Friday, July 8, 2011
Been a busy week - Chase is getting a flavor of Grenada and the life of a boater and even meeting some cute gals his age! Can’t be all bad around here!
Gouyave Fish Fridays
Our favorite ‘taxi’ driver, Shademan, drove a group of us from the marina to Gouyave, about a 45 minute drive from here, last Friday night to participate in their weekly Fish Friday - billed as ‘an outdoor culinary event’.
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| One of many sidewalk vendors making lots of food | |
This is the same town as the Nutmeg Factory and one I want to wander about it. We can simply catch a bus there one afternoon to explore on our own.
Shademan told us that because this past week was the Fisherman’s Birthday - an annual event celebrating fishermen - that there would be a number of steel drums playing. Guess what, Nadda. No steel drums.
We still had a good time eating our way through all the numerous vendors selling all kinds of locally prepared seafood cooked right in front of you. We ate crab cakes, Jack fish fried, fried shark, whole steamed snapper, a local ‘johnny cake’ that was like a biscuit and all was ever so very good. We ate and ate, sharing everything so there would be room for more!
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| Fish of all kinds cooked all kinds of ways |
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| Folks are ever so very friendly! |
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| Local wearing a CRAB hat, having fun! |
Music was playing from a bandstand with young girls shaking their hips in time to the music and the young men staring and poking at each other. So reminded me of 8th grade - boys on one side of the street and gals on the other, sneaking peeks at each other, pretending not to notice the opposite sex. The adults just wandered about, pigging out on all the great food and we never saw anyone dancing. I was bummed that there were no steel bands tho!
The Underwater Sculpture Park
Ah ha, found a place to snorkel - piling into our dingy with Chase, Andy, Joanne & George, we sloughed our way about two miles from the marina to Molinere Bay, on the northern side of St. George’s. Grenada’s Underwater Sculpture Park “Art by Nature’ is in this Bay and access is easy with the entire place marked off with red buoys and mooring balls one can tie to. Over we went, searching for the sculptures lying on the bottom of the bay, tucked in and about the reef.
Wow! Spooky, actually! Swimming along, I spied a circle of life sized children holding hands as though they were playing Ring Around the Rosie or some such thing. Three had fallen over, making it spooky to see children on the bottom! This one is called ‘Vicissitudes’.
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| Photo from a website |
We saw a man sitting at a desk with a typewriter; a man on a bike - the bike and man had fallen over, and a large boulder appeared to be sitting on his head - spooky.
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| Not my photo - taken from website |
There were a number of sculptures all of which depict Grenadian life, culture and the environment. I found the circle of naked women lying on the bottom very creepy, however - weird.
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| Photo from Website |
Although fish and coral were certainly there, the 'reef' is more gray than colorful....Still, a very interesting snorkel trip! I know we missed a few sculptures so we’ll certainly go back there!
Independence Day Celebrations
July 1 is the Canadian Independence Day and of course, July 4th is ours.
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| Canadian celebrating! |
We talked Danny, the marketing director of the marina into helping us throw a huge CANUSA party, donating resources such as the pool and getting the restaurant to agree to pitch in. We invited all the boaters from the southern part of Grenada - no matter what anchorage, what marina and about 100 showed up.
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| Love the USA shirt! |
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| Boaters from all over the world celebrating with us |
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| Dancing is the same no matter what nationality |
Traditional Independence Day food with all the sides was the meal prepared & the bar was Happy Hour prices all day. The DJ provided by Port Louis was fabulous all night long. The photos speak for themselves.....another AARP party that might make the youngsters blush.
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| The DJ played it all |
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| Early in the day |
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| Hot dogs, burgers, steaks |
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| Sharon & Andy |
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| Sharon USA & George CANADA- Grand Prize winners |
I won the contest on behalf of the USA - had to tell why it would be great to live in Canada from the American perspective & the Canadians had to do the same from their perspective as to why live in the USA. There were a number of participants from both countries. Remember, the contest came late, after lots of beer or whatever.
I gave a number of reasons, such as getting to drive faster because it is KM & not miles, etc. but the topper was that women would like to live there because in some provinces the men wear kilts. Also, for the men, there are more beavers seen in Canada than in the USA. I brought down the house with my straight face......
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| Cook teaching Chase how to dance like a local |
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| That's it kid! You got it! |
As the evening wore on, with the music hopping, the cook even came out of the kitchen, teaching Chase how to dance, island style!
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| Wonderful fun! |
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| Cook got all the kids going! |
We do hope this party becomes an annual event. The marketing director was thrilled - he got 3 slip bookings that night from boaters who had never seen this marina before. The Restaurant was thrilled as they made a bunch of money on what is normally a dead Sunday night. Win/win all around!
On the actual 4th, we threw a dock party with everyone bringing a dish to share. Danny supplied picnic tables for us and Finally Fun, with our rear speakers, turned up the volume on our John Phillips Sousa military music CDs. About 30 from our docks attended, having a ball and eating great food! We have certainly bonded around here and each is always planning something!!
OIL DOWN - The National Dish of Grenada
Thursday we took off with a group into town to the Country Kitchen restaurant. Restaurant is actually too fancy a word for this place located near the market, tucked down an alleyway with only about 10 tables inside.
We had the traditional island ‘oil down’ meal which is called the Caribbean comfort food. It is cooked in a huge cauldron layered with breadfruit (almost like a potatoe, but grows on a tree), potatoes of other varieties; carrots, pumpkin, tara root, green figs and callaloo (strong leafy veg tasting like spinach), onions, lots of various island spices and other stuff I could not identify. I learned AFTER I ate it all that pig tails, pig snouts and feet are added as are chicken necks and again, unidentifiable other body parts. There was also a dumpling - rolled tight like a cigar that was very chewy. Actually, the cook told me it was a dumpling, but I wonder really what it might have been. Everything is layered with palm fronds & then stewed in coconut milk squeezed out of the fresh coconuts & cooked over an open fire for hours in the cauldron. It is called
oil down because as the coconut milk simmers down it releases its rich flavored oil into the pot. For 3 of us + 2 cokes and 1 beer, tax & tip the total was $42 EC or $15.73 US. It is flavorful and very very filling! We will eat it again.
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| Cooked down, OIL DOWN |
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| Making Oil Down on J Dock - thanks Joanne! |
