Grenada first week

Grenada
The Spice of the Caribbean

Fall 2007

C'Mon back, Mon! Welcome to Grenada!

When we left Grenada in June, there was some concerning news that I chose not to report, as I didn't want to leave off on a sad note. We had discovered that Lizzy was subject to an attack and half of her tail was either missing or...a gory mess. Of course, being a lizard, this was no biggie for Lizzy, as she could not only repair the damage, but replace the part. On the other hand, you never know how wounds or infections can affect a compromised individual. We had to bid her adieu and hope for the best.

GUESS WHAT?? I was so happy to find her when I returned in August!
I found her sound sleep on her bougainvillea branch. It's totally out of focus, but the impression it gives is so precious I include it...as well as the next shot, after the flash woke her up.

By the time I arrived in Grenada on August 21st, Peter was already in the full swing of Term 2, which had started the week earlier. He had gotten Crapzilla going, and completed the not-so-minor task of cleaning up the apartment, which gets coated with dust and dead bugs and lizard, well, you-know-what. In addition, I had arranged to refrain from going back to work until the next Monday, so I had plenty of time to get myself organized and settled, thanks to my planning and Peter's hard work!

Term 4 is refuted to be the most challenging academic term, and Peter has hit the ground running. He continues to maintain his easy-going spirit and good humor...so far!

My first evening back, the SO gang (minus Noga, who had not yet returned,) met at the Coyaba. For some reason, I don't have any photos. Maybe we were too embarrassed to be without the new camera. Maybe just too embarrassed that I hardly remember how to operate it - despite the fact that it is fairly idiot proof and quite similar to the newer camera.

Jonathan, Kyla, Anna, Britney, Peter, and Jacqueline.

Jacqueline and Peter met in Colorado over the summer; they worked in the same laboratory. By some strange coincidence, she is just starting at SGU this term. Welcome!

We met up at Coconut Beach, which has fun tables with lanterns right out on the beach, so you get to wiggle your toes in the sand.

Pirate.

Heather, Peter, and Jacqueline.

Heather and Britney.

Jacqueline.

I had forgotten just how aggravating Jonathan can be when he really wants to turn on the "charm."

Jonathan barely escapes by counting his pennies.

Jacqueline has a terrifying experience when she thinks a bug may have gotten into her hair...and she wasn't sure if it got back out!

This is only after she had what I could only imagine to be a remarkably less terrifying bug experience earlier in the evening. OK, it's possible that I'm minimizing the danger I put everyone's lives in. There were TWO bugs, for the record. But not just any bugs. We were driving toward Coconut Beach from a perfectly lovely dinner (OK, I was driving)...when I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Something chillingly familiar. It was. The silhouette of a cockroach on the side of the windshield. Was it inside or outside? How big? Sirens are screaming in my head. There's only one thing to do, after panicking. Ok, while panicking. It sorta all happens at once. The car swerves around on it's circumlocutious route to the side of the road. I'm fumbling for Crapzilla's interior light (yeah, it's a small mag light kept in a cubby space,) but I lose patience. I open the door, just in case it's on the inside and I need to make a run for it? Don't ask me, logic seems to be on an inconvenient holiday somewhere. Of course, it turns out the thing is on the outside, and now I've only invited it in. Now I can tell that it's a "medium" sized scoundrel (folks around here will know what that means.) Something or someone gets the thing off the vehicle and it mercifully glides away from the car and not inside. I think I was the hero, but I'll never know because I must have blacked out. We've never had such horrors on or in Crapzilla (not including the ant colony living inside when we bought it, or the hitchhiking lizard; these were not life threatening incursions.) The roaches, however, opened a whole new Pandora's box of terror: I simply could not drive with the possibility of cockroaches on or in the car (On or in: it's basically all the same in Crapzilla; no sealed driving compartment here.) I got myself together and started down the road, apologizing to my passengers, who are now thinking they may have been overly optimistic in putting their lives in my hands. Just then, a second monster goes scurrying over the hood. All heck brakes loose. Now even Crapzilla is scared and he goes careening. There's a bus coming at us. We screech to a halt. Traffic in both directions stops. Peter's madly whacking at the thing, and eventually it, too, is ejected. I order Peter into the driver's seat, and stomp over to the passenger side in utter defeat. Now I have the mag light in hand, inspecting every surface before I sit. We move forward, (out of the middle of the road) with Peter at the helm, finally allowing traffic to move. Jacqueline is...speechless.

Underwater Adventures
Peter, Jacqueline, and I drove to Flamingo Bay on August 26th to see what was happening under the surface.

A head-on view of one of my favorite juveniles. This guy is maybe two inches long.

OK, this one's my true favorite; he's more than six and half feet long!

Moi.

Parrotfish and a wrasse.

Tang and branching coral.

Jacqueline.

Fishies!

The highlight of the day, for me, was the honor of being welcomed within a pod of squid. The group was fairly large, with individuals of many sizes and small factions breaking off now and then.
A small group of squid allowed me to glide along with them for as long as I was willing. We swam and circled, and some flashed colors at each other, and the pods came together and broke away. They seemed to break off in mostly the same groups each time. The group I was allowed to stay with seemed to be some of the smaller individuals.

What a special experience!

On August 29th, we had dinner at the Boulangerie, then Peter left to go study and those of us remaining went next door to check out the new restaurant and wine bar. Somewhere in between, everyone at the restaurant sang "Happy Birthday" to my Mom over the phone!

Peter; always ready for a pizza break!

Josh plays coy after singing his own bizarre version of Happy Birthday, yes, a solo, to Mom over the phone.

Wow! Even Christina got out of her study cave.

Jonathan and Heather.

Peter and Heather; me and Jacqueline.