Forever Twenty-Nine, The Spider Hunter

            In many ways I am like my father: bony, monkey-toed, dorky.  I looked like a freckled pale Gumby as a kid and… oh, wait! I still do.  But I’m pretty sure that’s a Gray gene I also share with my old man.  Last Saturday, our similarities caused a minor panic attack for me, though.

            Despite my apparent inability to regulate my body’s temperature—or even effectively breathe for that matter—in Grenada’s humidity and heat, I opted for the running trail on Hash #745 last Saturday.  Though initially fooled by the easy, even trail/paved road, I was brought to my senses when hash-reality collided with me in the form of a 60-degree one-thousand-foot incline.  (Insert expletive.)  My saving grace during the gasping, single file march (actually, more like a crawl because you’d better believe I was using all resources at my disposal to lurch forward, including extra limbs), was Elly, the cute little dog brought along by a couple friends.  When Elly needed to stop for a drink, we all got to stop for a drink!  Ah what a break will do when you’re on the brink of heat stroke and watering the jungle with your sweat!

Taken from the middle of our ascent

Holy Guacamole!

            We’ve been on the island for about a month and a half now, and I’m ashamed to admit that my first visit back to the beach was last Saturday.  I’ve sort of fallen into a nasty habit of saying, “Well, the beach isn’t going anywhere.”  Too often I forget that I am.  Maybe I need to write on my bathroom mirror You’re Not Going to Be Here Forever in the most vivid shade of lipstick I own.

            Last weekend was Family Weekend at SGU.  The school organized three days’ worth of events and activities as it played host to many students’ visiting families.  As Ivan’s wife and, therefore, family, I signed up to take part in a couple of the free events.  That is how Ivan and I found ourselves, Saturday morning, enjoying a free brunch with friends.  We followed the complimentary meal with rum tasting (also free).  Actually, I didn’t take part in the rum tasting since I’m not a fan of rum (gasp!) or, really, any hard liquor (double gasp!).  After the boozing, we watched about half of a chocolatier’s demonstration before hastily changing into beach gear and catching a bus to Magazine Beach.

Mmmm... free fried food!

Pig foot soup, complete with hairy pig feet!

What Lurks Beneath the Fort

            In my last post, I talked a lot about fruit.  In particular, I mentioned revisiting my opinion of passion fruit.  True to my word, we let our last passion fruit ripen another five days before cutting into it and trying the gooey center again.  My revised opinion: no change.  Actually, the fruit may have become more bitter with time!  I’ve been told eating the passion fruit with sugar and mixed up in a drink is far better than trying it raw.  Since that was our last fruit, though, I’m probably not going to be in any big hurry to try it again.

            On Sunday we took our usual stroll to our favorite fruit stand.  There we were pleasantly surprised to find two of our favorite types of mangoes!  One is the larger, plumper type, with small pits and soft flesh that is almost completely free of the bothersome fibers in most mangoes.  The fruit vendor referred to them as “rich people mangoes.”  The other type I’d only had once before when they were sold on campus last term.  They are very large—almost unidentifiable as a mango—and elongated, like an eggplant.  They have very thin, long pits and the flesh is almost buttery soft and bursting with flavor.  A single one of these mangoes makes for a meal!  After doing a little snooping, I believe the “rich people mangoes” are manila mangoes and the eggplant variety is a Madame Francis mango.  (Of course that’s subject to change if and when I learn better.)