MONKEYS!!!

This blog should be pretty self explanatory with the title and the photo to the left. The greatly anticipated trip has finally occurred, we saw the infamous Mona Monkeys of the Grand Etang Forest Reserve (rain forest). I figured I'd just throw up a monkey photo right off the bat so there's a chance you'll have enough patience to read the words in between the photos. ;)
I'll start from the very beginning, unlike in the U.S. if you want to see something such as a wild monkey, or to go tubing down a river, or perhaps to see the seven sister falls you simply ask a taxi. There is no need to hire a guide or an outrigger company, it's a small country and all the locals know their way around very well. Even with all the adventures to do here an adventure company would be struggling to succeed. So with this in mind I got the number of the most trusted, sane, and slow taxi driver I know of, Dexter. I don't have a clue what his last name is, I don't think anyone knows, yet most the students know about him. Knowing that this trip would take us to some of the highest peaks and windy roads in this crazy little island I wanted someone at least partially sane behind the wheel and most taxi drivers i have seen so far, and ALL the buss drivers are completely nuts. Dexter quoted $190 EC, bring as many people as you like and split the cost. "Clown Car-ing It" as I'll call it, is VERY common here. For example, it's quite normal to fit 19 adults in a standard size early 90s minivan... So this worked out to be somewhere around 20 US dollars per person, not bad for a two hour journey and a sane driver.
Off we went zooming up the windy road, Dexter doing his best to find some road in between the pot holes. About 15 minutes into the journey we stopped at a nice look out point where we could see the city of St. George's below us and down to Grand Anse where we live. We were shocked to feel the temperature in the 70s, we were all quite COLD! We were warned that at night it gets even COLDER the LOW 70s, and MISTY... holy crap! Time to break out the winter coats!!!
After this chilling experience we all happily hopped back into the van and were at the Monkey spotting location in about 5 minutes. This area was basically a small dirt parking lot with a wooden railing/fence around it. On the other side was the rain forest. When we first looked around we were told a bus load of people had just been here and four monkeys were out and now very well fed. We were bummed. Dexter was kind enough to bring a couple bananas along (i couldn't buy any, it's a long story for some other time). As he went to the car i heard some rustling in the trees and a long black tail sticking up through the leaves...

See him in the left third of the photo? Then the bananas came out of the bag...

This is a very happy Mona Monkey!

(above) they were happy to sit around knowing there were likely more bananas on the way...

Nothing like a nice mid-bite banana shot ...

(above) they had no hesitation in jumping up onto Dexter to get to that banana quicker! "One tourist in the shop... how many bananas coming out? hmm..."

Note how they hold the banana with their feet as they peel it with their teeth and hands. They can peel a banana VERY quickly.

Ashley gets a quick pet in. They tolerate it as long as they have food, but they always turn their backs on you and never look you in the eyes, interesting. They especially did not like the camera lens, i think it looked like a big Eye to them.Above - a monkey running off after nabbing a banana from Dexter...

"Oh man this is a good banana..."

Above - Megan and I at a crater lake in the rain forest, and below our Monkey adventure buddies Ashley and Katie.
If you visit we will show you monkeys... hint hint hint.... ;)

