Hi! As most of you are aware, we’re currently moored in Bonaire, the lovely Dutch Caribbean island that makes up the B in the ABC islands. Our passage from Carriacou was one of relative ease – we did some fishing, some steering, and some delicious cooking. And lots of sleep. I’m glad my first passage went smoothly (both in terms of waves and overall.)
Since we’ve been in Bonaire, we’ve been lucky enough to participate in several of the activities that distinguish Bonaire as a unique and exciting places. Among these are scuba diving and windsurfing. The entire coast of the island is filled with dive sites, but you could go even 30 feet behind our boat and see some super cool reefs and drop-offs, not to mention the countless fish (including cowfish!)
I like diving a great deal, and our hours spent reading and training for our certification have definitely paid off. It’s nice to be on a purely leisure dive, as opposed to our training dives where we practiced scuba skills in addition to looking at the pretty fish. We saw all sorts of fish and coral that I am not at all qualified to talk about other than the fact that I thought it was very pretty. One of my favorite types of fish is the cowfish. Some of them have two lil horns above their eyes so they look like swimming beef. They’re pretty adorable.
We’ve also had the pleasure of snorkeling all over the island, which has been fantastic. You don’t even need to dive to enjoy the water here. Through snorkeling, we’ve seen hundreds of remarkably colorful parrotfish. They range in size, but the one characteristic they all share is their scales all sparkle brilliantly with colors that remind one of a parrot. They do not have feathers like a parrot. The naming is merely for the colors.
We’ve also been windsurfing since being in Bonaire which is a great first place to windsurf considering how many international champions call Bonaire their home. The island has a shallow, sheltered bay that is ideal for beginners and experts alike. I (of course) fell off the windsurfer after being on the board for about two seconds. To some, that might be a discouraging start, but I laughed it off and hopped back on. Over the two hours I went from knowing barely anything about sailing to knowing a little more than barely anything about sailing. It wasn’t very windy, but I believe our conditions were ideal for learning to windsurf.
Happy Halloween everybody! I hope you have a spooky day!
Hey everyone! I wrote this a while ago about Carriacou. Although we’re now in Bonaire after a successful passage, I think you guys would enjoy reading it.
A few days ago, we moved our boat to the quiet Tyrell Bay of Carriacou. After all the excitement from Carnival in Grenada and all the kid boats we met, our latest anchorage feels remarkably sleepy. Although it’s different here, I definitely still enjoy it. And the peace and quiet is a nice change for a little bit.
There’s a fairly sizable reef in Tyrell Bay that makes for wonderful snorkeling. The maximum depth is about 12 feet, so it’s quite easy to get to the bottom to get a closer look at some interesting coral or a long abandoned motor. You’ve got to be careful of sea urchins though – the floor is like a minefield of big pokey black sea urchins, which twitch around and make awfully scary noises. They’re pretty easy to avoid, as long as you watch where you’re swimming.
Within the past few days, Sally and I have been on some adventures in search of some critters to consume. Sally spotted some lobsters which we tried to catch (with Boat Dad’s help), but they evaded us with relative ease. The only ones we netted were too small to bring home. A day after we saw lobsters, I spotted a gang of about five lionfish! Lionfish are an invasive and deadly species to Grenada and Carriacou, and as such, we’re allowed to kill them on sight.
Along with Boat Dad, Sally and I set out to spear the lionfish for both our own nourishment and to rid the ocean of some roaring bad guys. You get the mane idea, yeah? Whenever we spot something that looks tasty, I tread water above the thing and Sally swims back to the boat to get the spear or Boat Dad. Either way, I always seem to be stuck treading water. The most recent time, I suggested that I swim back, but Sally (correctly) stated that she would be faster. So, I waited for her.
With Boat Dad and Sally (and a spear) catching the lionfish was simple work. Boat Dad stabbed the biggest lionfish pretty good, but he swam deeper into the reef, out of range. Two of his friends were not so lucky, and they were soon vanquished and returned without glory to our boat to be prepared for an appetizer. Fun fact: fried lionfish is actually pretty good. Someone even claimed it tasted like lobster!
After our fish catching adventures, we went on to the island with a boat friend for a fantastic supper. If you’re ever in Carriacou, I would highly recommend going to a restaurant run by a woman named Mavis, who operates the restaurant with her husband and children. She’s friendly, and makes delicious fried chicken with spices that make KFC seem like dirt. So far, my post-Grenada adventures have been splendid, and I’m sure they’re only going to get splendid-er. Until next time!
