Grenada...The Spice Island

St. George's Harbor

Grenada is a picturesque island with small colorful houses planted on the slopes of green mountains, filled with mango, banana, breadfruit as well as many other tropical trees.  Ideal to live there, except for the 23% unemployment rate. Not prone to as many hurricanes as the Caribbean, last major one was 1965.
After a cafe latte, and a light breakfast, we and half of the Viking passengers gathered in the Star Theater and after receiving our assignments we headed out to the 30 small buses, each holding 20 passengers. Before leaving the port, we were greeted with calypso and reggae music.

Port Welcoming Band

Our tour guide was a laid back elderly Grenadian who did an excellent job driving the winding hilly and narrow streets of the city, but did not spew forth the abundant knowledge as we had hoped. The ride was slow because of the crowded narrow roads and we finished the "Two hour tour" in 3.5 hours, (still a better time than Gilligan), leaving us only 60 minutes to walk to other sites in the city, which we did...up and down the hills, dodging the slow moving cars and learning to walk on the right side of the road.

A Similar Van to ours Negotiating the Narrow Streets  

What we did learn from our guide was that houses, especially on the hills, had a holding tank for the city water, which is filled up during the night hours, since mornings have very low water pressure with people getting ready for work. No rain collecting systems were seen unlike Hawaii. Very few solar panels or solar hot water systems, which was a little surprising.  Maybe the initial investment was too much for them.

Water Barrel Filled with City Water 

Graveyards again reminded us of New Orleans.
Our driver said that you had the options of being buried
below the ground, being above the ground or of being cremated.

Streets were Narrow and Mostly One Way

Streets were narrow and all one way except for a few of the major ones.

One Lane Car and Pedestrian Tunnel in City

Houses in the surrounding valleys were bigger and owned by wealthier US, British and Canadian retirees and yacht owners.

Grenada is probably best known by Americans for having a Medical School, which we toured. It has a beautiful campus with students from all around the world. In 1983, the US government sent in troops two days after the Lebanon barrack attack. Grenada had won its independence from Britain in 1974 and became a democratic state. The President was overthrown by a coup in 1979, and Maurice Bishop took over promising the public many land and social reforms. He was slow on delivering and in 1983, a military coup kidnapped him, later executing him and because of these and more pro-communist changes, the US invasion was planned.

Six Navy Seals drowned the night before the invasion and the US had little intelligence of the area.  The army used Esso Gas tourist maps to coordinate the attack. The main marine invasion was by amphibious vehicles, but on nearing the beach, it was found to be too steep, and they had to turn back, regrouped and came in by helicopter. With no intelligence as to what the Grenadian and Cuban forces were, confusion reigned. The hospital was thought to be enemy quarters, and not knowing numbers, the military thought it safer to shell first then invade, so the hospital was heavily shelled, killing 14 patients.

Memorial to the US troops killed in Grenada Action

The invasion mission was said to protect the US medical students, but the US forces had no idea where 1/3 of them were and did not find them until the following day. Several US soldiers were killed by friendly fire... a total of 19 died altogether. A memorial was placed next to the medical college in their honor.




Since Grenada had been a British Colony, Margaret Thatcher was livid that the British had not been told of the invasion until it was underway.  Publicly she endorsed it though, to prevent bad feelings between the countries. Our guide also said that if one asks Grenadians about the invasion, they are happy that the US did this.

Proud of their country,  their national colors of green,
 red and yellow are seen all over

Strong Ties to the Catholic Church

Beautiful, Relaxed Harbor

A Water Taxi named for the True Discoverers of America

    Grenada is laid back, but we on the other hand are not. Trying to take it all in, we barely made it back to the ship on time!