Aarti’s Grenada Getaway!

You for­get beauty if it’s not star­ing you down some­times. Just stark beauty. Beauty for spite.

Grenada is one such place.  Yet, I’ve never been, never quite seen until I stum­bled upon the recent vaca­tion pic­tures of my col­lege friend and now full-fledged lawyer— Aarti Amrita Bridge­lal, Esq. (Con­grat­u­la­tions Lady!)

This was no com­mer­cial where the ver­dant green had to be dialed up or the turquoise water had to be turned on or adjusted.  This was snap­shots of per­fec­tion on earth through the lens of some­one with a sim­ple agenda, which included the enjoy­ment of fam­ily in the set­ting of the gor­geous island of Grenada.

Grenada is the land of spices, exotic flow­ers and rare fruits. It encom­passes the three island nation of Grenada, Car­ri­a­cou and Petite Mar­tinique and the gate­way to the Grenadines.  It also rep­re­sented for this island woman, the famil­iar emo­tional pull and weight of home, her­itage and it was an explo­sion of culture.

I needed to live a bit vic­ar­i­ously through Aarti’s mem­o­ries of her Grenada Get­away, and when I asked her if I could inter­view her and share a por­tion of her bliss with the world, she very gra­ciously told me yes.

The fol­low­ing is Aarti in all her love­li­ness giv­ing me the best of the Spice Isle through her eyes.

So what prompted this trip? Why Grenada?

We went to Grenada, or the Island of Spice—world-renowned for its cul­ti­va­tion of nut­meg, cin­na­mon, and cocoa.  My sis­ter is fin­ish­ing up med­ical school at St. George’s Uni­ver­sity in St. George, Grenada.  It is a New York-affiliated school, unlike the other med­ical schools in the Caribbean.   So my fam­ily and I decided to take a trip to see her as well as pack up all her things to bring back to New York, where she will be doing a res­i­dency program.

Can you say who you went with?

My Mom, Dad, and brother went to meet my sis­ter, her boyfriend and their puppy Bubbles.

How long did you stay? Where did you stay?

We stayed for 12 days in Lance Aux Epines, at my sister’s house located on top of a small moun­tain not too far from the “down­town” area of the south­ern part of the island and close to St. George’s.

“The view from our house .… !!!!”

Describe your trip to Grenada in one word.

Exhil­a­rat­ing!

Let’s talk wardrobe. What were some of your vaca-style essentials?

Flow­ing dresses, shorts, tank tops and san­dals cer­tainly helped us tol­er­ate the tor­rid days and nights.  The beau­ti­ful beaches of white, soft sand and green-blue waters called for fes­tive bathing suits, and I hap­pily donned my col­or­ful wear to play in the water, lay on the sand, lull away in the shal­low end or attempt a true swim.

What was your favorite activity?

All of the adven­tures we embarked on were delight­ful and illu­mi­nat­ing: ram­bling up a rocky ardu­ous hike lead­ing to the breath­tak­ing Seven Sis­ters water­falls; mean­der­ing through remote fish­ing vil­lages; win­ing to the rhythms of steel pan bands; cheer­ing on cricket games; intro­duc­ing our palette to nut­meg ice cream, sapadilla shakes, dasheen, and pas­sion fruit juice; walk­ing on dry cocoa beans laid on in the sun for roast­ing at the Bel­mont Estates cocoa plan­ta­tion; spot­ting sharks swim­ming under­neath us as we dined at a water­front restau­rant; reclin­ing in ham­mocks that nearly touched the water glid­ing past us on a sun­set cata­ma­ran cruise; talk­ing to cheer­ful rainbow-feathered par­rots; clam­ber­ing to the 1,910 feet look­out point; bathing in the tepid and salty aqua­ma­rine waters of the Caribbean Sea; pick­ing bread­fruit, Governor’s plum, Julie man­goes and moko off of trees on the side of the road; and puz­zling over how Grand Etang Lake can be the only bot­tom­less lake in the world.  At the local mar­ket, we arrived at 6 am as the ven­dors were set­ting their fruits and veg­eta­bles out for dis­play.   Women in head wraps, over­sized t-shirts, calf-length skirts and jeans with bronzed and wind-torn hands offered their choice selec­tions.  Men wield­ing cut­lasses deftly cracked upon fresh coconuts.  It was as if the sun bared the real­ity of their lives for us.  With an inher­ited dig­nity, they let us par­take in the proud har­vests of their land.

What about favorite foods?

My favorite fruit, since I was a child grow­ing up in Trinidad, is pomerac.  Since they are too per­ish­able for import, I have not been able to bite into this juicy, sweet del­i­cacy with its red skin and white soft pulp since my grand­mother smug­gled them into the U.S. 7 years ago.  I picked up a whole bag of ripe pomerac from the mar­ket and devoured it!