Hi everyone! Sorry I haven’t done any blog posts in a really long time, but I will catch up on other things that I have done here in Grenada soon! I am going to write about a super fun event I was super lucky to be part of right now though, The Grenfin Invitational Swim Meet.The swim meet was a really cool experience, one I will never forget. The Sailfish swim club swimmers, coaches, helpers, and parents were all great people and inspirations.
It all started about one and a half weeks before the swim meet. We were asked if we wanted to do a swim meet if we were still in Grenada. We all thought that would be fun but didn’t think that we would still be in Grenada. We decided we would stay in Grenada, so, we would be able to go!
We started going to practice. We had about a week to practice and when we got into the pool for the first time in about a year and a half, it was much harder then I remember. But with Coach Mandy and Coach Deb I was very excited and ready to swim more!
When I first got to the swim meet on Thursday night, I was very excited to start swimming! When we got there we met some more super nice people on the team. There was good music playing as we quickly warmed up. That day we were doing only one event which was the 500 freestyle. The event was 9 and over for the event and since I had no times I was in the same heat as Sally. The 500 was good. We had the first heat so we spent a lot of time cheering with the rest of the team. The swimmers were so dedicated and were sooo fast. I talked and met more people which was fun. Later that evening, we found out that the Sailfish were leading the meet for the first time in 7 years! That was exciting to us all.
Friday night we were going to swim the 200 freestyle, 200 backstroke, and 100 freestyle.But…Friday night was filled with rainstorms with lots of thunder and lightning. We got into our dinghy a few minutes before we were going to be picked up because it was raining hard and thundering and lightning right in the harbor.We got up to the swim meet and before the meet even started, they postponed it.Well, the Sailfish were still leading the Grenfin 2 days in a row. When we got back to our boat, it was still thundering and lightning. We found out that one of the boats in the harbor even got struck by lightning!It was definitely a good call to postpone the meet.
The next morning we woke up early and Coach Deb drove us up for a 7:15 warm up. When we got to the meet, we found out that we would be swimming Friday’s and Saturday’s events. They eliminated 2 events, the 200 back and 200 breaststroke, so there would be time to do both days. We were all warmed up well before the meet started. To start the meet, there was a march around the pool with everyone in their team jackets. It was fun and I will post some pics of that! Next there were announcements. I started off just standing by where we ended with other people, but I was informed that, “You will be old by the time that these people stop talking,” by Coach Mandy. So I sat down and half listened to the ongoing talk about Lucozade, basically gatorade, and all the other sponsors for the meet.After about 5 false ends to the talking, the meet was finally beginning! The little kids swam the 100 freestyle and then it was time for the 9 and over 200 freestyle. Heidi, Sally, and I were all in the same heat. No one else was swimming with us.
So, when the announcer was announcing us, it was, “Heidi Vannini in lane 2 from Sailfish, LucyVannini in lane 3 from Sailfish, and Sally Vannini in lane 4 from Sailfish.Well, they are all Vannini’s and they are all Sailfish.” I looked at Heidi and Sally smiling. They both were smiling too. I adjusted my goggles and soon the race began. It ended Heidi first, Lucy second, and Sally third. We had fun doing the rest of the races, talking and laughing with the team, and cheering. By the time that the two days put into one were done it was dark and about 7 at night. It was a long day and soon after we ate dinner, I went to bed, thinking of the fun and swimming that the next day would bring us.
Heidi, Sally, and me in the Sailfish jackets
It was Sunday. We still had the lead in the meet, only by about20 points though. And there was one event that the other team could win 20-30 points.It was the last day and the winner would be determined that day. It was going to be the most competition… I got up, ate breakfast, got swim stuff together, then we left. We decided yesterday that we would warm up on our boat so we didn’t have to wake up so early. But when we got there we warmed up a little more with the little kids on the team. The first thing that I swam was the 200 IM. It is my least favorite event so I was pretty happy it was the first event.After that I swam some more races.The others sailfish events were super exciting. At the end of them everyone on the team was jumping up and down and cheering for them. It always seemed to be less then a second that a least two swimmers ended from each other in the last eats. Grenfin seemed to be getting in the lead but still it seemed very close. We had lunch break. They had all different types of foods there and it was cool to see the differences between their food and the food at swim meets I went to. They had rotis, bake with salt fish or cheese, barbecue with rice and salad, and lots of other good food. After the lunch break, we started going over some of the medals before we finished the meet.There were lots of Grenfin and lots of Sailfish winning prizes but I thought that the Grenfin might be a little ahead still. There was the 100 breaststroke and relay after that. We finished and there were more awards.
