Carnival in Grenada

Well we have been in Grenada almost 3 months and it’s been a fantastic time to be here. The carnival is the 9-12th August and it’s a real party atmosphere around the island with all the flights in/out being fully booked.

We started August with the First Saturday museum jam, where local musicians and artists gather to play and read poetry. It was a great night and several local cruisers also joined in and had a great time. It is truly amazing some of the young talent and the way they are supported in this venue.

Jam session

Gregg from Serenade

We of course had several more walks around the island with trips to the IGA supermarket for groceries and the mandatory ice cream fix. We also walked to Nimrods rum shop for lunch of roti’s and a beer which is still the best roti on the island so far. We also took trips into St Georges for a replacement to our hotspot as it failed. We got a great deal from Digicel for a Android phone which also has a hotspot feature so we are back on the internet. We got great produce at the local market and the famers market as well and it was all delicious.

A beautiful caterpillar on our walk 

A photo stop on our walk - thanks Maggie

Of course the carnival was our main event of the last few weeks. We attended Panorama which is the top 8 steel pan bands competing on the island for the best band. They all have 10-15 minutes to play their set and it’s truly spectacular to hear the sounds they create from steel instruments. It was a great night and the top 2 bands were obvious to us as well as the rest of the crowd; Lime Comanchero’s and New Horizons. Knowing who won was a little hard as the web site the following day had them tied.

A few days later Devin got up early to get to the Break of Day or J’Ouvert parade. It is a very messy affair with paint and used motor oil being spread all over the revelers. Well not to be out-done Gregg and Devin were soon covered in both, they did ask for it though and if you don’t want to be covered they seem to respect that too, as many watchers were very clean. The music was incredibly loud and you could feel the bass beat in your chest, but everyone was really partying hard and seemed to revel in it.

Break of Day Parade

Lots of people participate fully

Now that's love??

The drummer

The 'loud as it can be' music trucks

Yes Gregg and Devin got plastered in used motor oil

Later that day after Devin & Gregg cleaned up we all took a bus into St Georges for the Monday Night Mas Parade. This was a much more refined affair with large groups of costumed revelers dancing in the streets to music. There are some very spectacular costumes and we hope we captured the flavor for you. The music again was very loud and mostly from DJ’s on large trucks with huge speakers.

Start of parade - throwing talcum powder

Some of the children in the parade

Lovely costumes

Lots of girls groups like this one

Lovely

Brighter the better

The parade Queen

A dragon

The night parade of lights was really late and unfortunately after such an early start to the day (4am) we were no up to it. Some friends who stayed said it was spectacular with many folks having bought the fun packs which included lights which had a great effect. We did however make it back on Tuesday for the final parade which was the judging of the previous days contestants and it seemed to have much more energy due to the judges being present. We lined up by the judges and got some more great photo’s and video.

Another girl group

Love the fishes

Magnificent

Dance routine for the judges

Some scary ones too

Well that just about wraps up our time in Grenada. We have met some wonderful people and have felt extremely welcome on the island. There is a lot to do and we are planning to come back so we left out a few things for our future visits here. The cruising community is vibrant here and we have had so much fun participating in everything with so many of them we can’t wait to get back again.

So very soon we will be off to Trinidad for a change of scenery and to check it out for our haul out next year.
We hope everyone is having a wonderful summer too.