After Curaçao, our next stop was the island of Grenada. Our ship anchored a kilometre or so off the coast, as you can see in the picture at left, and then we took tenders—small boats that double as life boats in an emergency—to travel between the island and the ship.
I much prefer when the ship docks in a port as opposed to being tendered, it's much nicer to be able to go on and off ship at your leisure.
Grenada is apparently the leading "spice isle" in the Caribbeans since it grows many different spices. I bought some nutmeg and a small bundle of spices to bring home to my spice-loving housemate Lana.
In Grenada I took my first excursion, which was a walk in a rainforest to Mt. Carmel Falls, a waterfall with a drop of probably 20-30 feet. (The travel brochure called it a "hike", but it was only a short 15 minute walk, not a hike in my book.) When we arrived the water looked cool and refreshing, but no one wanted to be the first one in. I was not the brave soul who took the first dip, but I did spend a fair bit of time swimming in the water and even scrambled up under the waterfall to feel it pouring down on my head.
One of the neat things about the walk was that it took us alongside a banana plantation. I absolutely love bananas—I start each day with a banana and orange juice, and my grocery shopping schedule basically revolves around needing to go to the store when I run out of bananas. I saw bananas on some of the other islands as well, but this was the first time I'd seen banana plants and it was great to know where they come from.
On our way back from the waterfall, we stopped at Grand Etang Lake in a volcanic crater 1,700 feet above sea level. I loved the mist hanging over the rainforest-covered slopes of the crater.
After returning to the Queen Mary 2 by tender, I had my first sunset yoga class.
I had taken a few yoga classes during our first two days at sea, but being at sea it's quite windy and not suitable for yoga outside. Since we were still anchored in Grenada and sheltered from the winds by the island, we had yoga on the top deck of the ship, overlooking the island while the sunset. Here's a view of the island from the ship just before yoga started.
