The Last Day...

...of Mom, Dad, and Rachel's trip to Grenada.  And we ended it with a bang.

Our day started out at Annandale Falls. I have been to Annandale a couple of times, but on this particular day, two HUGE cruise ships were in port and so there were a lot of tourists at the falls. 

And we got to see Jack the Mona Monkey at Annandale.  I met him the last time I was there!

After spending a relatively short amount of time at Annandale, we drove up to Grand E'tang.  I had yet to make it up to Grand E'tang, mostly because when I say up, I mean UP!  The drive is pretty windy and very uphill and kind of hard on poor Toby Toyota and I haven't wanted to attempt the drive with just me and a bunch of girls in case of a problem.  But, Toby did just fine, like he always does and we made it to the top.  Grand E'tang is a nature reserve and is a submarine volcano that is no longer active.  The crater lake is about 1,800 feet above sea level.

In my opinion, the best part about Grand E'tang was the wild monkeys!  I use the term "wild" very loosely, because although these monkeys do in fact live in the wild, they are extremely used to tourists and have become very tame.

All you have to do is call out to them and they come down from the trees.  Oh, and having a banana or two doesn't hurt. :)

He tried to poop on Dad!

Give me that waterbottle!

 These monkeys were all little models!

We finally finished with all the monkey business and headed to Seven Sisters Falls, another location that I had not been to yet.  Seven Sisters has a bit of a reputation for being dangerous.  Many a student has hiked to the falls and jumped into the beautiful pools only to end up with massive bruises on their arms and legs or worse from the impact.  But don't worry, I made Dad promise that we wouldn't do any type of jumping on this trip.

Cliffon, our tour guide and Rachel's Grenadian husband-to-be.

Two of the Seven "Sisters"

Seven Sisters is probably my favorite falls that I have been to in Grenada.  The pools were perfect for swimming in or lounging around and they were just breathtaking.  I definitely need to find the time to bring Josh to see both Seven Sisters and Grand E'tang.

If you thought our day was done after our hike, think again.  When we got back to the apartment, we realized that Mom and Dad hadn't yet been to Lance Aux Epines Beach which is right down the street.  So we walked over for a couple last hours on the Caribbean Sea.

Walking down LAE road.

We headed to Prickly Bay for dinner and dancing and enjoyed the last night with Julie, Kevin, and Phyllis.

Love my BFF JuJu.

He's become such a dancer recently!

We had such a fun, exhausting week and I'm so very glad that some of my family was able to come and spend time on our little island.  We always enjoy having visitors!

People Say We Monkey Around

Amber, one of Kelsey's good friends, and a former Grenada SO (her hubby's now in clinicals and yes, we are all jealous) has been visiting Grenada this past week.  The two of them have been doing just about everything that Grenada has to offer and they have been kind enough to include me in their many excursions. 

Last week, we went up to Annandale Falls.  This was my second time there.  You can read about my first trip HERE.  When we arrived, there was an exciting little friend there to greet us!

Jack the monkey!

A big thanks to Amber for many of these great pics!

What kind of monkey is he?  Heck, I don't know. A cute one!

Although some of us were more fond of him than others.

Kelsey was not his biggest fan. Haha!

I LOVED him.  I wanted to take him home right then and there.  Do you think Josh would mind?  Maybe I need to start searching the Grenadian jungle for a baby monkey.  Who needs a puppy when you can have a monkey!  After lots of oohing and ahhing and squealing in terror on Kelsey's part, we headed to the waterfall.

We swam in the water until we realized, thanks to a guide, that there are TONS of freshwater fish in there.  I suppose I knew there had to be some fish in that water.  But I really didn't need it pointed out to me as I was swimming in it!  We went up under the waterfall and overall just really enjoyed ourselves.

So who wants to go monkey hunting with me?!? 

Annandale Falls

Today Kristin, Brandon, Kelsey, and I took a little trip up to Annandale Falls.  Kristin and Brandon have been here for a week.  In fact, they leave tomorrow and I will doing more blog posts on our other adventures from this past week. But we'll start with what we did last, first.  We took Miss Grenada Kelsey with us because she is such a great tour guide and I was a little nervous about driving into the Grenadian jungle with just an "idea" of where we were going.  Plus I kinda like that girl's company. :)

The drive to Annandale Falls was pretty easy and there was no "hike" involved unlike my last waterfall adventure.  Which was really good considering it started to rain right as we were pulling up to the waterfall.  But I like Annandale Falls. It's extremely beautiful and relatively easy to get to.

Annandale Falls

The pool beneath the falls was pretty big and looked super refreshing.  So of course Kelsey and I got in for a quick dip.  How often are you in the middle of a tropical jungle at a waterfall?

Then we got brave and made our way under the waterfall.  It was so fun!

Brandon and I even jumped off the side into the pool of water.  Although I can't imagine ever being brave enough to jump from the top of the waterfall. WAY TO SCARY FOR ME!

As we were leaving, some men had some baby armadillos! I don't think I've ever seen one in person before. And I've definitely never held one!

On our drive back home, we stopped for a brief moment in St. George's at Fort George.  It has an amazing look out point to the carenage and Port Louis.

Carenage



Grand Anse Bay



Port Louis

It was such a fun way to end Kristin and Brandon's last day in Grenada.  Both Josh and I will be sad to see them go, but it will be nice to get back into our normal routine.  Josh has his first set of midterms a week from Monday! EEEEK! So he has been super busy studying while our family has been here.  Hopefully all his hard work pays off.