Flamingo Bay

So we are to day 61.
61 precious days left on the island.
I'll have you know I've only missed one beach day since day 77! and it was pouring down rain.

Today (and last week) we went to Flamingo Bay, in the little town of Happy Hill.
It is a protected marine area known for its great snorkeling.... but we went more for the amazing sea glass!

Both days I brought home and entire zip lock bag FULL of sea glass!
I am officially addicted to scouring the ocean for glass.










I think all 50lbs of my suitcase will be dedicated to sea glass..... :/

Underwater Sculpture Park

I was so excited to see the sculpture park.  If you live in Grenada for any amount of time you'll hear about it & it was super intriguing to me.
Well... I won't say I was disappointed, but I won't say I was super impressed either.

It is very eerie to see "bodies" under the ocean.  and that is what a lot of it looked like.
and it was in deep water, which made my toes wiggle a little bit extra.
and some of the statues had fallen over and were quite corroded.
and it was tough to get to.

Lee and I are cheap. ch.ea.p.
We were not about to pay a boat to take us out to see it when it is "walkable"
We drove up on the other side of St. George's until you see a big sign for the sculpture park and parked at the beach and then began the hike to the bay on the left side of this beach.

If it wasn't for the sea urchins, I'd totally recommend it.  It wouldn't have been difficult except for the fear of falling and smashing your face against 100 sea urchin spikes.
But we made it.  (I did cut my hand up on one trying to get out of the water though...)

Other than the sculptures it was also pretty great snorkeling.  We saw tons of colorful fish, a barracuda (and  I was TERRIFIED) and other sea life.

If you're up for an adventure try it out!  I highly recommend wearing shoes.
or pay $60US for a boat to take you there. ridiculous.

AND. my underwater camera broke. again. boo.

Carriacou Day 3!

On our 3rd and final day on the lovely island of Carriacou we had plans of spending it on Paradise Beach, but our friend Stan was able to haggle an awesome deal for a guy with a boat to take us to Sandy Island, a little spit of sand close to the shore of Paradise beach. 
We had been hearing about the great snorkeling there and I think we had all caught the snorkeling bug by this point and were wanting to see more more more.
It was SO worth the money to go.  It is the most beautiful little island and the snorkeling was great!  We even saw another sea turtle! seriously the highlight of the trip for me because I wasn't expecting to see another one.

amazing snorkeling!

After snorkeling we ate dinner at a local place and we all had chicken platter specials and it was great!  2 pieces of chicken, macaroni pie, salad, and rice for $15ec!
Then we headed back to the Green Roof Inn to clean up and prepare for the 3:30 ferry to take us back to Grenada.
This time we took a much larger ferry and it was such a smooth enjoyable ride.  I could travel like this all the time.

arriving back in the carenage of home sweet Grenada.

I'm also going to do a post of how much stuff cost, who to contact and such, so it'll be a little easier for any of you who are planning your own trip to Carriacou or the Tobago Cays!
seriously. go. tomorrow.

Carriacou & Tobago Cays Day 2

This day was interesting to say the LEAST.
The Tobago Cays is by far the most beautiful place I have ever seen with my own eyes.
read about the first time I went here. 

I wanted to go back with Lee so badly so he could see it and we could experience swimming with sea turtles together! 

Well... the trip to the Cays was definitely an experience.  We thought we were doing the right thing and went to the ministry of tourism in Carriacou and asked about a boat to the Cays and they acted like it was a great operation. drinks, lunch, a nice boat...
no.
Clarence arrived to pick us up, an hour late, in a tiny work boat.  Which was ok.... we wanted to go so badly and it wasn't far.
Once we got into open water it was a different story!! The motor got wet and wasn't working properly and we were going so sloooooow over pretty big waves and getting splashed the entire time.   I couldn't open my eyes because the salt was burning them so badly.  esh. it was nuts.

We finally arrived near Union Island and stopped at the Happy Island BBQ so Clarence could mess with the motor. 
I was so HAPPY to be out of that boat!

