Sunday, April 5, 2026
On the main tourist beach, Grand Anse (‘ants’) which is an idyllic one+ mile white sandy beach with clear tourquise water, Siri strikes up a conversation with a woman who has brought her cell phone into the gently rolling surf. We are impressed that she is taking selfies and seems to be having a zoom call as well while it stays just above the water. We soon find out she is from Brooklyn, and now lives in Charlotte. Her grandmother (who she is visting) and her father are native Grenadians. Her mother is from St. Lucia, which she tells us is not as nice (just don’t tell her mom!).
Her grandmother tells us she had lived and worked in New York for over 30 years and decided to come back home to retire. She now enjoys morning walks along the beach, a more slower paced life and enjoys hosting her grandkids for their whole summer (!) vacation. She talks about how people take care of each other here. Since there is abundant fruit all around, they bring their extra to the beach in the morning and it gets distributed to those in need. “If I have too many green bananas, why shouldn’t I share them?” She says, “We all are one.”
An appropriate theme for Easter Sunday.
Our planned ‘beach day’ started off with us driving through what seemed like a torrential downpour. Not a good omen. Later we would find out that rain here seems to have only have two settings – Torrential and Off.
We are the first ones to the dive shack as the staff is just starting to bring out the gear and tanks for the real divers. We inquire about changing the dates as the visibility is not good, but it finally clears – a bit – and so we go for it. Good thing we chose this morning because the afternoon tour would have been completely soaked. Yes, I know that is the point if you snorkel, it just feels different when it is raining on you versus when you are swimming in it.
Our first stop is the famous (?) first of its kind in the world (?) – our tour guide says – the underwater sculpture park. Twenty years ago a Brit wanted to open a dive shop, but he ended up building cement sculptures and placing them underwater to help repair a reef that had been damaged by Hurricane Ivan. Iit seems to be working.
I really enjoyed seeing the local culture and other stories represented underwater. They ranged from a single dancer swinging her dress, to a cirle of locals holding hands, to a march of people dressed for carnival. It was a fun treasure hunt and was gratifying to see the new coral and fish using it as habitat. Our tour guide said his hope was that in 20-30 years it would be completely covered in coral. “How will it look then?” He asks, “We will let nature do its part. Nature will be the final sculptor and architect.”
We hop back in the boat and move to explore another protected sancutary. As we jump overboard, we are immediately surrounded and greeted by a school of black and yellow fish. We find some bright blue ones and the green (funny looking) parrot fish. We try not to get slammed into the rocky shores as we follow the corals as it falls away to a full reef wall teeming with fish. We swim through several other schools of small fish and see all sizes, shapes and colors. I could easily get lost in this – figuratively. We only actually lose each other a few times and then swim away from the boat once or twice (remember to look up out of the water a few times.)
Then it is time to leave and as we settle in for the boat ride home with our ginger biscuits and warm ginger tea, the skies open up. It is torrential – and we are already soaked – so it isn’t really a problem, right. Especially since the boat roof protects us from all but the sideways rain.
We are tired, smiling and sharing what treasures, fish, and coral we saw with our new acquaintances. Even on this boat, we have people from several different countries all enjoying this laid back life of Grenada. One is a Canadian who came and never really left – he lives here half of the year. I can see how that would happen. 🙂
Guess when you are on island time it helps bring everyone together – enjoying the water, the beach, the food, the culture, and meeting new friends along the way.
Siri and David Adventures 