Ahhh, Grenada!

Sweet pooch at La Sagesse



Beautiful, beautiful La Sagesse



Possibly my favorite place in the world.

Grenada Day 3:
We made our way to La Sagesse this morning after having breakfast at the villa. We simply love that place—its seclusion, lushness, its dogs, its waves, its horizon. The staff there is always warm & friendly and the food and rum punches are good. We rented two beach chairs for the day for EC$20 and lunch at the restaurant. One hamburger, one fish burger, two soft drinks, one rum punch and one smoothie came to about EC $120, including tax and tip.

It looked like the hotel had about 5 rooms occupied and there was one other couple besides us who were visiting for the day. The one drawback to this visit was the bug activity. Luckily we had packed our Badger Bug Balm in the beach bag, so after the first couple of nibbles we sprang into action and were thereafter just fine. But woe betide the people there who didn’t have any bug repellant!

That night we dined at Red Crab to make it easy on the driver (me!) after a couple of harrowing close calls on the way back from La Sagesse. I was constantly reminded of a newspaper article I’d read two years when last in Grenada that was lamenting the “vehicular audacity” of its younger drivers. Vehicular audacity, indeed! We always give the Red Crab a try when we’re on the island, partly because of its convenience to our villa and partly because it continues to get raves from other people, and this was the first time where the experience wasn’t disappointing. We shared several appetizers between us: dozen snails, lambi cocktail, shrimp crepe, and a green salad. Meringue Nest (meringue, fruit, ice cream, and a fruity coulis) and three cocktails rounded out our meal.

Today I started and finished Brian Morton’s novel, Starting Out in the Evening.
Grenada Day Four:

We cooked a big breakfast at “home” this morning—coffee, two kinds of juice, fruit, toast, eggs, and bacon. After a leisurely cleanup and dip in the pool we packed our bag and drove down to the Spice Island Craft Centre to do a spot of shopping. We tried to spread our custom around to as many booths as possible—two sarongs, one t shirt, some spices, a necklace, and a bottle of vanilla. From there we made our way to Morne Rouge where we rented two beach chairs for EC$25 and claimed a spot with lots of shade under a huge sea grape tree. It was a pretty quiet beach, very calm, gorgeous water and white sand. It may now be my second favorite beach on the island and one of my favorites in the Caribbean.

We stayed there until about 4:30 and then headed back to the villa to freshen up and change for dinner. Because the sky looked so clear I wanted to head over to Grand Anse to catch the sunset before going for dinner. We pulled into the little park next to the Allamanda to catch the last few minutes before sundown.

Ahh, the piece de resistance: Boots! We’d put off having dinner here because we wanted to end our last two evening meals with a bang. The 5-course prix fixe has increased to EC$75 but is still a wonderful value. The lovely Ruby greeted us and remembered us from our previous visits and welcomed us back to dine. We started with callaloo soup, followed by a sea egg roll, then a green salad. I ordered the stewed chicken that was fantastic, but the grilled lambi that DH ordered was simply out of this world. It was grilled whole like a steak and then brushed in a sauce that was similar to a BBQ sauce. It was as tender as sea scallop and it gave me food envy. Best lambi either of us has ever eaten, hand to God. Dessert was nutmeg ice cream, sweet potato pudding, and a little pineapple.

At dinner there was one other couple from the US staying at La Luna, coincidentally folks I had chatted with on the Fodor’s Caribbean forum before their visit. They seemed to be having a good time on their first visit to Grenada.

I love Boots’ Cuisine. It’s a wonderful experience from start to finish. I don’t think any visit of ours will ever be complete without a visit there, and I would go so far to say that I don’t thing any traveler’s visit to Grenada would be complete without a visit there. With the exception of Fish Friday, all of our best food memories are from Boots—both of the food itself and of our conversations with the owners.

NB: Lest you think that I’m heaping praise indiscriminately , in the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that as much as I love the food at Boots, the allure of the drinks is sadly lost on me. Neither the widely acclaimed Big Daddy Special nor the rum punch is my cup of tea.

Started but didn’t finish Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us. Good book but it reads at a discernibly slower pace than the fiction I’ve read so far.



The lovely beach of Morne Rouge



Self portrait on Morne Rouge




Don't you just love this juxtaposition?