The spice island that stole my heart

Hiking with the guide.

Where do I start? Words simply can’t describe how much I fell in love with this island.  At first, I really thought my favorite stop was Margarita Island, but now that I’m reflecting on the trip, I realize that when I grow up, I want to be an expatriate living in Grenada. (ha ha)

Dan and I took an early morning ship trip that was advertised for “serious hikers only”.  There were only 6 people on our trip, which was an EXCELLENT number.  My one regret is that I can’t remember our tour guides name. UGH! I’m working with RCI to get his name and post it on here because he was just incredible. He was down to earth, helpful, friendly, and fun.  At first I was worried that we’d run into the ship trips like yesterday and I’d really regret booking through the cruise line, but I’m glad we did because we never would have found this on our own.

I am happy.

When they advertised this trip as a “hike”, they weren’t kidding.  If you don’t like scaling rocks, muddy paths, slippery steps, and crossing streams, avoid this trip.  However, if you enjoy or don’t mind that sort of thing, this trip was a life changing experience.  The end of the hike (I can’t even give you a good guess how long it took because I was enjoying myself so much) was the 7 sisters waterfalls.  We climbed down for a swim for an hour or so. The word that comes closest was “magical”.  There were a few random locals and vacationers playing there as well, and it was just one of those times where everything in the world was right, everyone was friends, and you just wished time would stop at that very moment.

Between the man, the background, and the nutmeg, this pictures tells a LOT about Grenada.

After hiking back through the forest and to the plantation, there were two friendly local farmers who cleaned our shoes for $2.  Money well spent for clean trainers. J

We stopped at a little shopping area with local women who charged $2 for a picture J and saw some wild monkeys.  I’d never been that close to a monkey before.  Oh yeah, I saw a wild mongoose, too.  That was also a first.

After we were delivered back to the ship, we met up with the parents and hailed a taxi to the rum distillery. It was interesting and the rum was potent.  We had just enough time to go through the shops near the ship to pick up spices, handmade crafts, beads, and a Christmas ornament.

I WILL go back to Grenada.