Location: Prickly Bay, Grenada
How fitting that here on the “spice island,” Grenada, we got to wake up to the delicious aroma of homemade cinnamon rolls thanks to Aidan and his sous chefs, Charlie and Waring! After a quick breakfast and cleanup, we made it to shore and boarded the bus en route to a rainforest hike. A half-hour of steep winding roads took us up into the lush green cloud forests of the island. As we rounded the final bend to the trailhead, the skies let loose with a freshwater shower that persisted throughout the hike. In a matter of minutes, we were covered in mud, and our guide had no reservations in declaring us the muddiest group he’d ever seen. To embrace the conditions, a small mud war broke out. After learning about sediments in my oceanography class yesterday, everyone got a lot of hands-on experience that I don’t think they’ll soon forget! It took several hours of sliding, scrambling, falling, and lots and lots of laughing, but in the end, we made our way above 2,000ft of elevation to the tippy top of mount Qua Qua, the second highest peak in Grenada. Following the first hike and a lunch break, we began the next trek to the Seven Sisters waterfall. It was a long and eventful journey that led us to a series of seven waterfalls in the jungle. The hike was certainly a tough one, but the whole crew pushed through in good spirits and hiked around seven miles in total. To top off an action-packed day, the storm had made even our sheltered bay quite choppy, and back on board Ocean Star, it felt like we were underway, rocking and rolling about. A small change of plans shifted a night out to a pizza night in, and I baked some well-earned celebratory cake and brownies to end the night. 🙂
All in all, an exhausting day of beautiful scenery and more adventures than imagined.
Photo 1: A sweaty summit selfie on Mount Qua Qua.
Photo 2: When we thought we were muddy but had no idea what would come next.
Photo 3: A few of the mud battle participants.
Photo 4: Several of Seven Sisters falls.