Day 9 - Grenada

We have had absolutely stellar weather this vacation.  Actually finding out the temperature is a bit of a challenge. On previous ships they would have a tv channel that would advise you of the temperature. We keep our room at 26 C. I have a little portable thermometer/clock. When I bring that unit outside,  I can see the temperature reads 27 C sitting in the shade. Now that the ship has pulled out of port and we are in the sun it is 37 C.

Today we joined a ship’s tour to visit Grand Etang Rainforest Reserve where the purpose was to float down the Balthazar River in tubes! What a lovely fun way to enjoy the morning. We are only in port from 7 am until 1:30 pm. We were lucky enough to have a great view out our balcony on the port side as we pulled into dock. I made a point of taking some pictures because I could see a ship following us into port. Sure enough, the Celebrity ship pulled up slo guide us and blocked our view of the shore. So the early bird gets the worm. Had we slept beyond 7:30 we wouldn’t have had any view at all!  Though it is interesting to look across at another ship.  

When we visited this port five years ago we took a bus tour to see various sights. What was supposed to be a three hour turned out to be a five hour tour and P got very sick on the bus so he doesn’t have fond memories of this port. Today’s excursion was rated a 9 out of 10 by P so we have vastly changed his opinion of this port!  Lots of guides were in the water physically guiding the tubes to avoid rocks where you could get stuck. We were all outfitted with helmets and life jackets in addition to a personal tube customized with a piece of foam in the bottom of the donut if you not what I mean so you wouldn’t drag your butt across any rocks!  The floating/ river running time was about 45 minutes to an hour. They said the river was quite high and that certainly made it fun!

The driving time to and from the port was about 40 minutes each direction. Two buses took our group. The other bus had two bucket seats on one side of the aisle and a single on the other. Our bus had bench seats of four across. Still a vast improvement over a school bus!  Window opened and provided fresh air. Our bus driver stopped at a roadside banana stand. I gave our driver $1 to buy a banana and she returned with two kinds of bananas, five of each!  So 10 of the freshest tasting bananas we had ever eaten cost $1!

Upon our return back to the ship, we ate lunch up at the buffet. We returned to our room to enjoy sail away. What a gorgeous afternoon we had -that is where we found 37 C temps on our balcony! Our day of hiking from yesterday caught up with me and I needed to have a nap!

After a quick game of trivia we went to dinner. I attended the production show Fiera and sat in the second row. J went for a workout. P J and I are all going to a pirates of the Caribbean movie under the stars at 10 pm. We have a leisurely arrival into Bonaire at noon tomorrow!