Back to our old routine

Ok ...we are back in business and I am feeling much better again. We also have started our school routine again! It was very hard for all three of us to stick our heads back into the books again after three weeks off school. I finally caught up on our blog entries, and now there is heaps to read for you if your interested what we have been up to the last two weeks. As already mentioned in a previous blog, I cannot post any pictures on our blog at the present moment as we have used up all our uploading space on Picassa, but no worries I am upgrading and will do it as soon as possible. We have got plenty of plans for the next couple of weeks. Lots of Yoga will be happening and I am very excited to meet with Amy on Thursday as well as going to the 700th Hash event on Saturday. So watch this space for some exciting news and more adventures.

Coincidence or meant to be

It is always surprising how small the world is. A year ago I have noticed a friend of a friend on Facebook and was drawn to her beautiful appearance on her profile picture. Since I don’t like befriending people on Facebook that I do not know personally I just left it at that. However her picture appeared on Facebook once in a while. During my communication with friends for my birthday wishes I mentioned to Yogamani that we are based in Grenada at the moment and how much we liked it here. She promptly wrote back telling me that a good friend of hers had just moved to Grenada and I should try to connect with her. Guess who it was…right … the beautiful friend of a friend with the name Amy that I had become aware off just a year ago. She had just moved to Grande Anse in Grenada which is just 15 minutes from where we are anchored. How bizarre is that? I connected with her through Facebook the same day and we arranged to meet on Sunday for a picnic lunch on the beach near us. She has got two children, aged 4 and 6 and despite the age difference the children had a ball when we met on the beach yesterday. While the guys went snorkeling with the children, Amy and I sat in knee deep water and exchanged and shared our passion for yoga. We got on like house on fire and have got a few connections from back in New Zealand. It was so beautiful to see the infusion of our energies and we thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company. We have got lots of ideas that we can bounce on each other and I can feel that our compassion for yoga will bring us plenty of joyful hours and afternoons. People like to say about Facebook what they like, I like it and it has given me plenty of opportunities to stay in contact and share my pictures with friends around the world while out on the ocean and now it has given me another beautiful friend to embrace and to enjoy her company while staying in Grenada.

A tour across Grenada

Today is our second day driving around in a car and there is still so much to see and do, so we started early to make the most out of it. Yesterday we went right around Grenada, today we go across the island. I am the navigator again and believe that I am better organized today and have got more of an idea where we are going then yesterday. We will see the day will tell our first destination were the seven sisters Fall! My inner GPS and map told me to go to St. George and then we had to turn right at some stage to go inland. I thought that was pretty clever of me, Sven just gave me the funny look. There was never a real sign saying go this way to the Falls, so when we were close to go the same route then yesterday, we turned around and took the next good looking turn right. All of a sudden a sign turn up saying the Grand Etong Forest Reserve…. puhhh ….we are on the right track. A beautiful road guides us right through the middle of Grenada. The highest point we crossed told us that we are 583 meters above sea level, Carlos ears are popping. Then we reached the car park of the Seven Sisters Falls. We pay our entrance fee of 5 EC (approx. $2) and a walking stick and then we are on our own. The Seven Sisters Falls are located on private property and we have to walk across the farm to the Falls. First we walk past banana plantation, beautiful nutmeg trees and a huge farmed area with lots of vegetables and fruits hanging from the trees. Then we left that part of the property and came into the more unmaintained path. It went down the hills and since we had lots of rain the day before the sort of walkway was very muddy and slippery. However our flip flops brought us safely to steady grounds and we just had to rinse them in the next river bed. This walk to the Falls was just amazing and pretty wild and natural….lots of fun and then finally the jungle opened up and revealed the beautiful Seven Sisters Falls. We just felt like in the movies of Indiana Jones, such beauty upon us. We slipped out of our clothes and into the bathing suits and went for a well deserved swim in the cool water. Ahhhhhhh….how literal cool and awesome that was. We had a good swim and when we felt that we were cooled off enough, we dressed again and made our way back. Luckily this time it went more up the hill which seemed a bit easier then down the hill. By the time we reached the car park again we were hot and sweaty again and ready for another dip in the pool, unfortunately there was no pool in sight. We hopped into the car and just drove further along. Next I navigated us to the Sulphur spring close to Clabony, we went high high into the mountains looking for the springs, but the further up the mountain we went the smaller and uneven the road got. After 1 ½ hour we finally gave up and turned around; even though we did not get to our target it was still a thrilling experience and very beautiful scenery. By the time we came back out of the mountain we were hungry and looked for a small convenient place to have something to eat. We drove and drove around and at some point I had lost my navigation and I did not know anymore where we were. When we finally found a place to eat we discovered that we were on the other side of Grenada, in Grenville. We had the most tasty pork and chicken snack from a local side store, when by luck I discovered that we were standing right in front of a cocoa processing plant. After our snack we went for a little tour in that factory, which was very fascinating and informative. After the little tour we made our way back to Grande Anse. It was already getting dark and we were exhausted once again from driving in the heat all day. Back on the boat I downloaded all the pictures from yesterday and today and we relived the two trips again. Unfortunately I cannot download any pictures at the moment as my uploading space for pictures on Picassa has been reached. I will have to upgrade this function soon and will share new pictures with you soon. It has been a wonderful and memorable two days; what a great birthday present …..thank you Sven, Julia and Carlos and everyone else for sharing this with me!!