Me doing breaststrokeHeidi doing backstrokeSally doing breaststroke
Heidi, Sally, and I got changed quickly and headed over to the side where people were getting the medals. About halfway through the medals Coach Mandy came over and told everyone that if the sailfish won that we would run around, act mad, and jump in the water. Heidi said that she would do the running around and acting mad part but she was already changed. I agreed. When the time finally came for saying which team won, everyone was super excited and nervous. The last two teams left were Grenfin and Sailfish. For seven years before this, the Grenfin had always won.The Grenfin started cheering like oo, oo,oo.
“It was super close, only seven points difference,” the announcer said. Everyone fell silent. 7 points was only one race. “The winner for this years Grenfin Invitational goes to….…Sailfish!” The whole team was jumping up and down and cheering like crazy. It was so exciting how happy everyone was. People started jumping in the water. Sally went to change back into her swim suit and I was just about to when Coach Mandy told us, “Go be in the water with your team.” Heidi and I looked at each other then started going to the pool. I jumped in and was greeted with lots of splashes and “you came in!” Heidi was in soon after me. It was so much fun, they had great music playing, everyone was so happy, and hugging each other! It was so so so so much fun! After lots of hugs, congrats, and pictures we headed back.
celebrating pictureSally, Heidi, me, and Coach Mandy with the trophy🎉
I am so glad that I got to be part in this super fun event. It was very inspiring to be part of a swim team that everyone was encouraged, super nice, and dedicated. Coach Mandy and Coach Deb were great role models, people to look up to, and amazing both as people and coaches. The swimmers on the team were some of the most welcoming people that I met. Even though we just came and barely met one another, everyone was sure nice and welcomed us to be part of the team. It seemed by the end of the weekend that we had been friends with the rest of the team for a lot longer the just a weekend. The Sailfish Swim Team was a great team filled with amazing people. I would stay in Grenada just so I could be part of this swim team. It was a super great memory, experience, and something I will remember for the rest of my life.
Hello again!
I know that Fenton has already covered this and the event happened a million years ago but I wanted to share my story from J’Ouvert (ju-vay). That morning was definitely one I will remember forever. I’m very glad I chose to go. It was a last minute decision on my part. I mean let’s be honest here, “Hey Heidi, wanna come with me to get covered in grease and listen to music that’s playing way louder than it should be all at four in the morning?!” Um yeeeah no thank you. But if you think about it, this is a once in a lifetime experience I don’t want to miss. And the stories that come after. It’s a new culture at their most exciting time of the year. It was all worth it.
We (Dad, Fenton, Lucy {she decided to skip it} and I) planned our “outfits” the night before. This included a very old way too big pair of shorts I had never worn that I could very easily part with and a large white t-shirt I’m not too fond of. All on top of a swim suit just in case we needed to take our clothes off for the dinghy ride home. We woke up the next morning way earlier than any human should have to wake up at and the music was already blaring. So loudly we could hear it from our boat before we left. The sun had not yet risen but being very pale cruisers we put on our sunscreen and dish soap. Dad figured that Joy would help rub off the greases that we were to be covered with. So we loaded up the dinghy and headed off, stopping to pick up a few more boat friends along the way.
And then, the most terrible noise came out of the seventeen year old sitting next to me in our small boat. A strangled cat mixed with a breaching whale scream accompanied the flopping sound coming from the bottom of the dinghy. The flashlight was whipped out and we caught our first dinghy fish!! Quite the way to start the crazy morning.
We made it to the dock with no further excitement. The music got louder and louder and we could kind of make out the clusters of dark oil covered people. We docked and locked the dinghy and moved about two feet before hitting the wall of people. The streets were filled, jam packed, completely full, hundreds of thousands of loud, crazy, messy people everywhere. Everywhere. Our small group stood and stared for a few minutes, trying to take in the entire scene. We finally decided to try to make our way through the mass of human bodies. We moved about a foot and were stopped by a man with a gallon of white paint. He smeared some on Dad’s face and continued walking. Lemme point out here that this isn’t face paint. This is full on paint-your-walls stuff. Anyways, we decided to make a go for it. We stepped into the streets and the music pounded through my body. My chest thumping to each beat of some of our new favorite songs.
