Getting more acquainted

I fear that perhaps my last post may have left some rather distasteful visions of a dilapidated home where the frogs and crocodiles are scratching at our windows to get in; a place where out of the darkness the silence is only broken by the chirping beneath our tub. This is not the case. I honestly can't find any proof one way or the other that crocs, other than the splendidly comfy shoes, exist on the island. I'm trying to self-correct by posting something of the contrary in the way of photos—those will come later (in this post, not in life). Regardless, when I am home alone it is somewhat reassuring to hear the chirping and know I'm not alone.

In actuality, I think my post may have even swayed my female cohort's thoughts about the place. We did some looking around in the last week at other places. A logical, but pretty inconvenient, aspect of using a real-estate agency to find rentals is that they will only show you the suites that they currently list. We used a different agency from the one I used to find our present place. The apartments they (there were two of them) took us to first were "next to the White House". I did a little research, the house is White, and so that's the name. Next to that white house, were the 80% completed suites they wanted to show us. They were fantastic suites for those that like the open-air concept. The next place we saw was in an area called "Golf Course". At this point we began to really appreciate how small the island is. The reason this entire neighbourhood is called "Golf Course" is because this is where the only golf course on the island is. It's only 9 holes. What we had discovered was one of the most amazing views of Grand Anse. You could see clear to campus from up this hill. The building itself had a magnificent foyer that overlooked the island and we could see ourselves spending many hours studying or relaxing here. From then on, the appeal unraveled into what can only be described as a real monster mansion. We wandered through a maze / labyrinth of rooms that even the real-estate agents admitted resembled Hogwarts. Nothing really appealed to us except the seemingly sporadic views we'd catch around the odd corner. I wouldn't suggest a dip in the milky pool. They said there are very few security issues because basically no one wanted to go up the side of a cliff for their criminal activities; I must admit, on the way back down the men with the machetes were rather friendly. For whatever reason, we asked the agents what rent would be in one of the rooms here. They talked each other down without our intervention. I think it was then we queried "How long have you been doing this in Grenada?" "3 weeks". At this point I felt better equipped at finding an apartment having been looking for the entire length of our stay (4 weeks) just to keep our options open. I think we might just stick it through for awhile.

This weekend we did some more exploring in our own backyard.

Nuestra Casa

No crocodiles or alligators in sight here. Our biggest discoveries are actually around back. This was more of an excuse to show you the front. The yard is pretty substantial. We are really looking forward to having the dogs here to fully utilize it. In the meantime, one of our pets is this guy and all of his twins:

Dino

They are pretty cute little lizards that run around the outside of the house. They're probably keeping the mosquito and ant population down to a reasonable level. In this particular photo Dino is at the ready. He is our guard lizard. He makes sure no one steals these:

Mango

We've got them. Mangoes! They aren't ready yet, and probably won't be for a few weeks at least. Traditionally mango season is finishing at this time of year; but apparently given that there are so many different varieties, there are some that have yet to produce. I wonder if some of our other trees also had mangoes, but they have since been picked and eaten. This is pretty good news because they will go great with:

Atemoya - i.e. some lumpy fruit thing

I'd actually seen one of these on the tree earlier. I figured it was basically a growth defect. It only occurred to me yesterday to actually Googlify it and find out what it really is. It apparently resembles a piña colada in taste. This had only skirted away our attention from the mangoes for a moment before we came across:

Yoshi

He was climbing our purple banana tree that may also be a dinosaur in itself, given its long slender neck. It seems fitting, as perhaps Yoshi is its offspring. It seems pretty ridiculous (just bare with me), but I bent down to check to see if I could find any more banana lizards and found:

Bananas (this links to a Grenadian Night Club/Restaurant of the same name)

Actual yellow (well, right now green) bananas! These are going to go great in our smoothies provided Yoshi doesn't eat them all before we get to them. The next item technically isn't in our yard, but it was a discovery nonetheless. I think it might be okay if they are on our side of the fence. Fruit foraging ethics are slightly foggy on this. We'll have to snag a couple of these:

Seaside Grapes

Another discovery I made was just how quickly our grass grows. And on the flip side, how resilient it is. We get sun basically every day and I haven't seen one blade of brown grass. On the note of sun, I've found that my Vancouver mindset is still holding on strong. Everyday I feel like I should be outside because it's sunny; turns out tomorrow will also be sunny and the next day...and the next. But, back to grass:

St. Augustine

I think we have St. Augustine. It seems fairly coarse and feels funny on my feet. These other things that are coming up, I have no idea about. They look pretty neat though. At the rate they are growing we may not be able to see the road by the end of the week. Luckily I took a photo from the road where the bus stop is:

The Bus Stop

The AC here can weigh pretty heavily on your electricity bill. I try to hold off from using it as much as I can. At nights I set the AC on a timer of approximately 3-4 hours; this is enough to ensure we are asleep by the time it goes off. Unfortunately it also acts like an alarm. After those 3 or 4 hours we simply just wake up grouchy and sweaty. At that point I set it for another few hours, just enough time to wake us up when we should be getting out of bed (again, we are grouchy and sweaty). Luckily this is mitigated by what my lady gets to see every day before she heads to class—see above. I'm not jealous. I could be floating next to that boat every day if I want. We run the AC all night now though. Avoiding the grouchy sweatiness is worth it even when you have a view like this to wake up to.