Woke up this morning feeling a little bit sad, as Grenada is our last port of call; tomorrow we’d be back in Barbados and flying home later on. So we were determined to make the most of it today 🙂
Grenada is only 21 miles long by 12 miles wide and is very scenic with volcanic craters, mountain valleys, waterfalls and lush rainforests, as well as gorgeous white sandy beaches and azure sea. This was our first visit, so we were keen to explore.
After breakfast we left the Ventura and decided to walk into town and have a look round. There was a big hill with a tunnel cut through it; both traffic and pedestrians went through the tunnel and there wasn’t any barriers separating the two! The tunnel was only one way (for the traffic) but there wasn’t much room for pedestrians to pass either, so we had to be really careful. I was actually quite relieved when we came out of the tunnel on the other side 🙂
On exiting the tunnel we found ourselves in a pretty little harbour, where fishing boats were moored up and there were lots of little shops and cafés, and little houses nestling in the hills. It immediately reminded me of a tropical Whitby.
We walked all the way around the harbour, stopping occasionally to look in the lovely clear water, where we saw quite a number of fish of different sizes.
We came across the Grenada museum and decided to have a look inside. It had lots of interesting artefacts from Grenada in the last century, as well as examples of stuffed birds, fish and shells. Grenada obviously has a lot of nautical history too, and part of the museum was dedicated to the various ship wrecks which can be found all over the Caribbean. One of the most famous sunken ships is Costa Cruises Bianca C., which sunk in Grenada after an explosion on the ship in October 1961.
As we were walking back, we saw a hairdressing salon which was advertising braiding to cruise passengers for US $15.00 on production of a ship board pass. That was quite cheap, only a tenner in English money. There weren’t many customers in the salon, so I asked one of the hairdressers if she could do my hair now.
It always takes ages to have corn-row plaits done and today was no exception. It took an hour and a half, but luckily they had a TV on in the salon, showing an interesting film which we later found out was called Apocalypto and was directed by Mel Gibson. As Trevor also had a sit for an hour and a half waiting for me, he enjoyed the film too.
Finally my hair was done and we walked back, through the tunnel again, and back onto the Ventura. I was dying of thirst by now so I enjoyed a freezing cold Red Bull and had a fairly light lunch of salad. I didn’t eat too much as we were due to go out on the booze cruise this afternoon, and I wanted to avoid swimming on a full stomach.
After lunch we put on our swimming things under our clothes, gathered together our towels and sun creams, and congregated on the dockside to await our guide, who would escort us to the catamaran called Rhum Runner II.
Our guide and host introduced himself as Shaun and said that the Rhum Runner was the party cruise. The catamaran had an upper and lower deck; we stayed on the lower deck as it was shaded from the very hot sun. Shaun explained that it would take about an hour to get to the beach which was to be our destination, and in the meantime we had to PARTY!
The Rhum Runner II set off, the soca music started, and the plastic cups were filled with rum punch and soft drinks for us to help ourselves to 🙂 I went and got a rum punch for Trevor and for myself, and we took a big swig. Boy were they strong! Usually rum punch just tastes like a fruity drink, but these ones definitely put the “punch” into rum punch.
We had another one each and it was just enough to make me want to get up and dance. I did so, and one of the boat’s crew noticed me dancing and came over to me to get a “conga” started. We went round, getting other people to join in, and it was all good fun – just what the booze cruise is about 🙂
We managed another rum punch each and soon the Rhum Runner II was dropping anchor at a gorgeous secluded beach. They dropped the gang plank and we went ashore, placed our towels and flip-flops on the sand and put on some sun lotion. The water was turquoise and the sand was white and powder soft; it was bliss.
Shaun came down the gang plank and asked everyone why they were on the beach and not in the sea! He said “Who wants some more rum punch?” and the cry of “ME!” went up. So Shaun went back onto the boat, turned the party music up LOUD and came out a few minutes later with a tray full of the plastic cups of iced punch. He started giving them out to the people in the sea, so that was enough for me to wade out until the water was chest deep. It was gorgeous and cool.
Shaun had an interesting way of serving out the punch; he would swim on his front with his face under water and the tray balanced on the back of his head. You couldn’t see him in the water; all you could see was a tray of rum punch coming towards you! We helped ourselves and swam around and sang and danced; basically we were having a party in the sea! In fact, the few people who were on the beach when we arrived got up and moved elsewhere – I think we were making too much noise for them, ha ha 🙂
Shaun went back several times and replenished his tray; we stayed in the sea and drank and danced and had a really good time. I told him that we went on a lot of cruises and indeed I had a website and a blog dedicated to them, and I would mention him in my blog. So Shaun, if you’re reading this, a great big “HELLO” from England – and thanks for a really great afternoon 😀
After an hour and a half, Shaun blew on his conch shell, which was the signal for us to go back on board Rhum Runner II. Once back on board we set off for our return to the Ventura. To be honest, there’s not much more I can write, because I can’t really remember much about it! Must have been a good party then, lol 🙂
Back on board the ship we returned to our cabin and crashed out on the bed. We woke up and 6.45pm to realise we should have been at dinner and hadn’t even been washed and changed yet. I still had my cossie on and the bed was full of sand; every time I moved I was getting a free body exfoliation. I was ready to go back to sleep but Trevor made us a strong coffee each and, like it or not, it was our last night on the ship and we had to pack. 🙁
So I got out of bed, packed our cases with all the stuff we wouldn’t need in the morning, and placed them outside the cabin door. So we missed our dinner, missed the evening’s entertainment, missed everything that happened after 5.00pm 🙂 In lots of ways it reminded me of our day in Alter do Chão in Brazil last year, when I got sackless on caipirinhas, lol 😀 What the hell, it’s part of being on holiday!
And so there ended our final evening in cabin B238; this time tomorrow we’d be on the plane going back to Blighty.