It is practically impossible to stay clean in this setting. Even if you don’t cover yourself in oil, like us, there is no way to walk down the packed streets without being brushed up against. By the time we had moved maaaybe two feet, we all had some sort of coloring on us. We stopped for a minute to enjoy the music and partially because we physically couldn’t move anywhere. The speakers were moving in and out with the music (just like in all the cartoons!!!) that seemed to get louder as the day went on. Then, this man with his buddy stopped in front of us. One of them holding a five gallon bucket of grease and the other with a grease covered piece of seaweed. If you haven’t imagined this already, he dunked his seaweed in the bucket and dripped the slimy plant all over our necks and for me, all in my hair. We moved about a total of ten feet in our entire experience. On a short dash to the next “open” spot, I was stopped by a big orange paint coated hand on my face. After getting some more grease and paint thrown on us, we stood back and just watched.
It was truly the craziest event I have ever been to. The entire island was going insane. Partying hard. And all at four in the morning.
Grenada, you really do have an amazing culture. I feel so special and lucky to have shared J’Ouvert 2018 with you. Thank you for an awesome carnival.
More soon,
Heidi
P.S. The dish soap definitely helped with the aftermath of the morning. Only a few ocean showers after we were cleaner than before.
So, we have now been going to the animal shelter for four weeks in a row. Some puppies have gradually gotten bigger and others have rapidly gotten bigger. On Wednesday, Ally asked us if we wanted to foster a dog for the weekend! Ally asked me which one I would take if I could, and I picked out Shiraz. He doesn’t bite too much and he doesn’t sleep all day and he’s fat and adorable. He is my favorite in the wine litter! I looked at mom and she said, “Maybe, I’ll think about it…we’ll see!” I was super excited! When we got home I told everyone the news. This was yesterday!
If we foster the puppy, it will be my responsibility. So, my job became finding a safe place to keep the puppy. I started finding a way to block off the stairs. I moved our large bins of books to block the stairs. Mission accomplished. Where will the puppy sleep? In Willie’s crate—made for an 80 pound dog! This little boy is only about 10 weeks old and maybe 8ish pounds—not big at all! Now, about Willie, what if he gets tired of the puppy? I will supervise the dogs together and make sure Willie gets plenty of attention. My last dilemma is transportation. The bus might not allow a puppy to ride since he’s not potty trained. My mom and I have asked Ally at the shelter to give us a ride. We just heard back from Ally, that she will make it work! I am super excited to take on this very big responsibility!
So earlier, Mom mentioned about taking scuba. Now, after four days of training, I can proudly say “I am a PADI certified diver”! The first time I breathed underwater was so neat. The thrill of being under the water is cooler than you can imagine! Our training spot wasn’t so great but a way better dive than snorkeling! We all got used to breathing, equalizing, and all that jazz in the shallows. Then we moved out further to about 4 meter or 10ish feet and tried everything in deeper water. Once we knew the basics, we were ready for an open water dive.
SCUBA Sally
We were all excited for our 1st open water dive on Flamingo Reef. We found some awesome fish, eels, crabs, and lots and lots of coral! After about 45 minutes Lucy’s and Fenton’s air was around 70 bars so we headed back up to the surface. We got back into the boat and took all of our gear off, we relaxed at the surface for a little and had juice and popcorn! Then, the engines turned on and we headed over to the underwater sculpture park. Unfortunately, a hurricane had broken some of the statues. Previously, we had checked out the sculpture park with our snorkeling gear—after a big rain which caused murky, bad visibility. But on this dive, we could see everything! It was really cool! My favorite statue was of a mermaid holding a conch shell up to the surface. Once we saw all the sculptures, we headed back up to the surface.
The next day, we woke up bright and early only to find rain. We still got in our dinghy and headed to ScubaTech. When we got there, the rain calmed down. We loaded up the dive boat with our gear and Joshua joined us a few minutes later. We started heading to a wreck, named the Veronica! We went down to the wreck by pulling ourselves down a line attached to dive boat and the wreck. From the top, it just looked like a sunken boat and not very interesting. However, once we got all the way down, it was beautiful and so cool. There were lots of different colored fish. We dove into the wreck and swam through a few doors which was really cool. The one bad thing was fire coral that I accidentally touched. It hurt a lot but it’s better now. The coolest part of the wreck was seeing the old anchor and windlass (a boat part to help pull up the anchor) and all of the fish swimming in and out of the anchor. Once we surfaced, we stayed on the dive boat for about an hour. We ate buttery popcorn and juice— yum the juice was cold! After we spent enough time at sea level (so any extra nitrogen got out of our bodies), we headed over to a very pretty reef named Purple Rain! It was gorgeous— the coral was millions of colors and there were lots and lots of fish. I did flips in the water and it was so fun! Unfortunately, my air went down to about 40 bars so we had to go back up. Our last dive was so fun!! We went back to the dive shop and got PADI certified—woo-hoo!! I can’t wait for our next dive!