Buzzing from afar

I took a run the other day and as I was heading out I noticed a sound off in the distance that sounded a lot like a router. Not the network switch kind, the thing that makes pretty edges on pieces of wood. Another analogy would be the sound of a finishing sander, a high pitched buzzing varying slightly. If none of this rings a bell then just picture a buzzing and you'll be close enough. Back to the main point, the sound was coming from what sounded like up the hill in front of me. The funny thing is the closer I got to the source the more upwards the sound was coming from and next thing i know the sound is behind me. I never passed anyone doing construction. And wood work is pretty rare around here, (everything is tin and cement). So I was a bit baffled. Stopping and turning around in slow circles i determined a basic direction of the sound and followed it up, and up, and up... remember this is Grenada. With the exception of the government building and campus I have yet to see anything more the three stories and I was running through a very poor area which was nothing more then tin shacks so sound coming from up high was very bazaar. Following the noise upward I came to a kite. This kite was your standard diamond shape kite, except that it was probably about 3-4 hundred feet up in the air. I was quite impressed.
In the Caribbean we get what is called "Trade Winds" essentially consistent winds that never seem to die, especially a few hundred feet up. I now hear this same noise from multiple directions pretty frequently. I can almost never see the kites but i know they are WAY up there some where. The interesting thing is, the locals seem to just leave them up there. I just took the dogs for a walk at 11pm and I could hear at least two or three that have been flying for the past day or two still going. I just noticed today that there are now multiple kites in the local stationary store. Perhaps this is a seasonal trend or just a fad but either way it's unique. There isn't anywhere in CA that I know of that you can toss a kite into the air, send it sailing hundreds of feet into the air and leave it up there for days...

SGU farm

Today I went with my friend, Ashley, to the SGU farm to attend a cow-handling wet lab. We learned how to tie various knots and how to make a halter out of some rope. That is about it. Here are a couple photos from the farm. It is amazing how different the cattle are from horses. Horses, in general, don't mind being handled, but cattle really don't seem to enjoy it - except for the occasional ear or chin rub.


Here is a picture of Ashley putting the halter on this not-so-happy cow.

