Paradise

So, to fulfill the purpose of this blog, I will now fill you in on my trip to Grenada that I haven't had time to tell you about.

Grenada was wonderful. It was utterly the perfect vacation. We stayed with Sydney, and his dorm was quite literally on the beach - you'd walk out the door onto sand. The water was warm, and clear - you could see your feet underneath you as you walked.

Our first day, we went to a waterfall. We took the local buses - which are minivans that travel everywhere in the city, and squeeze people in on top of one another - to the mountain that held the waterfall. We got out, and the bus driver told us to walk 20 minutes up. That translated into 45 minutes of steep uphill walking, alongside the most vibrantly colored vistas I'd ever seen. We asked a couple locals how much further to the waterfall, and the answer was always the same: 20 minutes. 20 minutes. 20 minutes. At one point we asked a man leading a goat down the hill, carrying a machete in his other hand. I've never seen a machete in real life before. Pretty cool.

Eventually we made it to the waterfall, which looked disappointingly small. But we started swimming in it, and quickly realized that it was, in fact, totally awesome! The water was cold, but deep. There was a cliff overlooking the water - about 10 feet high. This doesn't sound very tall, but at the top of it I freaked out. I sat for about 15 minutes before I worked up the courage to jump. A good lesson: things never seem so tall until you're the one at the top.

The second day we sat on the beach all. day. I played with a little girl who was very bossy! When I wanted to go swimming with Sydney and Roman, she yelled at me and told me to come back to the sand and play with her. Adorable. That evening Shakera arrived, and Roman and I got to witness the sweetest reunion. Sydney played down his anxiousness to see Shakera, but they had been apart 10 weeks and when she walked through the gates, they ran into each others arms and hugged and kissed for 5 minutes. It was completely adorable.

The third day, we went snorkeling! I've never done that before, but I took to it pretty well. That is - I became proficient quickly. I absolutely loved doing it. I have never seen anything like underwater life, but the colors and activity were mindblowing. Roman and I swam along, held hands, and pointed out the prettiest sites to each other. Very, very romantic.

This entire time, in the evening we would sneak into hotels on the beach, drink at the bars, eat at the restaurants. After snorkeling, we went to one in particular that had a jacuzzi, and we ordered cocktails and sipped them while we soaked. I felt very sophisticated. I had, for the first time, a sex on the beach, which is vodka, peach schnapps, grapefruit and orange juice. It is also delicious.

It was so sad when we left! This was possibly the most restful, calming, exciting, perfect vacation I've ever been on. I highly recommend Grenada for all your future travel destinations.