We are now in St-George, Grenada for almost two weeks and after visiting the Island and tidying the boat after Claudette’s departure we are now waiting for our new solar panels two arrive from USA. After ten months living on the boat we realized that we just didn’t have enough charging capability and that more power was required. We may have decided to live on a boat but this doesn’t mean we have to live miserably for four year! We want to be able to use our computer, watch movies, make tons of water and enjoy all the other small pleasures of life that the precious electrons can provide. While waiting we visited the gorgeous town of St-George, which has by far the most beautiful waterfront we saw in this trip so far. This morning we were taking a quiet Sunday morning walk through the streets of St-George and it just struck us how graceful life was with us. Think of it, how many times did you wake up in the morning and decided to take a walk on the boardwalk of St-George in Grenada? With the sun rising up over our head, we were admiring the unique architecture of the city with buildings standing here probably for almost a century while walking along the fishing boats that their owners attached near the concrete wall on that Dominican day. I mean, let’s face it; we are spoiled!
I took this picture to show you what I consider the most efficient bus system I’ve seen in my life and that would make all the morons planning the public transportations systems in Canada look like a bunch of wannabe. This van can sit about 10 passengers and follow a predetermined route with assigned bus stops for a fixed price of $2.50EC or a bit less than $1US. Each bus has two guys; a driver and a doorman whose role is to pick people up from the street. What makes the system so efficient is the simplest principle of capitalism; the buses are privately owned. This means that if the driver-owner doesn’t pick-up passengers he doesn’t make money. No need to say that the guys are VERY good and motivated at getting people on the streets to jump on their bus and not on the next one. Being in the islands the rules are meant to be bent and let’s say that they may not always pick and drop their passengers at the designated locations hence increasing the number of passengers they get! Also, I don’t know how many buses are allowed per route but there are so many of them that when we asked in Nevis, where they have the same system, how long it usually takes for the bus to pass the lady simply answered; often enough! Well here in St-George, the longest we waited was 20 seconds and that’s because it was a very quiet day. Normally, and I am not kidding here, we don’t even have the time to reach the street that there is already a bus stopped and waving at us to get in. Seriously, if our system at home was that cheap and efficient do you really think people would stick to their polluting cars?
Yesterday we had a very nice visit from an enormous manta ray that went swimming just by Chocobo. Danielle saw it first and said, “Roger there is something big over there in the water!” We quickly got up and saw the distinct movement of the ray. Here we are jumping all over to try to get the camera, which obviously isn’t at its usual spot. After a quick survey of the cabin and avoiding hitting my head on the numerous hazards hanging everywhere on a boat just waiting to meet the highest extension of our body, I found it and ran back in the cockpit and of course she was already swimming away to our great despair. But then, probably because she had thirst for fame and wanted to be seen on the Internet, she turned back and went swimming just a few inches from the boat in a slow and graceful glide at the surface of the water. Not something we can see often even in these waters; we are really spoiled. .
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After a while away from home we come to crave some of the food we used to have back in the cold country. Here in St-George we were happy to discover an IGA supermarket, which is a large grocery chain in Canada. Not only this was a known store but they also have the food we use to have back home, such as fresh mushrooms, beef, cereals in large variety, cold cuts and fresh milk! Wow! We were like two kids in a Toys-R-Us. We then decided to pay ourselves a real treat; a fondue with all the ingredients we use to eat at home. Thus we bough salad dressing and sour cream for the sauces and broccoli, cauliflower, fresh mushrooms and a real authentic beef steak! You may laugh at this list of ingredient but I challenge you to find them down here, especially the mushrooms. I don’t know why but they just don’t have them in the Antilles they just have the despicable canned mushrooms. A mushroom just needs some manure, humidity and dark to grow, I can’t believe they don’t have that here! Any how we had a very good meal and while at it we went for the ultimate treat on a boat as we turned on the air conditioning during the whole meal. Now we are really spoiled!