A tour right around Grenada

My birthday present for this year was to hire a car and tour around Grenada. We met Ray at nine o’clock at the “De big Fish” restaurant and he drives us to the police station to obtain our Grenadian driver license. We did not have to sit a test; we only had to pay money for the “driver license ticket”. Another way of making money from tourists, never mind we put that behind us and make our way to explore Grenada. As we are leaving the station we can see the sky overcast and then it starts pouring down with rain. The road was hard to see, but we are determined to get to our first stop and so we kept going to the Concord Falls. Once we were a bit higher in the mountain the heavy rain finally stopped and it only drizzled a little bit. In actual fact the rain enhanced the lush green scenery and we stopped several times on our way up the mountains to admire the view. The Concord Falls is a 3 level waterfall, however because of the rain we just went to visit the lowest cascade as it was easy accessible from the road. After the Concorde Falls, we also visited the Annendale Fall, where a local guy impressed us with an acrobatic jump from the top. Afterwards we made our way to Gouyave to visit the Nutmeg Station, which became another highlight in the Caribbean. I did not know what an interesting spice the Nutmeg is. Not only was the smell overwhelming in the station, it was also interesting to discover how the Nutmeg is harvest and processed and what it is used for. The Nutmeg grows on beautiful evergreen trees. Nutmeg is the actual seed of the tree and is roughly egg-shaped and about 20 to 30 mm long and 15 to 18 wide, and weighing between 5 and 10 dried. The outside yellow capsule is used to make jam and syrup, while the “lacy” reddish covering around the actual seed is called mace and is used as a spice for soups. The inner seed is in a shell and will be dried; once it is dried the shell is removed and used for a flavor in the BBQ fire. A shelled nutmeg lasts up to three years and with its shell it stays fresh for up to 10 years. The first harvest of nutmeg trees takes place 7–9 years after planting, and the trees reach full production after 20 years. Nutmeg is usually used in powdered form. This is the only tropical fruit that is the source of two different spices ….overall an amazing and very interesting fruit. After the nutmeg station we make our way to the north of Grenada. The island is very green and people are very friendly, wherever we go people wave to us and when we asked for directions we get very precise and correct directions. Excellent experience! Our next stop is the River Antoine Rum Distillery. This is the oldest working rum distillery in the Caribbean, where traditional methods are still used for rum making and it is the only distillery driven by a water mill. It was impressive, but the smell here was stomach turning, with all the old fermented sugar cane piled up around the place. It was very interesting to have a look at the old machinery and it gave us a little impression how they used to make their rum and still do up until today….very old fashion! From here we stopped at Lake Antoine, which is a shallow volcanic crater lake with great spots for bird watching. This place reminded me very much of the Green and Blue Lake in Rotorua back in New Zealand. The Belmont Estate is next on our list; this was supposed to be one of our highlights on this trip and turned out to be a total disaster and disappointment. The Estate is set in 400 acres of lush rolling hills and a working cocoa plantation with a chocolate factory attached. When we arrived it already gave us a deserted impression, however you should never judged anything from the outside. Unfortunately the first impression was right this time and nothing much was happening there. The restaurant looked still in a very good shape so we had my birthday lunch there….ups wrong decision ….the food from the buffet was not good and I would not recommend or rave on about this place. Our last stop for the day was Grenville, which is the second largest town in Grenada. When we arrived late back home we were exhausted from driving in the car and heat all day, but happy with our experiences and I will have fond memories of my 45th birthday for a long time.

Happy Birthday to me !!!

Today I am celebrating my second birthday on the boat.....yeah and still loving it! Happy Birthday to me. My family sang to me this morning and with such beautiful start into the day it promised to be a good day. Julia and Carlos were really excited about my birthday and made me a beautiful Necklace each....thank you so much ....I love it. However my most beautiful present are my children, being married to a wonderful man and having the opportunity to have such a wonderful experience with them. Thank you universe to provide us with such a prospertous life.

Bruised and Battered

I haven’t been feeling very good the last week. Don’t really know what is going on, whether it is the hot weather, my upcoming birthday or maybe simply needing a break from everything. However while dealing with my personal crisis, I broke my right toe once again, and if that was not enough I stepped onto a fishing hook with my right big toe ….autsch…at least now I know why I am not feeling so on top of the world…my right foot is in pain! Nevertheless that is nothing what a real cruising lady cannot handle and so today we took the bus to St. George. I am limping around town behind my family and adore the architecture of St. George. We all very much like St. George and especially Grenada. Everyone is really helpful, friendly and in general they seem to be happy people. First of all when we arrive in town we explore the area, where the cruise ships usually dock, luckily today there is no cruise ship in so everything is empty and everyone is pretty relaxed around the shops. Downtown St. George is very clean and I like the mix of modern and old architecture mixed together. Unfortunately you can still see where Hurricane Ivan left its note in 2004. It did not only destroy 90 % of the Nutmeg and Cacao plantations, it also destroyed quiet a few churches and other facilities around Grenada. When we are back on the boat we have got an hour to rest before we are off to the movie night in Clarks Court, with a bunch of other cruisers.

Back to Grenada

We are heading back to Grenada this morning. As you might have noticed already our access to the Interrnet has been quiet thin and I have fallen behind with my reports, but I am hoping that back in Grenada it will be better again. We have managed our two lots of guests on JUCA very good and are happy with the feedback. So Captain Sven is ready to lift the anchor and to leave Bequia...I can already hear the anchorchain coming up.....Lots of love to everyone and we are all sending you a big hug where ever you are....See you back down in Grenada!!!!