Cruise Ship Visit - January 2013

walking the pier

Drivers and guides waiting at the gate

We got off and we still had a good way to walk to get to the place where the tours were meeting even though the boat was bow in and we got off at the bow. It was hot and sunny. We sat on the wall and waited until they called a tour. Originally I had picked the 7 hour Best of Grenada tour, but i switched to what I thought was a less strenuous tour.

guides for tours - our original 7 hour tour Best of Grenada on left

We were on the Western Rainforest Tour. (They take the tickets from us so I've gotten into the habit of photographing them)

Tour ticket

Our driver's name was Albin. The guide in Barbados (whose name I think was Storm) and Albin had the habit of repeating the last few words of each sentence. Like "That tree is a cinnamon tree - cinnamon tree" It is like we had audio closed captions - gives you another chance to hear what they say. Albin also added "And so on" at the end of each sentence. The guy with the walker was on this tour too. This time instead of putting the walker in front of the door, they put it on a seat. He sat in the single seat and put his feet up on the console. I sat in front of him next to the driver.

van leaving port area on the left

They drive on the left and Albin admonished us at the beginning of the tour not to panic unless the driver did.

bus driving on the left

We drove out of the capitol cit of St. George, and I took photos

Parking

St George's

Past the bus station - apparently in Grenada, you can buy a van and set up your own bus route. The bus routes start or end at the bus station

Bus Station

Red minivan-bus

White Lightening mini bus

We went past the meat market where you could buy meat on Thurs or Friday,

Meat Market

Sitting out in front of the Meat Market

and then went past the fish market

Fish Market

and the vegetable and fruit sellers.

vegetables

Stalls along the road

And started out on the west coast road

Moored boats

- it rained and I saw that all down the center of the road there were spots of rainbows from oil.

oil on the road

Pedestrian bridge on the left

I took photos of the signs on the road for the Dragon's Bay underwater sculpture park, but we didn't stop there.

We passed a roadside monument to Slinger Francisco, better known as Mighty Sparrow. He is a calypso singer, songwriter, and guitarist known as the "Calypso King of the World" Although he is a citizen of Trinidad, Grenada claims him because he was born there.

Slinger Francisco monment

Canon

Grenada police

conch shells on a wall

Looking down on the water by the road

Now we were out in the country

Sign as you enter Saint John Parish

We went into the second parish on the west coast - St. John (there are six parishes on Grenada - going clockwise around the island from St. George, they are St. George, St John, St Mark, St Patrick, St. Andrew, and St David. And it was here that we started the Spice portion of the excursion