Thursday, March 26, 2007
Selected Pics (93)We arrived in Grenada at approximately 12pm and departed at approximately 7pm. Since we had a late arrival, Mark and Christy and I took a tour of the galley. It was pretty cool to see behind the scenes of such a mega kitchen. Afterward, we met up with Martha and the four of us headed out on our next adventure.
We had read mixed reviews on Grande Anse Beach. We read that this 3 km long beach in St George's is considered to be one of the finest beaches in the world, and often appears in countdowns of the world's top 10 beaches. However, the Cruise Critic message boards indicate that the beach tends to be very crowded and full of pesky vendors. The combination of the two was the deal-breaker, especially given the reviews we read on Magazine Beach & Aquarium Restaurant.
Although a lesser known beach, Magazine Beach & Aquarium Restaurant was highly recommended on the Cruise Critic message boards. Posters recommended to just take a taxi, so that's exactly what we did. We weren't disappointed. The water was a bit rough and Martha, Mark, and Christy spent most of their time on the beach, where only a few other couples lounged. I spent the majority of my time free diving the coral coastline below the choppy surface. There were plenty of cracks, crevices, and sea life to explore and photograph. I have plenty of pictures to prove it.
Meanwhile back on the beach, Mark was experiencing some great short stories in the making. He'll have to correct me if I get any of it wrong. First there was the vendor - the only vendor that passed by that day as far as I recall. The guy struck up a conversation with Mark and when he couldn't interest him in the handmade spice necklaces, he walked Mark further back from the shore into the trees and offered him something else... but Mark wasn't interested in buying any weed (or so he says). :-) Then there was the guy that offered Mark and Christy cheap massages. Don't get Christy going on this guy. He used all her expensive face lotion before she even knew what was going on.
As departure time drew near, we cleaned up and called our cab driver. While we waited, we enjoyed some fine beverages on the restaurant's outdoor patio and joked about the day's events. We weren't laughing so hard when the restaurant was closing up and our cabbie was nowhere in sight. The fact that he was 45 minutes later than he promised wasn't what bothered us. It was not knowing whether he would show up at all. When the employees started to leave the restaurant, we asked one of them to call another cab before they left so we didn't get stranded. Of course our guy showed up a few minutes later and got us back to port with time to spare. I don't recon he got a very big tip though.
Before we boarded the ship, we checked out the vendors nearby. We coudn't leave the spice island empty handed, so we picked out a couple of variety packs (bargain prices). By the time we were back on board, the sun was setting and the Kodak moments were abundant. We rejoined Jonathan and Jessica and grabbed a pre-dinner bite to eat.
Ship excursions that we had been considering icluded...
Hike To Seven Sisters Waterfalls ($79, 12:45-4:15)
Five-Star Sail, Snorkel & Beach With Lunch ($129, 12:30-5:30)
Island Seafaris Cruise & Snorkel ($99, 1-3) (underwater sculpture park)
The sculture park really intrigued me, but Martha was completely turned off by it. She still surprises me once in a while. I thought she would be interested in that. If you check out the linked picture below, you can see a few more pictures along with some information provided by the ScubaTech Dive Center.
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Private Excursions
First Impressions Whale & Dolphin Watching Tours ($?, 4 hrs)
Others - Mandoo has many positive reviews on CC boards
Popular Tour Operators
ScubaTech-Grenada.com, DiveGrenada.com, AquanautsGrenada.com, First Impressions Ltd. (unresponsive), GrenadaSeafaris.com
Web Sites ( Government, WikiTravel, Lonely Planet Review, Frommers Reviews, Cruise Critic Review, Cruise Critic Board, Destination360 Review, Princess.com, Grenada Explorer )