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Irie
Sun 22 Feb 2009 02:02
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Saturday 21st Feb- Lance Aux Epines Cottages -
again
Starting to feel a bit like locals now - the
shops and bars welcome us warmly, and walking to the Yard, we've been
greeting the same people on the way to work for a number of mornings. Grenada is
well up the list of friendly islands. Despite the legacy of hurricane Ivan
only five years ago, it feels fairly prosperous, and there's plenty of
construction and developing services, significant advances even in the
couple of years we've been visiting. The recesson will probably blow a hole in
this, certainly the hotels are running at below 50% occupancy in what should be
the busy season. It won't be helped by crooks (allegedly) like Sticky
Wicket Stanford who's innings seems to be about over (geddit). Sadly it appears
a lot of locals in the islands have been burned by the scams and ensuing
uncertainty.
Lance Aux Epines feels increasingly like home,
though we're a bit nomadic, moving round to vacant apartments - yesterday we
moved back to Osprey where we started nearly a fortnight ago. Apparently
these gaps in bookings are unusual as this 30 year old family business enjoys a
high level of repeats. The gardens are full of birds and lizards. We're never
lonely, as the latter make free with the dwellings, wandering in to mop up stray
ants and insects. One little chap spent twenty minutes roaming round the
computer stopping to look quizzically with his head on one side - any bugs? A
less welcome visitor was a mouse who made occasional apearances round
the work surfaces and cooker. He made the mistake of jumping into the
sink, haring round as if in the wall of death untill cunningly trapped under a
glass. He was a cheeky chap, and deserved better, so was released just
along the beach into the grounds of the rather nobby Calabash Hotel, home of the
Gary Rhodes restaurant - hope he flourishes. The
beach here is very pretty (see below), and has a great view out through the
anchorage. It doesn't have the same clout as Grande Anse, a golden line of sand
nearly two miles long on the western shore, but it also doesn't have the large
hotels and tourist traps. Anyway, casual scrutiny indicates that
Grande Anse would be better named if an 'r' substituted
an 'n'.
Work on the boat is proceeding apace. Unfortunately
the pace is extremely slow, but there is progress, light at the end of the
tunnel, real hope of moving forward, green shoots of recovery etc etc.... and
the weather continues to be stunning!
Lance Aux Epines at a busy weekend
 Looking southwest over St Georges - foreground,
prison - background, an obscured view of Grand A(n)se
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