Cooking in Grenada

I'm living in the "Island of Spice", the "Spice Isle", cooking should be exciting and interesting right? All these choices and new spices to make things with... so much so that the only mall is actually called "Spiceland Mall"...
First off if you ask a local I've been told that the answer you get is just something along the lines of "oh yeah, you just mix them in!" uh.. yes ok. I am an engineer here, I need specifics, the more the better. What spices? How much of each? With what? Oh and seeing as Grenada provides 80% of the world's Nutmeg you'd think there would be a million and one recipes with it here... or not. So far I have found locally made nutmeg syrup and that's it. So far I have yet to hear of a single recipe to use it with. hmm so apparently Grenada just sells CRAP LOADS of it to the rest of the world and doesn't bother to mess with it themselves... or if they do mess with it, it's so simple to use in their minds that no one spreads the word around.
Megan hates to cook. I know hate is a strong word, and trust me I am correct in saying she hates to cook. Now I quite enjoy it, particularly when I am able to make something complicated that turns out good, (and looks cool too, casseroles do NOT fit in this category). With my love's diversion from cooking, I naturally do all the cooking in the house. The problem is my skills have been limited to the basics, and I mean truly basic basics. For example, I can make a mean batch of Mac'n Cheese, Tacos? No problem!, a hamburger? Check!, Burritos? I am ALL over that!
Now what about something more complicated, Enchiladas? a taco with canned red sauce on it and baked, not exactly gourmet. Megan got a little worried last week when she saw I bought a can of diced tomatoes... "um Honey?? what are these for?" ... yes quite, scary an almost bare, "from scratch", cooking ingredient, but I assured her not to worry, it was for the pre-packaged, pre-seasoned, pre-measured box of rice-a-roni; absolutely no room for creativity.
Last week I attempted my first steak dinner. Being from southern California as far as I am concerned there is only three types of beef: Fillet mignon, tri-tip, and ground. So wandering through the meat section I knew there was no chance in hell of finding tri-tip, if I can't get it in Michigan then it's completely hopeless to find it here. I picked up what most closely resembled a fillet mignon, it was round, about a 1/3 of an inch thick and very little fat. Now the time comes to cook this... hmm... using a pan on the stove top way seemed like the best as I could monitor it's cooking easily.
OK side step - There's another reason I avoided sticking it in the oven. That's because our oven has no temperature markings on the handle. Thanks to a oven thermometer my mom sent I now know the highest setting "8" - after an hour is 350 F. As if 80-85 with near 100% humidity wasn't toasty enough let's turn this very poorly insulated (aka all the heat escapes) oven on for an HOUR, just to get it to temperature! To then be followed by another hour or what ever to actually cook the meal.
Back to the steak dinner. At this point all I had was BBQ sauce and pan frying a steak with BBQ sauce sounded like a bad idea. I was picturing lots of burned BBQ sauce. So i cooked it as it was, planning on adding the BBQ sauce after. Also you have to remember meat on this island is always a bit questionable. The meat was from the US and packed by a local store (the one that does NOT turn it's refrigerators off at night, unlike the one down the road), so I wasn't toooo worried but just in case and also to calm my ever food worried wife, I made sure that the steak was well done. Now it could have been the steak or it could have been the chef. Either way it was a tough steak to say the least, but still edible. The complete lack of seasoning topped off the bad meal, drowning it in BBQ sauce only helped a little. So one failed attempt at a steak dinner. Considering I've never seen a recipe on how to cook a steak nor ever been taught my anyone I just figured oh well, it's a lesson learned.
When cooking chicken baking leaves the chicken nice and moist usually, so for my second attempt I figured this was the way to go. I lit the oven put two washed and poked potato's into it and headed off to the store for a few things. I returned an hour later (on foot and two stores later), to put the steak in the oven. I picked up some "all purpose seasoning" at the store as this was the only seasoning they had except for a few individual herbs which I was clueless about how to use. I had seasoned the steak on Tuesday night expecting to eat it Wednesday, due to unexpected events the dinner was pushed till tonight, Friday night. I put the very seasoned steak in the oven and figured 20 minutes was a good place to start because based on "Shake-n-Bake" boneless chicken breasts cook at 400 for 20-25 minutes. This dinner at least made the kitchen smell quite nice. 20 minutes later i removed the steak and knew for sure it was already well done. The potato's had been in the oven for an hour and a half, should be no reason to worry there. My very traditional steak and the potatoes looked good, and smelled good, but that's about all it was worth. I took one bite of the steak and spit it out after gnawing on it for a while and determining it would be better suited as a door stop then as dinner. Whatever, I had a huge potato to eat still, cutting this open I quickly found it to be hard, and UNCOOKED. UGH!!! so.... the corn was good! I made Megan something safe, a grilled cheese and called it a night. It may be awhile before I attempt another door stop dinner.
It's hard to get motivated to cook complicated dinners when (with my wonderful chef skills) they turn out like Frisbee's and door stops rather then food. Especially when grilled cheese and soup only takes about 10 minutes. :)
I am determined that at some point in the three years down here I will find a use for nutmeg, i need to get past the steak first though.
Life is an adventure here, some days good, some days not so much. Every day though is interesting and different then the last.
Oh and something to look forward to... Sunday Megan, I, and hopefully Ashley and Katie too, are going to the Grand Etang National Forrest to see Mona Monkeys! whoo hoo! I will have my camera ready for sure! You can look for that post soon.

If you curious about the slow down in my posts it is more a factor of my schedule then of not having something to write about. Everyone is assuming that I am sitting on the beach drinking Mai-Tai's (which I hear is a Hawaiian drink not Caribbean anyhow). In reality I am busy as can be. I am taking two online classes which is full time for this grad program and trust me I could be busy doing nothing other then this MBA. In addition I am working about 20 hours a week still for Zebra online, while doing the laundry, cooking the meals, taking care of the dogs, and generally trying my best to keep my Vet student wife from going insane from her studies. So I am sad to say but my posts will be fewer and further between as I struggle to keep up with life. I do have a few more posts on my mind, i'll get them down soon as I get a chance. I'll make sure to get the monkeys up ASAP though.
~Kris

my life as a vet student

Megan here-

First of all, this is a picture of the vet class taken the 1st week of classes. So I figured this would be a good time to write a blog since I just finished my first exams in vet school. In case I haven't told you what classes I am taking, they are: anatomy, physiology, embryology, histology, animal welfare & behavior, and professionalism. Phew. Yep, a HUGE load. Well, animal welfare & behavior is easy - you get to sit a couple hours each week and listen to a bunch of interesting facts and opinions about various animals, ethics, and behaviors - and professionalism is just an hour each week maximum (just about client/vet communication and other related topics, such as how to de-stress).

