In Grenada was our first stay in a harbor after crossing the Atlantic. It was a luxury marina which reveals an expensive lifestyle. But we really enjoyed it. The island was green and full of plants and trees. This is what I noticed first, when I saw Grenada.
In Grenada we had to do some work at the ship. There were different works to do by the engineer and the boatswain. So if one was looking for a KUSi one had to go to the engine room or in the rigging. It was also necessary to paint our ship again, that is why one also found some KUSis on deck or on the bulwark. It was very warm and every hour there was tropical rainfall. But we students just worked on the ship for one and a half day to have a lovely and well painted home again.
Of course, on the other days we visited and discovered the island. To get into St. George’s on the other side of the bay there was a dinghy transfer organized by us students, because it took too long to walk into the city. St. George’s is a small but very beautiful town with Caribbean flair.
Cosima gave us a guided tour through the city and we saw all the sights. She also gave us some special tips. For example she recommended a restaurant which is called ‚The Nutmeg‘ and a church which was destroyed by the hurricane ‚Ivan‘ in 2004. After that tour we went to the spice market and bought some souvenirs. Discovering new cities on our own is absolutely fantastic. It is very exciting to see the different cultures and people. What I liked most about St. George’s were the friendly and open minded people who were always helpful and welcoming.
In my opinion the best thing about our stay in Grenada was the experience to discover the whole island on our own in small groups.
So, I will tell you something about the trip with my group which included the members David, Corinna, Josef, and Doro. Doro, our teacher, was the one who accompanied us, but we planned and organized the trip completely by ourselves. The destinations of my group were the ‚Concord falls‘ and the fisher village ‚Gouyave‘. Other groups went to the chocolate factory for example or to a crater lake. Martin gave every group a special amount of money to pay everything for traveling, for example the buses and all costs to enter the destination.
Public buses were the best way to get over the island, so first we were looking for a bus to the waterfalls. You could compare the bus tour to a trip on a rollercoaster and everybody thought that it was a lot of fun.We saw small villages and their inhabitants on our way. Many houses and walls were painted colorfully, mostly in the colors of the flag of Grenada: green, yellow and red. The houses were more colorful than in St. George’s. I think that it looked very beautiful.
As we got closer to the falls you could notice that the rainforest got greener and greener. When we had finally reached the bus stop, we started hiking through the rainforest. When one looked around one just saw green bushes and trees, but if one had a closer look on the plants, one recognized many different plants and fruit we do not have in Germany: cacao, papaya, banana and some kind of citrus trees. The hike was also fun, but it started to rain.
We saw many animals for example a goat, chicken, a monkey and Caribbean birds, too. The waterfall looked very impressive as we saw it for the first time.
We were allowed to swim there. The water was much colder than expected. After we ate lunch at the waterfall we walked back to the bus stop and took another bus to a Nutmeg factory in Gouyave. There we all understood why Grenada is called ‚Isle of spice‘. It was very interesting to see how nutmegs are produced. In the evening we got back to the Thor by bus. It was a new experience to travel around on our responsibility without knowing the country. But I liked it very much and I am looking forward to our next experiences in small groups. Generally I liked our stay on Grenada very much. The life here is different to the life at home there is a special Caribbean flair.