Did you ven­ture touring?

The most enchant­ing expe­ri­ence of my life was arriv­ing at Levera, at the very top of the island which took us 2 hours to reach by bus from the bot­tom of the island in St. George’s.   On a moon­less night, we inched along rocky dirt paths to reach a clear path­way to the shore.  As my face turned upward, all I can explain is that I felt I was trans­ported to another uni­verse.  The tran­quil­ity of the gen­tle ocean waves, the light breeze rustling the palm leaves, cold white sand under our feet, and the thou­sands of incan­des­cent and smudged stars bespeck­ling the inky sky com­bined to cre­ate a mes­mer­iz­ing land­scape that will for­ever last in my mem­o­ries.  How­ever, the real trea­sure did not exist in the heav­ens, but rather right down the beach.  Levera is one of the sites where female leatherback tur­tles habit­u­ally return to the shore where they were born, and in a time­less and inex­plic­a­ble rit­ual every spring, fever­ishly bur­row a hole 4 feet deep and begin to drop their eggs to safety.  Some of them will have yolk, while oth­ers will not; this is an evo­lu­tion­ary scheme devel­oped to increase the chances of sur­vival from sand crabs and other preda­tors.   Only one of the dozens of baby tur­tles born from a sin­gle nest will make it to adult­hood.  Cur­rently, leatherback tur­tles are labeled as an endan­gered species due to severe poach­ing.  Some of the islanders still bring home tur­tle meat and boil the eggs for din­ner.  And a tur­tle only fetches about $100 USD.  A few days before we arrived we heard sto­ries of an old, heavy tur­tle dying from an arm being cut off and left to lan­guish near her nest, with her eggs stolen.   St. George’s Uni­ver­sity houses a con­ser­va­tion group (and all of the funds from the tours go towards edu­ca­tion and care) to stem these cruel prac­tices.  Accord­ingly, leatherback tur­tles are fiercely pro­tec­tive.  I was wear­ing a white shawl in the dark of night, and just as the lum­ber­ing tur­tle set out to dis­ap­pear into the ocean after cov­er­ing her eggs, she spot­ted my white pro­file.  I can still feel her eyes radi­at­ing an alarm as she strug­gled to shoo me away from her pre­cious prog­eny.  I stood in guilty awe, and only hope to one day share in her mater­nal instinct.

Any sur­prises?

I was sur­prised at the calm­ness of the nights.  The only enti­ties stir­ring seemed to be the vex­ing mos­qui­toes and the cacoph­o­nous green crick­ets.   Despite a few bars and local hang out spots, this island seems to be cloaked in seren­ity, with lit­tle vio­lence or cor­rup­tion being reported.  Dur­ing Easter week­end, all gro­ceries and restau­rants were closed and fam­i­lies were seen walk­ing in their best suits to Church. There is a feel­ing of broth­er­hood here, an invis­i­ble but unshak­able pact among Grena­di­ans, to honor and pro­tect the nat­ural beauty of the land and of its people.

What did you bring back?

I was never a fan of the trin­kets that sou­venir shops dan­gle at tourists, so we went into town to the craft shops to meet local artists.  I found a beau­ti­ful pink hibis­cus flower made from a recy­cled oil drum, a mother and child can­vas art­work from an influ­en­tial Grena­dian painter, and a cracked but gen­uine conch shell sit­ting in the coral sands of BBC Beach.  Now if only I could fig­ure out a way to export pomerac out of Grenada!

Doesn’t all this talk, but par­tic­u­larly those pic­tures make you want to book imme­di­ate pas­sage on the next flight to the Spice Isle or any of her neighbors?

Thank you so much Aarti! DASHEEN loves your travel style

Are you plan­ning a trip? Where to?

Aarti Amrita Bridge­lal, Esq. is an Indo-Trinidadian woman raised in New York. She enjoys bal­anc­ing the intel­lec­tual rig­ors of her career as an attor­ney with a reflec­tive lifestyle of travel, short story writ­ing, and hik­ing.  An alumna of UCLA Law, she cur­rently prac­tices in NY and NJ with an empha­sis on com­plex lit­i­ga­tion in civil, com­mer­cial, immi­gra­tion, enter­tain­ment and real estate cases.

I’m Tynisha C. Leon founder of DASHEEN mag­a­zine — the online des­ti­na­tion where cul­ture feeds imag­i­na­tion. I am a cul­tural war­rior first and fore­most; and for me that sim­ply means that I am a light bearer for all things intrin­si­cally cul­tural and Caribbean. If you seek to inno­vate, pro­mote and/or con­tribute to posi­tioning a Caribbean peo­ple and gen­er­a­tion most pos­i­tively then link me!