Anatomy is a year-long course. This semester we are dissecting dogs and cats. Next semester large animals, pigs, chickens, and fish... kind of an odd mix! This has actually been the most challenging class for me so far just because I am not a very visual person. The actual subject doesn't bother me, but the formaldehyde in the lab and just seeing that each dog's muscles might look slightly different from the next dog's (for example) make it tricky. Formaldehyde just makes me sneeze, so my allergy meds are coming in handy there. Identifying muscles, nerves, etc on the dogs is just taking a lot of regurgitation and time in the lab. Either way, I know I'll get through it and that it'll get easier with time. Currently, my dissecting group has been working on identifying the brachial plexus along with working on the thorax. The only problem here is that our dog seems to be lacking the handy blue dye that should have been previously injected so we can actually see veins, etc. Either way, lab is interesting.

Physio, embryo, and histo have been going very well for me - got A's in all 3 classes this last week on my first exams. The classes are a LOT of work and memorization, but apparently my studying is paying off. I have never studied this much before. One of the challenges with embryo, for example, is that things are different for each species. So I have been busy making charts comparing different animals, and also charts for histology, comparing different cells, tissues, etc.

Besides school, I have been enjoying going to club functions and wet labs. I am a member of the SGU large animal club and some others. Wet labs are optional "labs" where anyone in the club can go and learn a new technique hands-on. A couple weeks ago I learned how to draw blood on cattle and goats in a "vampire" wet lab - don't you love the name? There will be a vampire lab on horses in a week or so. I had no idea how tough it was to get the jugular vein on a HUGE cow. All I can say is those animals are huge. The goat was definitely easier for me, except for the part where you have to straddle the goat while trying to draw blood without an assistant. Getting the vein was easy, but the goat kept sliding out from under me. I blame it on my height! LOL. Tonight I went to a bandaging wet lab where I learned how to do a head bandage for if you do an aural hematoma surgery (where the ear fills with blood when a blood vessel gets ruptured due to the dog shaking their head continuously). I also learned how to bandage the leg. The dog we worked on was very good and sweet. On Saturday I am going to the SGU farm to learn how to handle cattle more. After that I am going to an anesthesia wet lab and lecture. It is so cool that I can do these hands-on things already when I am only 1st term!

And non-school related, Kris and I will be going to see some wild monkeys this weekend as a nice study break. Apparently you can feed the monkeys bananas and they are pretty tame. I am soooo excited. We'll make sure to post photos.

Well, glad I could at least let you know how I am doing. I am super busy these days, so it may be a while before you hear from me. :-)

A hopping intruder

Saturday night as I was cleaning something in the kitchen I heard a yelp from the living room which by now (after the giant spider invasion) I knew meant something scary was in the house. But before I could even get to the living room (not even 5 feet away) there was a second yelp. I noticed this time that there was a lack of panic in the yelp and more excitement. As I entered the living room I witnessed my wife hop as she let out another yelp/squeal, this time even more excitement and no panic at all. Looking down I saw a small brown blob, it hopped and my wife hopped. I couldn't help but laugh. This little brown frog had managed to find its way into our home and was hopping slowly across the living room, followed closely by my squealing hopping wife.
Being in the tropics neither of us had any idea if the frog was poisonous or not, many of the cool looking tree frogs have very poisonous skin. With this in mind I retrieved a freshly washed Tupperware container and handed it to a very excited Megan, (see below).
Tupperware in hand Megan proceeded to chase the frog around the TV, between the chair and eventually into the container. I took a couple shots of this in progress but it turns out that 75% of the photo is just showing a glorious view of Megan's rear end. Seeing as posting this would cause a bit of a ruckus in our house, so I opted to leave that one out. Needless to say Megan thought the little frog was quite adorable and in her "its' the cuties thing in the world" voice she praised the little wet frog.

