Monthly Archives: January 2013

We spent the last day of the year doing last minute things.  We’re hoping to move on tomorrow, so the morning started with a trip to the GSPCA, Grenada SPCA, which I was told is the best place to get Topaz a health certificate to travel to the next country. Topaz and I caught a taxi and about 5 minutes and $15 later we were there.  On the wall is a world map showing where all the volunteer veternarians came from. We were seen quickly, the check up was simple, the form filled out, the fee plus a small donation came out to $37, and off we went.  Topaz and I made the short downhill walk to the harbor where Eric picked us up.  We dinghy-ed to the Foodland Dock and picked up some last minute fresh and refrigerated items.  The big treat was ice cream.  Since the return trip was directly to the boat with out buses, hikes, or waits, the ice cream made it.  But our freezer isn’t cold enough to store ice cream, so we had to eat it all  :)

Next we did a bit of a history/tourist tour.  First place of interest is the infamous customs building where Eric worked to get our shipment released.

Next is St. George’s Fort is on the point at the entrance to the bay. To get here we wandered through town, down a one lane tunnel with people hugging the walls and cars rolling through.  The traffic here is the worst I’ve ever seen.  Zillions of little cars on tiny roads with turns and curves everywhere.  On the other side of the tunnel is the Cruise Ship Mall.  Right outside of the mall is the cruise ship dock, every few days a few ships pull in and their people file through this mall boosting the local economy.  In front of the mall is a Subway sub shop, our first fast food since Dec 4th. Across the street from the mall is the back stairs to the fort.

In the picture below, I’m at the entrance to the fort and you can see the empty cruise ship dock where two ships had been yesterday, and a cool 400 foot sailing cruise ship.

We had a great tour guide who showed us around the fort, explained some of the things you can see from the top, and told us about Grenada in general.

Like many settlements from Florida on down, Grenada was occupied by several European nations. I found a great timeline to get all of this sorted out in my mind.  Here’s my abbreviated version.

1498 – Christopher Columbus wuz here

1650 – French settlers establish a colony

1783 – Great Britain acquires the island

1974 – INDEPENDENCE

1979 – Prime Minister ousted, new PM Maurice Bishop has ties with Cuba and US

Let us have a look at the main differences wouroud.com levitra on line between the two of them. The tablet super cialis canada discover over here can be taken conveniently with water. Raising up in such a home or society, later makes man suffer pfizer viagra online http://www.wouroud.com/index.php?ln=en from sexual shame and limits sexual enjoyment. Patients with prostatitis typically have long-lasting genitourinary/pelvic pain and obstructive cialis in uk and/or irritative voiding symptoms. 1983 – PM Maurice Bishop executed because of objections to him improving ties with US.  US invades Grenada to protect the island from increasing ties with Cuba and Russia. The following link describes the invasion as more of a rescue mission and how the US forces were welcomed. www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq95-1.htm

1984 – New Prime Minister, Grenada back on track.

2004 – Hurricane Ivan, 90% of Grenada devastated

 

The view from the Fort was great, the west side was the cruise ship docks, on the east side is our anchorage, there is Makai and Topaz waiting for us. On the ridge across from us is another fort that they used signal flags to communicate with.  On the hill in the picture below is the Catholic church, biggest building in the photo with a steeple.  It lost it’s roof in hurricane Ivan and wasn’t replace for 6 years.

The presbyterian church below wasn’t so lucky.  Our guide said they have plans to replace the roof soon.  Even at the fort the roof is gone and because these buildings are low priority, they haven’t been replaced.

That’s the end of our tour, now for the treacherous, walk back.  I watched Marie either throw herself against the wall or jump into a doorway when a car came by.

Everyone was happy to get back in the car, we had a great parking spot.  As Eric got us up on a plane, this means the hull skims the top of the water as we zip around, some one mentioned that our car even has air conditioning.  The cool breeze felt great after the steamy hike.

For the rest of the afternoon Eric worked on trying to figure out why our refrigerator, which is supposed to be a freezer, doesn’t get cold enough.  He’s been in email communication with the manufacturer doing tests.  I’m sure he’ll get it straightened out at some point.  The kids wanted to stay awake until midnight so we put together a plan on how we would stretch the evening out.  By 9pm, Eric and I fell asleep and the kids watched a movie, which ended at 11pm.  Then all the kids fell asleep at 11:05.  At midnight, I thought we were being invaded with all the booming and crashing around us.  Luckily, it was only Grenada celebrating the New Year.  I didn’t hear a peep out of the town until midnight, then they proceeded to party and disco until 4am.