We have been in Grenada for almost 2 months. It is the longest time we have stayed anywhere on our trip since we left Chicago last October. It is beginning to feel like home. We visit the GSPCA every Wednesday to bathe and play with puppies. We have been here long enough to see many new puppies and dogs come in as well as many find new homes and happily leave the shelter. We bump into our new friends on the streets, at the beach, and at the grocery store. We know our way around the island by bus, we’ve experienced Carnival, we know where to find the best food and local juice, we have “our” guy at the fish market, and we love turning on the radio stations to hear the lively Soca music. We are so lucky to get to know Grenada so well and are glad we’ve picked this beautiful, friendly country to spend this hurricane season.
Throughout our journey down through the Caribbean to Grenada, we’ve constantly seen dive boats and divers exploring the ocean floor. Saba, a Dutch island we visited, had scuba divers everywhere. It is a really hard place to visit and you have to put a lot of effort into getting there, whether by sea or by plane…and everyone there was diving (except us). We felt like we were missing out as the dive boats headed out into the lumpy sea. So, this last week, the whole crew of Love & Luck has taken the plunge and we are learning SCUBA. The kids take lessons in the morning and Mark and I take lessons in the afternoon. We have finished our confined water portion—which was actually done at the beach near our boat. On Monday, we make our first open water dive all together. We are all looking forward to a new experience! I expect we will all feel a bit like the new swimmers we taught earlier in July that put on goggles and got to see the pretty fish underwater for the first time…
I’m sure someone will be posting a blog to tell you all about it soon!
Hi! I haven’t formally introduced myself yet, but my name is Fenton. I’m 17, and I’ve joined the crew of SV Love & Luck for about 9 months, in between my high school graduation and start of college. So far, living on a boat has forced me to make some adjustments, but seeing the world from a whole new perspective has made it well worth it. I can’t wait to keep meeting new people, seeing new places, and spending time with some of the coolest people in the world.
Yesterday morning, Heidi, Boat Dad, and I woke up at 4-something AM to go to J’Ouvert. J’Ouvert is an annual celebration held in the streets of Grenada. It involves music you can feel, dancing with all of your passion, and getting covered with oil and paint by locals. All in good fun, of course.
After getting up, everyone changed into old clothes and shoes. Even if you aren’t trying to get paint on you, it usually ends up on you from the jumble of people everywhere. So, we wore clothes that we were willing to throw away if necessary. We also put on dish soap as a preventive measure, which ended up making the paint and oil very easy to get off. The three of us hopped in the dinghy, and then we went to go pick up some other cruiser friends who were also going. We also caught a needlefish! It’s important to note that I use caught loosely. While on our way, a needlefish jumped into our dinghy. It was raining a bit and dark, but the fish jumping around at my feet certainly woke me up quickly.
Once we got there, it was loud. We could hear the music from our boat in the anchorage, but when we locked up the dinghy, it was hard to hear anything but the music. We watched for a bit, and then were encouraged to walk around a bit and see some more. Most people with paint wouldn’t cover you if you didn’t want to – generally you get a look, which you nod yes or no to – but there’s no way you can go to J’Ouvert without getting at least some paint on you. After paint was applied to us with brushes, a leaf, and some finger-painting (in actuality, it was more like hand-painting), we listened to some of our favorite Soca music. Most of the trucks blaring music had more speakers than tires, so it was never hard to hear.
The dancing of Grenada is not something that is half-done. We’ve experienced it at several events that involved music, but it’s clear every time – people love to dance. I’ve never been much of a dancer (that’s Heidi), but I still find myself moving when Soca comes on. It’s hard not to.
After about an hour and a half, we had seen a fair bit of J’Ouvert. We were all covered in paint, and the sun was just starting to be high enough that I should be concerned about not wearing enough sunscreen. So we headed back to the dinghy, at one point going through a pile of mud in which BOTH of my flip flops decided was too much, resulting in me being very temporarily shoeless. After that mishap, we all ended back at the dinghy, we took our friends home, and washed off in the ocean. All and all, we were home by 7 AM. A quick dip in the ocean, a bit more dish soap, and we were all clean and ready to start the day. It was definitely an experience I’ll never forget, but I might sleep in next year.
