Day 4: Seven Sisters Waterfall Hike

We had previously visited Grenada in February 2005 shortly after Ivan, a category 4 hurricane devastated the island. When you looked out at the pier at St. George's area, blue tarps covered a majority of the buildings. Grenada (pronounced Gre-nay-da; Gre-nah-da is in Spain) is widely known as the spice island. It produces vast quantities of cloves, cinnamon, and mace, and about one third of the world's nutmeg. Last time we visited, we walked around the Carenage Harbour, purchased a stunning sample of a star fish and conch shell for just $10 total!, and purchased some spices for my father.

This time, I wanted to see the inside of the island. So we ventured up to Seven Sisters Waterfall, about a 30 minute drive from the pier. Actually, it was more like an hour because of all the stops our tour guide made along the way (which I didn't think were suppose to be included in the tour).

By the time we get to our destination, it's in the middle of the afternoon and the sun is really starting to beat down. We check in at this little shack on top of a hill, pick out a walking stick, and head out to make a 45 minute hike to the waterfall. Now mind you, when I made this tour I knew it was another physical excursion. There were families there with their 8 year old child and an extremely overweight woman who I was thinking had no right even attempting to climb a ladder more or less a hill to get to a waterfall. Sorry if that sounded overly rude, but we soon found out that it was very true.

To get to the waterfall, you needed to be able to climb this...


and this...



And although it wasn't too strenuous for either of us on the way to the waterfall, I kept reminding myself that I have to do it again on the way back. And most of it will be uphill. But on the way to the waterfall, the overweight woman fell down part of the steep terrain. She was in good spirits when it happened and of course they made us sign a waiver, so there was really nothing she could do except laugh at herself.

When we finally arrived to the waterfall, the area was swamped with people. It was a maze just to be able to cross a little section of a stream prior to taking in the breathtaking awe of the waterfall itself. The waterfall??



Was not the Niagara Falls, but it was a very tranquil place to relax (without all the people of course). This short fall in front was about 10 feet above the water, and people were jumping into the water below (nope, not for me.) And there were the select few dumb people who climbed the second one, soaring 30 feet into the air (that's 3 stories people!).

It was a good thing that I had packed a few cheese and cracker snacks because we were starving yet again once we got back to the ship. We made sure to visit a few shops in the newly built Esplanade Mall, this time we grabbed nutmeg syrup, and nutmeg jam and jelly.

That evening we tried our luck at Blackjack, but I guess the dealer wasn't in our favor (are they ever?). We had some more laughs with our friends, had a wine sampling with cheese and fruit, tasted the ore d'oeuvres at midnight, and headed to bed around 2am. Tomorrow- kayaking in the mangroves at Bonaire!