Friday, Saturday and Sunday were busy days for us. Friday night we signed ourselves up for a trip out to a small fishing town called Gouyave where every Friday night (called Fish Fry-day) they fry up their catches from the week for everyone to try out. We sampled many different local fish dishes along with different local fruit drinks and of course desserts/candies.The kids were sampling everything until we reached the table that had these little fried fish that were still whole and people just popped them into their mouths and ate every piece of it. We asked about them and were told that they are cooked extra long so that the bones become soft and edible, the kids quickly became full.
They had a local school band entertaining with their steel pan band, I don’t think that I could ever hear enough of that music, it is so unique. (Well maybe if one of our kids was taking lessons I may think different) The only bad part of the evening was that I had to step in between two different Caribbean boys that became interested in our tall red headed beauty, we are going to have to keep an eye on her down here.
Saturday brought us taking a tour to the Seven Sisters waterfalls. We started out at 9:00 am on a rainy Saturday morning. Keith our tour guide was excellent, he knew the name of every plant and tree on the island, he is a local guy who was born and raised on Grenada and was very knowledgeable about the island. Half way to the falls Keith noticed a Mona Monkey sitting on a fence post, of course we stopped to take a closer look and have some pictures taken.
These monkeys were hunted by the locals until 2004 when Hurricane Ivan hit Grenada and since then the government has put a ban on hunting them since so many were killed in the hurricane and so many of their trees that they live in were destroyed.They like to eat from your hand, this one in the picture is chewing on a chewy mint that another lady had just given him, I think that he would have much preferred a banana myself.
In order to get to the waterfalls we had to hike a couple of miles through the rainforest. Like I said it was a rainy Saturday so the ground was very slippery and half way to the falls the rain came down like cats and dogs or should I say monkeys and snakes (we did learn that there are snakes but no poisonous creatures on this island, thank god) . Keith took out his machete and cut gigantic leaves for us to use as umbrellas but the rain was so strong that we were soaked anyways. We saw some incredible views and plants and trees, bamboo, nutmeg, guava, and many other island fruits and veggies, before reaching the waterfall which was also incredible. 
Hiking in the Rocky Mountains to one of our waterfalls is a match to this except for the water temperature and the unbelievable foliage in the rainforest. Kevin happened to read an article Friday night about catching nasty bugs in the fresh water streams of the Caribbean (bugs that get into system and eat your internal organs and so on), so Saturday morning we (Kevin) mentioned this to the kids and told them that we were not going to let them swim in the fresh water pool of the waterfall, they were somewhat upset. Who do you think was the first one in the pool when we reached the waterfall…yup Kevin. Hopefully this is the first of many waterfalls that we will see on our adventures.
Sunday was another exciting day for us, it was finally the day to leave the “boring” marina. We were up early to clean the boat and get everything tucked away and ready to sail. At about 11:00 am we pulled away from the marina and headed out into the Atlantic Ocean for the kids first ocean sail. The wind was blowing at over 25 knots, not exactly what we wanted for their first time out (for those of you who are not sailors that is way too much wind, 15 knots would have been nice.) They all had a great time with Cole at the wheel for most of the trip and Tyler, Luke and Kiana sitting up front trying to get soaked, I am thankful for putting them into their summer sailing lessons as they knew what to expect, albeit much bigger waves and saltier water.
We sailed out and around Hog Island and anchored in a bay behind the Island, where the kid’s friend Adam is also anchored. This has been a big step for us as we are now living the life that we came down here to live, no paying big bucks at the marina and the privacy and freedom to do what we please. It did not take the kids 2 minutes to put the kayaks into the water (we are also close enough so that they can swim, physical education class) and head into the beach by themselves for some playtime in the sand away from mom and dad. Now that is a nice break for all of us, far enough away so that we can’t hear them and close enough that we can still see them. We are still close enough to the marina so that when the welder is ready to install our solar panels we can simply pull back in for him to do this
(which should happen on Tuesday….).
Luke & Tyler Having a Shower