Silly? Yes without a doubt, but it made her evening. In fact second before she had been telling me how tired she was and ready for bed, and how long the day had been... One little frog hops into our lives and suddenly she's WIDE awake and chipper as can be. :) Here's a good shot of the little guy, he even raised his head to smile at the camera...
We both thought it would be fun to have him as a pet but seeing as we were lacking a cage (other then the Tupperware I’d rather be using for leftovers), food, and a pet store which might have any of this stuff we just let the idea go and Megan gracefully flung him back into the wild... aka the grass outside our apartment.
Curious about what kind of frog this was I did a Google search on Grenada Frog... and low and behold this little guy is a Whistling Tree Frog, aka West Indian Tree Frog. We have been hearing this chirping like noise every night we've been here and assumed it was bugs. Take a listen at the following website, below the photo is a button to hear its whistle. Now when listening, imagine that noise times about 300 and that's what we sleep with along with the crickets and these awfully annoying birds which screech randomly.
http://pictures.gjerdes.com/frog.html
Now that we know that annoying noise is also responsible for keeping the mosquito population in check we aren't near as bothered by it.

Anatomy lab

I broke my "rule of thumb", no camera. I left just a few minutes ago to study on campus while Megan and Ashley studied anatomy. My plan was to go to the library and study while they look at parts of things that once barked and meowed. I now at this very moment find my self sitting in an "office" smelling less then pleasant surrounded by all sorts of parts of various animals, some real some plastic all weird. My plans evolved as I remembered Megan mentioning that all the lecture halls are open to study in if I wished, so I decided instead of being clear across campus I’d study at the lecture hall next to the anatomy lab... getting off the but Megan mentions "Oh there's an office that you can study in off the side of the anatomy lab." With the mental picture of an office separate from the lab in my mind I agreed and followed them in. My first surprise was to walk through double doors into a large room filled with stainless steel tables with drain spouts and catch buckets below... and the smell. How do I describe the smell, hmm? Let’s just say it didn't knock me over but it wasn't pleasant either. So walking through the lab (which I thought I’d be steering very clear of) I looked around lightly focusing mostly on where I was headed, slightly curious to see a partial animal spread about a table, but mostly hoping I also didn't see that very thing. Entering the "office" I find my self in a long room which more closely resembles a storage room with a long narrow table on one side and tall counter on the other.
Take a guess what might be in storage like room next to an anatomy lab... parts. Yes, lots and lots of parts. I'd call them "spare parts" but since you can't really re-use these there more like excesses or used parts.
A quick tour of what I can see includes a pictorial printout of how to dissect a lizard, plastic human brain, a plastic body part that I’ve never seen before, what I think is a real baby pig incased in plastic, and a number of jars (the contents of which I have yet to have the guts to explore). The two girls just returned to adorn themselves with rubber gloves and scrubs... I don't want to know why.
Hmm just down the table from where I am seated about 10 feet or so is... uh... well something that was once living and inside something much larger. I think it's an organ of some sort. All I know is its real, very dead, and sitting on my same table. I would get a lot of weird looks but man I wish I had my camera... you reading this probably am glad I don't but a picture is worth a least a million words in this place.
OK so the point of me being here was to finish this awful paper for my Global Market Place class... back to that I go.

The Immigration Adventure

(I appolige for any miss spellings as spell check is defunct today)...

I quickly learned living here that, with few exceptions, I should not be leaving the house without my camera. Thursday's trip to the immigration office was no exception. There were no giant spiders or anything but I did get a couple shots of the capitol city St. George's.

This started off a simple task, extend my visa till may (inital stay is granted for 30 days only). I asked the S.O. group (Significant Others) what I needed and they said all you need is your passport. Packing my backpack with the camera i decided to throw in Megan's passport, a copy of our marriage certificate, and my S.O. ID card... just in case. Heading down the road towords the reggie bus stop, a white reggie buss honks it's horn one quick toot asking if I want a ride... I was told by the S.O. group all I needed to do was to ask them to take me to the immigration office and they'd get me there... I tell the bus driver this, he hesitates and said "ya mon hop in". In typical reggie buss fasion the co-pilot (my term, not sure what the locals call this person), hops out from the passenger side to let me in.

