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  Grand E'tang is a nature reserve and is a submarine volcano that is no longer active.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!

Around The Island...Again

Last term, I went on an "around the island" tour with the SO's.  You can read about my last tour here, here, here, and here.  So last Thursday, I set out to take my family around the island as well.  It takes all day to do it, but there is no better way to see all of the island.

We started up the Eastern side and our first stop was Belmont Estate.  We took the tour of the chocolate making process and saw many of the animals (goats, birds, tortoises) including the monkeys which I somehow missed the last time I was there.

 

This is new! They no longer let you "walk" the beans.  They have this covering now as shelter from the rain.

Where the cocoa beans ferment.  So smelly.

Such a beautiful estate.

He really wanted my coke bottle.

You can't see it, but then he really wanted my watch.

We ate lunch in their beautiful open air restaurant and we all enjoyed the local cuisine, including the guava icecream!

A trip to Belmont wouldn't be complete without buying some of the fabulous chocolate bars and bon bons.  Of course, the bon bons melted in the car.  Bummer.  But the chocolate bars made it home intact.

What shall we get?

 After spending quite a large part of our day at Belmont Estate, we headed North toward Bathway Beach and Levera Beach.

If you remember correctly, Levera Beach was the location of the infamous bag stealing incident on my birthday in October.  I was glad to return and create some happier memories, though we kept all of our things with us.  I'm sure I had some pictures that looked quite similar to these on the camera that was stolen. :(

Our last stop on this island tour was Carib's Leap on the very Northern tip of Grenada.

We headed for home and after a very long day of driving, arrived back on the Southern tip of the island.  I think Mom and Dad really enjoyed seeing the whole island, but I don't know that I personally will be making that drive again.  Although I'd be happy to ride along!

Mt. Carmel and La Sagesse

Our week of fun continued on Wednesday and I finally took the family to the East side of the island.  We made the drive over to Mt. Carmel Falls with Julie and Phyllis and we enjoyed the fairly easy hike to the tallest falls in Grenada.  I had been here once before, but it never gets old.

Bet you didn't know there were mermaids in Grenada!

Then we hiked over to the rock slide waterfall where Mom even went down the rock slide!!

Back from our hike!

After finishing our hike, we drove over to La Sagesse Beach to eat our packed lunches and enjoy the sunshine and salt water.  We were so lucky to have such beautiful weather all week long!

We got home in the late afternoon and got ready for a really nice dinner at the Beach House.  Josh was actually able to attend and I actually ordered the filet (Josh was so proud).

Thanks Mom and Dad for an absolutely wonderful dinner!  You spoiled us so much on your trip to Grenada.