Onward towards the island with the turtles!! My only wish of the day!

It was beyond incredible.  We were only in the water for about 5 minutes before we saw a turtle and then we kept seeing them!! We saw about 5 at once!  They are so graceful and pretty moving through the water.

We stayed on this island for a while and then went to Jamesby Island where we had our own private beach and saw some more iguanas.  And the most gorgeous view probably in the entire Caribbean.

Lee and I with the boat we  took across the ocean!

We then went to Palm Island, an island with what seemed to me to be only a resort.  Our driver said it was $700 a night to stay there. craziness. but beautiful!

The next stop was supposed to be back to Happy Island BBQ for dinner, but when we stopped they said they didn't have any food! seriously! haha

So to Union we went in search of some food and found hamburgers and fries for $12EC! an amazing deal.
We headed back to Carriacou in the sunset for another incredibly scary journey across the sea.
This time Clarence not only stopped the boat in the middle of open ocean (which Lee said was bad bad bad) to take the motor APART he also asked me to drive the boat while he filled the tank with gas. 
ugh. have you ever driven a boat? its not that easy. the motor is HEAVY.
I wasn't happy.

I told Lee I was going to kiss the ground when we got back to Carriacou! haha.

All in all..... it was worth it because the Cays are that amazing, but I would never get into this boat ever again.
Luckily because it was such a crappy boat we paid less! yes!

update update

Lee and I have been doing so much fun stuff I haven't been able to keep this blog updated!!

I don't have pictures but we went to the most amazing place called Flamingo Bay.  It is located at Happy Hill, just about 15minutes past St. Georges & it has the BEST snorkeling!!
Thank you Kensi for the tip!! It was awesome! 
Unfortunately that was the day my underwater camera decided not to work.  but I can tell you that it was beautiful.
Huge sea fans, tons of colorful tropical fish, squids, so much life.
And the best part is when you swim out kinda far there is this huge drop off and a rock wall with stuff growing all over it.
Afterwards Lee and Stan decided to go find the underwater sculpture park which is located a bay (or 2) over, while Natasha and I hung out on the beach... they came back completely worn out and having only seen 1 sculpture, so we're planning a trip back soon!



We've also had a few more sunset swims, beach walks, and long days relaxing at home watching movies.
It's been an incredible summer so far.

I finally got Lee up to La Sagesse last week too!  It is SO beautiful there!

Now I can move onto our mini-vacation to Carriacou and the Tobago Cays!! It was INCREDIBLE!

sea finds

I'm really, really good at finding stuff in the ocean.

2 pairs of designer sunglasses speak for themselves :)
honest. i found ray bans and miu miu sunglasses BOTH in the ocean on separate occasions.

I've also found a star fish, loads of cool shells, sand dollars, sea urchin skeletons.... plastic bags, beer bottles you know.

My very favorite things are sea fans
now. you can't take sea fans from the ocean.... apparently they take years and years to grow.... but it's not my fault it one washes up on shore.
the best time to look for a sea fan is after a storm and rough waves,  they break off and come to shore looking for a new home on my shelf.

yesterday Amber is actually the one who spotted the sea fan & I'm so glad she did!  I love it!
and I have a HUGE new conch shell that is now my door stop.

happy snorkeling!

Thankful for a beach day

this past weekend was Grenada's Thanksgiving and Lee got 2 days off of school!!! 2!
he won't get any for American Thanksgiving :( so I'll be home watching the Macy's parade alone.

He studied Friday and Monday (his days off) and took a break for Saturday and Sunday!
It was a great two days together... even better than the break after midterms.
Saturday we went to the beach, went grocery shopping together (which is something I really love to do together, makes me miss when we were first married and went on grocery adventures at Kroger to get all the deals) came home and watched college football, had dinner and ice cream with candy bar cut up in like a blizzard, and watched a movie! 

I almost took this little guy home until he crawled out and got his goo all over my hand and I screamed!

skipping stones

and I found a perfect sea urchin skeleton snorkeling!

life is good.