Grenada first week

On Saturday morning, Peter and Heather set out for La Sagesse, a hotel and "nature center" up the coast north of Lance Aux Epines.

Just down the palm-lined beach, right behind Peter in the photo above, a freshwater river empties into the ocean. The following picture looks up the river, and hidden on the tiny spit of land in the middle of the picture below is a Little Blue Heron.

Just a hundred yards or so from the river lies a saltwater pond. Both bodies of water attract seabirds and waders. Heather did not get to put her new West Indies bird identification book to tremendous use because we did not see as many birds as expected, but it was great to see the few birds that we did get a peek at! Among those species actually identified were the Little Blue Heron at the river, Semipalmated Plovers, a Lesser Yellowlegs, possibly a Greater Yellowlegs, some unknown sandpipers, and the lovely Black Necked Stilt (the first Heather has had the opportunity to see in the wild!)

A boat moored in the ocean.

We walked on a trajectory down the beach, into the water around a rock outcropping (seen in the photo below,) and down another stretch of beach to the salt pond. Then a trail led into the woods along the salt pond to another beautiful beach. We walked down the second beach and picked up a trail leading up into the woods to the top of the cliffs on overlooking the small bay. Fortunately, we had a tour guide to show us the way along all of these little non contiguous trails:

The wonder-dog above, who lives at the hotel, helped us find the trails we sought, and kept Peter occupied when Heather wanted to stop to look at birds.
Hiking up, up, up to the bluff:

The views were certainly worth the effort! This bay, as you can tell from the picture, is home to coral reefs, as most of the bays around this side of the island seem to be. Just to the left of Peter's hat in the distance, there are two bodies of water visible. The lower body of water is the salt water pond, and above that is the bay and the beach where we started out and the hotel, hidden by palm trees.

On the way back...

Upon our return to the first beach, our tour guide treated herself to a dip in the water, so we followed her lead yet again and took a swim, too! The water was lovely and very calming. The beach sloped very gently into the water, and this bay was free of corals, so we could walk out into the water quite a way and still touch the soft sand on the bottom. The water movement was particularly gentle and calming, and absolutely perfect for floating!