Grenada

About 2 million years ago, Grenada was formed as an underwater volcano. You can tell this by Kick-’em-Jenny which is still an active submarine volcano north from Grenada's main island. This volcano rises some 1300 m above the sea floor and is just some 180 m below the sea surface. The crater contains fumaroles which emit bubbles of gas, so the boats go around it when they want to go to the northern island of Grenada called Carriacou.

Despite these cool facts I had also heard that 30% of the natives were living below the poverty line. Grenada, like many of the Caribbean islands is subject to a large amount of migration, with a large number of young people wanting to leave the island to seek life elsewhere. This means that probably only around a third of those born in Grenada still live there.

When my friend Christofer and I arrived at the capital St. George´s with a cruise ship, I was both excited and scared. We had decided we would go to The Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park, a collection of ecological underwater contemporary art located in the Caribbean sea off the west coast of Grenada. That was the exciting part. The scary part was that I had to be snorkeling to be able to see it, and there's nothing I'm more scared of than sharks. I wasn't even sure I would be able to go through with it, but hey the mantra for this trip was "don't worry about a thing, 'cause every little thing gonna be alright" as sung by Bob Marley.

We met Suzanne from Grenada Seafaris Powerboat Adventure when we went off the cruise ship. She took us for a short walk to a dock where her husband Howard and the tour guide Kimmie met us with the powerboat. They had been gathering a small crowd of tourists from the hotels on the island already, and Christofer and I were the last ones to get on. We had just touched land with our feet before we were out at sea once again, and I was so nervous about the snorkeling. We had a short stop where Kimmie told us about the fishes and other creatures we would be able to see, and he said there would be no sharks chasing us, so that we shouldn't worry. It gave me great comfort and my next fear was that it sounded more difficult to snorkel than I had imagined. I jumped in the water and started hyperventilating, but since Howard and Kimmie had given such great advice on the boat I quickly got a grip of it and put my head down the water. It was like entering a different world, from the boat the sea had been looking rough with big waves crashing in but under the water it was total harmony. 

Everything went in a slow tempo and exotic fishes that I recognized from Finding Dory were swimming by. I fell in love with this underwater world and the statues were amazing. I counted a large ring of 26 standing children, holding hands and facing outwards into the current. A mermaid, a Jesus figure and even a girl on a bench taking a selfie were some of the other installments. I couldn't get enough of it, and while I thought I would be the first one up since my fear of sharks, I was actually the one dragging behind, and ended up being one of the last ones to go up. I could easily have been staying for a couple of more hours.

This was one of the smaller rings of standing children

 It was a once in a lifetime experience and Kimmie was such a great guide, always making sure everyone was alright. He even helped out a man from another group of tourists, who seemed like he was out of air since he had forgotten to blow up his life vest. It's actions like these that makes you feel safe.

After the snorkeling we went on a tour with the boat to the many idyllic beaches alongside Grenadas coastline, including the 3 km long Grand Anse Beach which is considered to be one of the finest beaches in the world. Kimmie told us some interesting facts along the way about the island and the animals living there. We went into the harbour and he pointed out the fact that the prison on top of the hill has the best view in the capital, which is kind of funny! Christofer and I jumped off the boat in the city center and I can easily say it's the best tour I've ever been on, with the best staff ever, all three of them were the nicest people!

Both Christofer and I needed to use a toilet really bad so we went into the first place we saw, which happened to be a Schnitzel Haus. It felt wrong to visit a German restaurant when we were in the Caribbean, since we should try something local instead. That was until we went upstairs and were greeted by a man with a hairdo that would make Einstein jealous. He said "Good morning!" and then he turned around and had a look at the clock on the wall and turned back and said "Good afternoon I mean!" with a smile on his face. That broke the ice and I realized we had come to the right place after all, where people don't even care about what time it is. I love that relaxed attitude and we headed out to the balcony to have something to eat and drink. 

A waitress came to take our order and she seemed high on life and after everything we ordered she said "ohhh that's my favourite!" and "ooooh that's my favourite too!" and looked as she got butterflies in her stomach just by thinking of the apfelstrudel and Radler, which is beer mixed with Sprite. I even had a rum punch with nutmeg sprinkled on top to get a taste of Grenada. Kimmie had told us they made so strong rum in Grenada that they couldn't export it, but the natives didn't mind that since they got to keep it all to themselves. Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" due to its large production of nutmeg and mace crops, they even got nutmeg depicted on the flag.

The waitress at the Schnitzel Haus made our visit the best ever, she was so funny and full of life and I fell for her charm. She talked so gently as if she tuck you in bed with her voice. The food and drinks were so cheap too! At least that's what we thought until we realized the prices were in American dollar and not Eastern Caribbean Dollar, as we had thought. But it didn't matter, nothing could ruin my happy and cheerful mood made by this beautiful island and its beautiful people!

We left the small and cozy harbour and went up the street to a combined chocolate store and museum, as Howard had suggested, and had a taste of the local sweets. Then I tried to find the church that had got its roof destroyed during a hurricane. The church looked awesome without the roof but now they had fixed it and it looked boring and plain again. I had a craving for something without a roof so we went up to Fort George.

It was a weird mix of an old fort, a gym, a sneakers shop and a residential area, but the view was amazing. 

I hope I can come back to Grenada one day, because to me it's a paradise that I want to explore for months instead of a day!

* Best things about Grenada – the people and beaches were amazing, the snorkeling tour through the underwater sculptures was a once in a lifetime experience

* Most mediocre thing about Grenada – they should have left the roof open at the church, because it looked amazing without it, now it was just a standard church

* Worst things about Grenada – that I had to leave in just one day

Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):
1. USA
2. Croatia
3. Montenegro
4. Andorra
5. Cyprus
6. Grenada
7. Turkey
8. Greece
9. Italy
10. Spain
11. Monaco
12. Malta
13. Netherlands
14. Iceland
15. Denmark
16. Sweden
17. Lithuania
18. Macedonia
19. Armenia
20. Portugal
21. Dominica
22. Hungary
23. Slovakia
24. Belarus
25. Slovenia
26. Austria
27. Russia
28. Barbados
29. New Zealand
30. Ireland
31. Germany
32. United Kingdom
33. Belgium
34. Poland
35. Vatican City
36. Estonia
37. Czech Republic
38. Switzerland
39. San Marino
40. Kosovo
41. Romania
42. Finland
43. Latvia
44. Azerbaijan
45. Georgia
46. Antigua & Barbuda
47. Moldova
48. Norway
49. Ukraine
50. France
51. Bulgaria
52. Luxembourg
53. Liechtenstein
54. China
55. Serbia
56. Bosnia And Herzegovina
57. Albania