There are many beaches in the Caribbean and depending upon what you're looking for, there is something for everyone. Today we were looking for soft white sand, crystal clear water, a lounge chair in the shade of a sea grape tree, and lunch! This is our beach perfection today!
Grand Anse Beach is almost two miles long and it's all you could ask for in a beach. There are stretches where you can be nearly alone, and there are bits with vendors and restaurants. We chose a portion near the middle where we could rent some beach lounges in a primo spot in the shade.
Bruce and Ron settled in while Mindy and I took to the cooling water for some girl time!
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Bathtub CLEAR! |
This being our first time visiting this part of the beach, we were unaware that a vendor would soon come and offer us lunch, brought to us from one of the nearby hotels... so when we got hungry we set off up the beach to find some inexpensive local lunch. We trekked all the way to the Spice Market where we found several vendors open for business, even though there were no cruise ships in port today. This means that we had the place literally, all to ourselves!
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Fishermen bringing in their catch on the beach |
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The fish had already been picked from the nets and placed into the huge "live well" just off the beach |
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Fishermen checking out their catch in the "live well" |
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There are several of these tiny little kitchens in the Spice and Craft Market. They serve a limited, but delicious menu! |
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They seemed almost reluctant to have to heat the kitchen up for us, but they did! |
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All. To. Ourselves. |
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Just hanging out, hoping for more customers |
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This is what I like to see! A man walking my way with libations! |
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Chickens playing dead? |
We lingered at lunch until the sun was high and beginning its descent. All was calm. Gentle waves lapped the pristine, almost pink sandy shore. It was hot. We walked a long way to get our lunch, and we had a long way to get back to our chairs in the shade. But we knew that the chair vendor was keeping our stuff safe for us!
We stopped along the way to visit a vendor who tried to entice us into buying her rum punches when we passed earlier. We returned as promised and bought those drinks to take back to our chairs. Gotta say though, the punches at the Spice Market were WAY better!
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All settled in for the afternoon. |
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This does not suck! |
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Under the Sea Grape Tree |
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Mindy-N-Me |
The four of us spent the afternoon relaxing, taking a dip in the cool water, dozing and picking out goodies from various passing vendors.
One lad came by with a menu from one of the aforementioned hotels. Had we known we could just sit here and food would come, we sure would not have made that hot trek to the Spice Mall.
The chair vendor also sells ice cold water and beer for the asking! There was a guy selling palm frond baskets and another selling jewellery, but the BEST was the guy selling CAKE!
CAKE ON THE BEACH! I'm in heaven! WHY don't we do this more often??? That's going to have to change! Today was one of those times when I sit gazing up at the blue sky through the sea grape leaves and wonder what my old coworkers were doing. It's a time when I realize how fortunate I am and how much I love this life. I don't know what the future holds, but today is pretty darned good!
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Is that cake or are you just happy to see me? |