Except for making delivery of a ballet bar that Scott made for our neighbor, I hadn't been out of the house all week! Our cell phones here are the pre-paid type & the company was running a special which I thought was for today only. You get double the value of your dollar if you top-up on this day only. When I got the text message about the special, I thought it was odd that they'd do it on Good Friday, but I'm new here... what do I know? (Of course, I didn't save the message on my phone!)
So we ventured out this morning with that as our main mission for the day... secondary was filling the gas cans for lawn work. I decided to take my camera with me because I wanted to photograph someone selling the homemade kites that are all over the place during the Easter season.
It's not unusual to see things along the way that make us smile at the thought that you'd NEVER see that in the US! Well, it didn't take long for one of those moments to appear on this particular drive to town. There was a full-sized van (what the locals call a "bus") in front of us, in our lane, going in reverse down the road ahead of us! There we were... driving down the road (at regular speed) following this van that was facing us! And remember... none of the roads around here are straight! He was doing a nice job of it too... until he came to another bend in the road with a stopped vehicle on our side. A small pickup truck coming around the corner (from the other direction) had to stop suddenly so as not to hit the van. With everyone stopped, the van continued his backwards journey until he reached another road where he finally turned off... in forward motion!
So now we're getting closer to town, and I'm beginning to notice that all the stores we're passing are closed. Not surprising, as this IS a holiday, but I'm suspicious now that I may have the
wrong day for the cell phone special. (Most of the gas stations were open though.) And I'm also thinking this is not a good day to try photographing a kite "salesman"... the streets were nearly empty! When we reached the phone company, they too were closed... but by this time I was not surprised. Now we might as well kill some time. We saw quite a few people walking along the street carrying the kite they either made themselves or purchased. Although it's not the shot I was looking for, maybe I can get something of someone flying their kite.We found a few families with their children & kites at Quarantine Point, but I was still hoping to find someone with stacks of kites for sale. So we headed back into St. George's to see what we could find. That answer is (amazingly)... NOTHING! The town was so empty, it almost looked like a ghost town! There were no ships in port, no street vendors, no market vendors, no shops open, and no buses at the bus terminal! Actually, this is another reason why I wanted to move to Grenada... everything is close on a holiday (which forces you to kick back & RELAX)!
Now we might as well just get the gas cans filled and head home. So back through town we go, taking the back road home... so Scott can stop at the Texaco station he usually goes to for gas. When we get there, guess what? It's closed! (We must have passed 5 other stations that were open on this trip, but we're now almost home so we'll forget the gas today.)
Basically, our journey to town today just ended up as a little sight-seeing tour. So as we got nearer to home, we decided to venture down a new road that they've been working on (since our arrival here last July). With this "little" detour, we actually ended up back in town... where we stopped at an open Texaco station for the gas.
In Grenada, there are only 2 brands of gas... Texaco and Shell. And it doesn't matter where you go because the price is regulated by the government... it's the same price everywhere. You also cannot pump your own... they have attendants that do it for you. While I sat in the car, Scott got the gas cans out of the back & had them filled. While this was happening, I watched (actually heard it first!) a motorcycle pull in. (This particular station was very much like our convenience stores back in the
US.) A guy came out of the store carrying 2 open beer bottles & gave one to his friend on the motorcycle. In about 2 minutes, they were finished drinking the beer, so the guy got back on his bike & drove off! Apparently, no one else seemed to think this was odd. (Once again, I'm shaking my head & smiling.)So we finally made it back home, having achieved nothing but getting the gas... and collecting a few more stories to tell our friends. I turned on the computer to begin writing this blog, but after about 10 minutes... the power went off. Probably a kite in the electric wires nearby! Guess I'll get out the pen & paper.
... just another great day in Paradise!
(NOTE: After a few hours, the power was back on & I was able to copy the notes I had written.)
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