Side bar - Reggie busses are the public bus system here in Grenada. They will take you pretty much any where at about two to three times the safe speed while also blasting the loudest reggie music you've ever heard. All "buses" are toyota vans, you remember the ones from the early 90s where they have a real flat front and the driver and front passenger sit basically ON the engine (see HUGE hump in between front seats and back rows)? Well anyhow there are litterally hundreds of these busses screaming around the island. The co-pilot sits in the front row of the back hanging out of the window shouting at people on the street if they want a ride or not. This is essentially how they pick up fairs at 70mph. To get off a buss you knock on the roof when you get near your "stop" (see any place that looks suitable to you or the buss driver). Technically there are designated bus stops but besides a few with actual benches and pull out areas I have no idea how one would tell where a bus stop specifically is at, perhaps i'll pick this up later.

OK back on track. I hop into the van hand the co-pilot lady my 2.50 EC and ZOOM up the road. There was some discussion between the co-pilot and the driver after I got in which I knew had to do with where they were taking me but the slang and accent were beyond my abilities to understand. This made me a bit nervous but I quickly let that go as I reminded my self "just roll with it, that's all you can do". Note I hadn't actually gotten to the bus stop yet when it picked me up. It's quite convient for the passengers that a buss will stop anywhere to grab you although as a driver you have to be aware that it's perfectly normal for cars to go from 70 t0 0 for no apparent reason and stop anywhere they feel like. Note also trying to pass one such stopped vechicle will very likely result in a game of frogger between you and the passenger now darting across the street. I used google earth a fair amount prior to getting here trying to learn the lay of the land. I learned very little as the detailed photos didn't exsist for most the island, but one area did have a nice photo layout and that was the capitol city of St. George's. So when I showed up at this bee hive of reggie busses swarming around what looked like a two story parking garrage i knew I was at the main bus terminal. Before I exited the bus the driver pointed to a stone faced building and told me that is where I needed to go. I said my good bye's and thanked the driver and co-pilot and headed on my way. It was only about 50 yards from the bus stop so it didn't take long for me to reach the building. It looked offical with it's sign and all but it wasnt till I was right there when I could finally read it...

So.. yeah as you can guess by looking at the above sign I started to wonder about being in the right spot... Regardless I pressed forward and followed a very elderly lady into the building. I found my self standing in a small (about 8' x 8') waiting room with two elderly men on my left sitting, and an extreamly elderly lady on my right sitting, shaking and mumbling to her self, and lastly the lady I had followed in front of me was now at the counter. The worker looked at me with an odd expresion as I walked in as all her other customers were at least 50 years older then my self. Upon asking about immigration she really looked at me as if I were nuts, then said I needed to go to the Minstry Complex. Of course this took three times of her repeating it and me repeating it back to her (incorrectly) before I understood what she said. "Great, thanks. How do I get there?" I said. She told me some directions that made no sense to me so I tried another angle, "what bus number do I need to take to get there?". She said she didn't know but if I tell the bus drivers where I wanted to go that they would get me there.... haveing heard this once before I was a bit exasperated. I asked again if she had any idea what bus and she said "I think the #1 or the #2". Now I had riden to St. George's in a #1 and it hadn't driven by any type of complex that I was aware of. Leaving this place I figured I'd place my bets with a #2 bus and try my luck. As I got close to the bus station the co-pilot from my first bus ride appeared out of no where and asked if that was the correct building. When I told her that it was senior services she looked appoligetic and told me to follow her, that she'd make sure to find me the right bus. I hoped on to a packed bus... no I take that back I squeezed into the bus like a sardine hoping it was heading in the right direction but also knowing on a 12 x22 mile long island I couldn't go too far. luckily for me I was on the end pressed up against a window. I'll note real quick I was the only cacaucasion on the bus. No one ever gave me a hard time but it is different being the minority. We left the buss station and made a right cruzed down the road about 200 ft then made a three point turn in the middle of the road and headed back the direction we just came. I still don't have a clue what that was about. Then we proceded to wiz around in ciricles for about 15 minutes before finally heading in a direction I couldn't distinguish, but knew it was different because it invovled flying up a big ass hill. Eventually we showed up at a very large stucko and glass building. The co-pilot folded the seat down and out of the way in front of me which I took to mean this was my stop. I paid my 2.5 EC and circled around for a second for feeling quite relieved to see "Immigration" on another offical looking sign.

