the trees provide needed shade from the hot sun rays.

Several beach bars line Mourn Rouge Beach. We chose Le Mure - they accepted credit cards.

Don't let the small size fool you. These rum punches are made with a generous serving of Grenada's famous 150-proof rum.

When we arrived at 7 pm (ish) Marguerite was there ready to hear our stories of the day. Since we loved scootering, she asked if we would handle the scooter inspection due in two days. She expected that it would take about an hour to accomplish and could keep the scooter for rest of day at no charge. ABSOLUTELY!

VINTAGE VENTURES: The reason I write my travel journals is to be able to look back and remember our ventures. A secondary reason was to allow me to organize all my trip photos. I have thousands of photos. Organizing them into a travelogue made sense. The trick was to figure out how to organize all these photos and journals into a cohesive story. My early attempts failed miserably because I couldn't figure out how to meld photos and text into a structure that worked. It was when Wanda came across the Constant Contact format that allowed me to, not only develop a coherent story of our trips, but to be able to send them to friends, family, and anybody else that is interested.

It is my plan to take each of these early trips, which I call, Vintage Ventures, and collate them into Constant Contact. I hope you find some value in them, even though they are, well, vintage.

Dave and Wanda

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