This blogpost is about volunteering at the local pet shelter in Grenada, the GSPCA. We woke up to a gloomy rainy Wednesday and got ready to go to the shelter. We were supposed to go from 8:30am to 12:00 noon. Soon, the rain turned into a downpour (if you went outside you would be soaked in seconds). But the puppies were waiting, so we got on our rain jackets and climbed into our dinghy. We arrived at the dock in a couple of minutes and walked up a short hill to get to the shelter. We walked in and the office manager brought us to a back room. Since it was down pouring we couldn’t walk dogs. Instead, a volunteer named Allie, asked if we wanted to bathe puppies. Of course we did! We were all super excited to bathe and cuddle these cute 5 week old puppies! So, Lucy and I went back with Allie to get some puppies—they were so adorable! Mom bathed them and we started to cuddle them in blankets to warm them up. There were 5 litters of puppies that we took care of. There was the Winnie the Pooh litter, the Rock litter, the Toy Story litter, among others!
Outside, the rain was still pouring down. Allie told us that there was a leaky roof over some puppies, so Fenton and I then went and started cuddling and playing with those pups. Once they were all sleeping, we rejoined the rest of the family in the bathing room.
Allie brought in some older puppies (about 12 weeks and much bigger than the new babies). They were muddy dirty from playing outside. We gave them all baths and mom started playing with them in their exercise pen. Heidi and Fenton went to play with the bigger dogs in the outdoor pen. Lucy and I went back to the leaky roof pen to dry off some more pups. About 20 minutes later, all the work was done and we felt that we were getting in the way, so it was time to go. We started walking back to our dinghy but the rain had not calmed down at all! Our dinghy was so low in the water since it was full of rain . Dad got the water out, picked us up and we headed back to our boat. Once we got back to our boat, we took off our raincoats (that didn’t do much good), dried off and put on clean clothes, and made soup and tea! So excited to go back next Wednesday! Hopefully in better weather.
Today is Sunday, July 29th, but I’m going to tell you all about yesterday, and the adventures of Kid’s Carnival. I say I, but this is more a joint project between the crew except for Lucy (because she was sleeping).
Carnival is an annual few day festival with activities such as (very) loud music and memorable, authentic Grenadian dancing. There’s lots of delicious food and colorful costumes and everyone is celebrating. Kid’s Carnival is the same idea, but it’s toned down, and is just one day for the kiddos. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still loud and spicy – but it’s much more appropriate for the youngsters.
We started our day in Prickly Bay, a small anchorage where we stayed while visiting family for a week (more on that later). We had yogurt and made some of the most delicious Mac and Cheese I have ever eaten in my life. After a lazy morning, we set off on a quick sail before dropping anchor in St. George’s. After finding a new spot for home Dad, Mom, Fenton, Heidi, & Sally, brought the dinghy into the jetty and walked along the beach to the mall where the Kid’s Carnival took place. We could easily hear the noise of the festival from the jetty before the ten minute walk.
The carnival took place on a big field with small tents holding vendors, food, music, toys, bubbles, horses, go-karts, and a stage with a DJ. Right away, we met up with some local family friends and Sally and the 11 year old girl, Leanna, got in line for horseback riding. The line took fooooooorever but we got some snow cones so everything was okay. Sally and Leanna waited very patiently and finally ended up on a horse. Lots of smiles.
The show started soon after the horses finished. The show started with a local youth dancing group. They were 5 and 6 year olds. They were adorable, and they had a lot of potential for the future. After that, we watched people dance in competitions to win soda. Then we watched emerging Soca artists. I don’t know a lot about Soca, but I do know that it’s loud and fast. It’s fun to listen to and watch. After that, we got to see royalty. Little Miss Grenada 2k18 took the stage, and she talked briefly about making Grenada a happier place, before strutting off majestically.
Finally, we got to the part everyone had been waiting for. We got to see characters such as Dora, Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, Ben 10, Mickey & Minnie Mouse. The best part was they all danced! The dancing was spicy, but it was enjoyable. We will never be able to see these characters again in the same way.
We left soon after due to some technical difficulties, hurting ears, hungry children, and one kid and our dog back home. It was a fun filled very Grenadian evening. We will never forget the way some local kids can move, the feeling of the music coming from everywhere, and the overall excitement flowing through the air.