Now THAT's a bit more like what I was looking for! I enter stand in line, fill out this form and wait my turn. When I sit down with the immigration guy he already gives me the feeling he's doing me a favor to not just have me tossed me into the sea. I hadn't even said a word at this point. From her I handed him my passport and was not surprised at all when he said "where is your authorizing documentation?" ... my what? I told him I was told all i needed was my passport. Essentially we ended up going back and forth until I had eventually convinced him that my S.O. ID card which said "Type: Significant Other" was was proof enough that my wife was a SGU student because I couldn't have gotten this card otherwise. I also showed him everything I had and eventually after a number of disapproving looks he filled out a green peice of paper and told me "you know you HAVE to pay to stay here!" (which I was well aware of), I said no problem i knew it was 25 EC/month. I brought out 100 EC and he quickly turned it down telling me I don't pay him. I have to pay the tressery department. hmm ok. So I got some vauge description of where this was and started to head out when he told me, "they are closed for lunch"... uh hmm. oook. Asking how long the lunch was I was quite surprised to find out they only take an hour long lunch. I figured with my luck ti would be a 2.5 hour lunch. So I found a grassy knole and took a couple shots of the little harbor or carinage as they call it.

(Below) This shot looks a bit odd. What your looking at is the top of a cruz ship poking up over the city sky line. I like the shot mostly due to the fact that I could even take it. If you look ever so closely in the shot above and follow where the left most palm tree meets the hill you can see a white spot and a dark spot. That's the Ship and the steeple. Thanks to my very generous birthday gift my telephoto lense brings everything into close perspective. (Below) This is one of a couple old fortresses on the island. I have seen pictures from ontop of them where a few cannons still stand. I am assuming these are from the Spanish explorer's erra... aka Pirates of the Carribean time frame.. AARRGH!!!(Below) This is the Misistry Complex, out side of the SGU campus this is about 10 times bigger then any other building i've seen on the island.

(Below) note that all these photos were taken with me sitting in one spot. The houses just below the ministry complex, one partially painted but sturdy looking, the other just one step up from a tin shack. The diversity of homes and buildings here is very interesting. There are only a two area's i've seen that are clearly "wealthier" and one "poorer" area. It seems perfectly normal to have a shack next door to a nice house.

My lunch time photo shoot over I pay my dues at the tressury department, which happens to be in the printing department, or "Printery".

Back to the immigration office where I wait to see the unpleasent man again. To my surprise he stopped what he was doing with someone else, took my recipt and gave me back my completed passport! So it's offical I am now here till may.

Luckily for me buses come very frequently to the complex and it only took a matter of a minute or two before i was being shuffled back onto another screaming wild ride. Once at the main bus stop i decided to take a short walk around and snap a few shots of St. George's. In case your ever curious if you took a cruz ship here this is the area you'd see.

(below) This is the only good shot of the churches around here. If you look through the archway which used ot be a window you can see the sky straight through. The reason being is Hurricane Ivan in 2004 damaged or destroyed 90% of the buildins in Grenada. Every historical church (that i've seen at least) has no roof at all. All that's still standing is the walls and the bell tower. It's a sad sight but no one has the money here to do anything abou them, so they stand as hollow shells of what they once were.