Today is a national holiday in Grenada. Their Thanksgiving Day commemorates the arrival of US military forces when they intervened during a political revolution in 1983. Although many people might refer to this event as an "invasion" of Grenada, it is often pointed out by the locals as an "intervention". You can read more about it here at the following link... Operation Urgent Fury. Today marks the 25th anniversary. President Ronald Reagan was also dealing with the bombing of the barracks in Beirut only 2 days earlier. We didn't have any special plans for the day... we're hoping it's nice enough to get to the beach tomorrow.
On Thursday, we took a drive around the island. Well, we covered about the top 2/3. Originally we planned to do it on Wednesday, but there was a lot of rain in the forecast. Thursday's weather didn't look much more promising, but we decided to venture out anyway. Amazingly, we must have skirted the rain all day because we only came into one downpour. We were watching some very dark clouds over the mountains all day... even saw a waterspout out in the Caribbean Sea. (That's a little tornado over water.) When we got home later that day, we could tell there had been quite a bit of rain here while we were out. The news then showed that many streets were flooded in the city and along the tourist section of Grand Anse. One restaurant (along the main highway) had 3 feet of water inside! Here's a photo from the day... along the northern edge of the island:
We had a great day for the hash last Saturday! I forwarded some photos from the day so they could post them on the Grenada Hash Harriers website. If you want to see all of them, keep an eye on this site: Grenada Hash Website/Photos (Watch for the link for "Hash 601" photos, which haven't been posted by the time I write this.)
And today I finally did it! I made my first batch of soft pretzels... from scratch! They taste pretty good, but I'm missing the coarse salt. Snack food here is quite expensive so we've never bought a bag of chips, etc. (and I haven't seen any pretzels in the grocery store). We now make popcorn the old-time way... in a covered pot on top of the stove. It's great!
I forgot to mention... I received my first package (mostly forwarded mail) from my sister. I had to open the box in front of the customs agent so they could look through it to see if there was anything inside of "value". (Meaning: anything there to tax!) They saw that it was mostly mail, with some iced tea mix so there was no charge for duty. But we discovered that every time we receive a box, it'll cost us $20 EC to get it... that's about $7.50 US. In addition to that, there will be a percentage fee added to the value, which could be as high as 35-55% for electronics! (The root beer barrels she threw in were a real treat!)
On Thursday, we took a drive around the island. Well, we covered about the top 2/3. Originally we planned to do it on Wednesday, but there was a lot of rain in the forecast. Thursday's weather didn't look much more promising, but we decided to venture out anyway. Amazingly, we must have skirted the rain all day because we only came into one downpour. We were watching some very dark clouds over the mountains all day... even saw a waterspout out in the Caribbean Sea. (That's a little tornado over water.) When we got home later that day, we could tell there had been quite a bit of rain here while we were out. The news then showed that many streets were flooded in the city and along the tourist section of Grand Anse. One restaurant (along the main highway) had 3 feet of water inside! Here's a photo from the day... along the northern edge of the island:
We had a great day for the hash last Saturday! I forwarded some photos from the day so they could post them on the Grenada Hash Harriers website. If you want to see all of them, keep an eye on this site: Grenada Hash Website/Photos (Watch for the link for "Hash 601" photos, which haven't been posted by the time I write this.)
And today I finally did it! I made my first batch of soft pretzels... from scratch! They taste pretty good, but I'm missing the coarse salt. Snack food here is quite expensive so we've never bought a bag of chips, etc. (and I haven't seen any pretzels in the grocery store). We now make popcorn the old-time way... in a covered pot on top of the stove. It's great!I forgot to mention... I received my first package (mostly forwarded mail) from my sister. I had to open the box in front of the customs agent so they could look through it to see if there was anything inside of "value". (Meaning: anything there to tax!) They saw that it was mostly mail, with some iced tea mix so there was no charge for duty. But we discovered that every time we receive a box, it'll cost us $20 EC to get it... that's about $7.50 US. In addition to that, there will be a percentage fee added to the value, which could be as high as 35-55% for electronics! (The root beer barrels she threw in were a real treat!)
Well, that's all for now! Feel free to comment!
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2 comments:
Oh boy, after reading how they inspect your packages when your receive them gave me a 'dirty' thought. Nah, I wouldn't send something that would make your face turn RED. NAH, Ha Ha.
Not to worry but Sandi is preparing a package for ya all.
LLOYD & SANDI
plus Lacey
See, I told you, you should make soft pretzels and sell them on the beach. Look how pretty they look!
Charlotte
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