Saturday, October 22, 2011

You Haven't Truly Experienced Grenada Unless...

...You have been threatened to be arrested for trying to catch a bus on the other side of the road by bus terminal security.

But there is a lot more to tell you first! Today I went to the city of St. George! There are 6 parishes in Grenada, and St. George is the largest. It also happens to be where I live and where the school is located. The capital of the country is also located in St. George, and that's where we went today.

To get to the city, you can either take a taxi (more expensive) or you can take the university bus to Grand Anse and catch a #1 reggae bus. The university buses are free and the reggae buses are $2.50EC each way (just under $1US). This is a really good deal because Grand Anse is at least 15 minutes from the city.

When you get to the city, you arrive and start your exploring at the bus terminal. You can wander the street shops, go to the mall, visit the market, or hike up to the fort. This trip we did everything except go to the fort.

We started by walking a little ways to the mall. It's not a mall like what you would see in the US, instead it is lined with touristy stores full of trinkets, spices, apparel, alcohol, and jewelry. We wandered around for awhile and found a few gifts for people back home.

After we left the mall, we headed over to the outdoor market. It is lined with little booths and stalls selling every spice and tropical fruit you could ever dream of! Cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, curry, saffron, chili powder, and at least a dozen more I can't remember. Some of the fruits included oranges, bananas, pumpkins, watermelons, peppers, tomatoes, coconuts, water nuts, sea grapes, mangoes, and much more. We enjoyed wandering through and it smelled delicious!

When we finished with the market, we walked around the streets on our way back to the bus terminal. We went into a few shops. Lots of places selling shoes, clothes, and other assorted household items in addition to the restaurants and bars.

When we got back to the bus terminal, we hunted for a #1 bus to take us back to Grand Anse. There are a bunch of them lined up along the terminal and there are people hanging out everywhere trying to get you to go with them (this is not as sketchy as it sounds!!!). We found one but it was full so the guy behind him tried to snag us. A couple of my group members felt uncomfortable with the driver and his friends because the bus was run-down looking, and his friends reeked of alcohol. We started to cross the lane to get in with another bus (they are everywhere and always trying to get business) when this lady with the terminal security came up, grabbed my friend by the arm and started yelling at us. She threatened to call the police because apparently crossing out of the parking lane to get into a bus is illegal. She forcefully pushed us into the other bus. We were very surprised but unwilling to find out if she was going to follow through on her threat. While we waited for the bus to fill with other people, we watched her chat with the driver a bunch. I don't think it's illegal to get into another bus across the street. I think she used her authority to take advantage of a bunch of young people to give her friend business. Thankfully this was the only crummy encounter we had today. I really expected to be harassed far more, but the people were very friendly and generally let us go about our ways.

We made it back to Grand Anse fine and even managed to catch a university bus right away! We even managed to avoid getting rained on the whole time (there was a large looming black cloud in the sky the whole day), just a few sprinkles. I really look forward to taking my friend to the city next semester when she starts school because I think she will love it! Overall, a really neat experience!

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