Coghills in Florida : Levera Beach

it's almost been a week.
my bad.

lots happened this week though.

for starters Tuesday was my friend Stephanie's Birthday!! Yay!
What better way to celebrate than a little road trip to the northern end of the island to Bathway and Levera Beach?
We had the most amazing morning and afternoon relaxing on the beautiful beaches and taking in the sites.
You can see/read about my trip to those beaches this summer here and here.... because I am unable to show you any real pictures from our day... because. my.camera.was.stolen!

here's the story.
Around 1:30 we decided to leave Bathway and go up to Levera for a change of scenery and it is such a gorgeous location. From Levera you can see the island north of Grenada and it is beautiful. I recommend everyone in Grenada get to visit both Bathway and Levera... but read on before you plan your trip.

We arrived on Levera and there weren't many people around. A few locals celebrating Thanksgiving in the parking lot but basically no one on the beach. We walked down to an area away from people and in view of the other islands to the north, the perfect spot, or so I thought.
We hung out in the warm, clear water for a while making random trips back and forth from our towels to take pictures and have a drink.
Our towels were spread out probably about 10-15 feet from the water's edge. Behind our towels the beach backed into a mangrove area, a crawling vine-like plant, and then behind that was a wooded area, basically a jungle since this is Grenada we're talking about.

Well after an hour and half or so we decided it was time to start heading home because we had a Birthday dinner to be at that night for Steph. We walked out of the water to our towels and realized that our bags were gone. The entire bags. 3 of them!
Steph said something about her car keys were in her bag and my first thought was that someone was stealing her car! So I took off running down the beach to make sure the car was still there, thankfully it was, and I began telling the story to some of the local men there. One man was there on the beach playing with his children, he looked nice enough to me and sure enough he was the one to help (the situation was later debated about whether or not he may have been in on it). He went to his car, got his machete and set off through the mangroves. I followed him for a bit to show him where our belongings were on the beach & we found a trail leading from our stuff, through the mangroves and into the woods. The thief crawled through weeds to our stuff.
We were 10 ft away and didn't notice!
The sickening feeling was that he had to of been in the woods watching us waiting for the right moment.
ugh. I still haven't quite shaken that feeling.

The man said he was going to follow the trail up through the woods and about 10 minutes later he returned with our bags. They had been dumped out and toss aside. Our money, cameras, and my friends' phones were gone, but thankfully Steph's car keys, our credit cards, IDs, and other various items were still there.
As soon as we found out that we had they keys we had to go inform all the men standing around Steph's car that their assistance with a break in and hot wire wouldn't be needed. They seemed a little over eager for the job anyway.
They instructed us to go make a report at the police station in Sauteurs and tell the cops that Bollo was in on it. This probably did us no good, but makes for an interesting story. Steph spent her 26th Birthday in a police station in a 3rd world country!
They took down our individual accounts of the incident and said they'd call if anything turned up (fat chance).

While there I saw a man pick up two pistols, a magazine put them in an IGA grocery sack, tie it up, and go walking down the street with it. haha. strange.
I also heard one man take a call over the phone and say "What?! A white man? It was a white man?"

It was probably the longest day in history and we arrived an hour late to Stephanie's dinner party... but it is an interesting story!
Someday once I'm not as sad about losing the camera and the pictures I'll be able to look back on this and laugh...

As for now... if anyone sees Bollo tell him I took a self defense class this week and I'm ready for him!

{see pictures I made on picnik on what the pictures from the day might have looked like on my other blog}

I am so glad that Lee and I took the time to be witnesses to such an amazing event.
We went with the SOs up to Levera Beach, on the north eastern side of the island (about 1 & half hour drive)
Ocean Spirits is an organization that protects and monitors the laying of eggs of the endagered Leather-back turtles.
The laying season is from April - June (or July maybe) and if you're in Grenada it is a must see!!!

This night we got to see two different turtles! We watched one lay her eggs and then covere them up with sand, then move over a few feet and dig another hole to confuse predators. It was incredible!! She then moved around making lots of tracks in the sand before going back to the ocean.

Flash photography wasn't allowed because it would affect the turtle's vision and she wouldn't be able to find her way back to the sea, but I had a friend who accidentally flashed a picture and it turned out awesome & she got me in it! haha score!

Here are a few pictures I found online that show the beach and the turtles in the day light!! Both are incredible!!