Cactus Hunting.

Yesterday some friends and I went to St. George's to go to the market and mall.
actually a lot of people went, it was like an SO field trip.
Alfonso, Amber, Christina, Adriana, Sarah, Sarah, and Sarah.... there are now 3 Sarah's!
It was a lot of fun and incredibly hot.
I did manage to get a potato peeler, start fruit, yams, bananas, and earrings for my cartilage piercing, since my other one had like rusted or something... gross.
and I remained true to my vow to give up smoothies for Lent even though EVERYONE else got one. :/

Afterward I decided to go after my cacti I wanted to get..... it was an adventure.
I realized I didn't have anything to dig them up with, so I went with a..... spoon.
I was really afraid someone would see me out there digging up cacti, but luckily just some locals were out on the cliff fishing and they didn't even notice I was there. literally.
I found that baby cactus don't grow very deep roots, and they start off of a piece of an old cactus, so it wasn't too hard to dig them up. and I found some perfect little cacti that needed a new home.

I had been saving our tin cans from soup and vegetables, without actually knowing what I would do with them, and they worked perfectly for cactus. 

I ended up getting way more than I needed and Lee was like what are we supposed to do with these?! haha.... but I love them!  I'm going to sit them outside my door everyday to get some sun.
and I only got pricked once!!!

Mt. Carmel!

Wednesday the SO took a trip to Mt. Carmel... which is in St. Andrews about an hour away (we live in St. George's.. on the very southwestern tip) millage wise, it was probably like 10 miles or something (the island is only 20 miles long total!) but because we drive on crazy little roads that go up mountains and around crazy curves and the top speed is probably 40mph.... it took an hour.

It was well worth it though.  I sat in the front seat of the taxi/van to avoid getting claustrophobia or sick, so I got to see a lot of the countryside and the drive told lots of interesting stories.
The driver was a young guy, probably in his mid 20s.  Had he been born in America he would have been an actor or musician or famous athlete or just plain good looking.... and here he drives a taxi and owns chickens. and he's probably doing really well for himself by their standards. and he is. he was  very nice.

He told me the reason why there was a repulsive smell at one point was because there was a sugar cane factory that shut down one day and left all the sugar cane to rot! uuuuuuugh who knew sugar could smell so bad.
He pointed out some small houses that were given to squatters who lived on government land in St. George's.... and they put them FAR from St. George's. I still don't understand how people get up to these homes, even though he said there were roads.

He told me about rum, the schools, where the rich people live, about owning chickens, mangoes... and laughed at us a lot.... foolish Americans, and Canadians, and lots of other nationalities :)

Everywhere you look here there is an awesome view... the highway runs pretty close to the shoreline because it is so mountainous in the center of the country.  Every time I see the ocean over a hill or around a curve I'm still amazed.

Once we got to Mt. Carmel we hiked to a gorgeous waterfall.

and got under it! 

 

 

 this was supposed to be our panteen pro-v commercial :)

 

 

Sarah, Me, Cristina, Sherry, and Amber... fellow SOs 

Then we hiked to another waterfall not far away... Grenada is over flowing with beauty. I cannot believe so much is contained on one small 20X12 island!

 

lots of people slid down these falls like a slide.... but I didn't.

I was chicken.
I partially regret it and partially feel like if I had gone, I would have been the one to get hurt.

I don't like to take unnecessary risks. especially in foreign countries. and especially when Lee's not around. 

but everyone else had a good time! and we'll go again in the fall so I may go then.... 

Once we came out of the jungle (and yes it is literally a jungle) we saw another amazing view 

aaahhhh I love Grenada.