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On Wednesday, Renee, Jim and I took the bus into St. Georges. The bus system in Grenada is great and an easy way to get around the island. There are bus stops but in reality the bus will stop anywhere you want. You can't walk anywhere without having them beep at you as they approach. The buses are large vans that can seat 18 but yesterday we managed to squeeze 21 in, although several were little kids. The trip costs less than $1 each way, far less than a taxi and gives you an opportunity to see a little local color.
Our first stop was Island Water World, a marine store that hosts a book/video/DVD swap each month. It's a great way to get rid of the books you've read and pick-up new ones all at no charge. I read several a week so I love the swaps.
Then it was on to the vegetable and spice market. Grenada is known as "The Spice Island" and the market is full of fresh spices such as nutmeg, curry, tumeric, pepper, etc. Here's just a few of the good things we bought. The large, round fruit at the top of the picture is a breadfruit. You "Mutiny on the Bounty" fans have heard about breadfruit as it was what Captain Bligh was transporting from Tahiti to the West Indies when the mutiny took place and Spencer Christain took over the ship. Captain Bligh later returned to Tahiti and was successful in bringing breadfruit to this part of the world.
Notice the yellow mustache? Jim was inhaling the aroma of the fresh spices.
I think we found our favorite spice lady. This is Theresa and she was great. Although, she was on to me pretty quickly. When I told her that I wasn't a very good cook and that Jim was she seemed mystified. Grenadian women are all good cooks. She just looked at me and said," I don't think you're a bad cook. I just think maybe you're a little bit lazy." Rats! My cover is blown! And she said this in front of Jim!
By the time we were finished shopping we had made a new friend. Theresa had hugs for all of us and made us promise that we would look for her at carnival.
Carnival has started with the main events this weekend through Tuesday. We're trying to get tickets to the Pan (steel drum) competition and we plan on going to the parade. Can't wait!
