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Irie
Sun 22 Feb 2009 02:02
Saturday 21st Feb- Lance Aux Epines Cottages - again
 
Starting to feel a bit like locals now - the shops and bars welcome us warmly, and walking to the Yard, we've been greeting the same people on the way to work for a number of mornings. Grenada is well up the list of friendly islands. Despite the legacy of  hurricane Ivan only five years ago, it feels fairly prosperous, and there's plenty of construction and developing services, significant advances even in the couple of years we've been visiting. The recesson will probably blow a hole in this, certainly the hotels are running at below 50% occupancy in what should be the busy season. It won't be helped by crooks (allegedly) like Sticky Wicket Stanford who's innings seems to be about over (geddit). Sadly it appears a lot of locals in the islands have been burned by the scams and ensuing uncertainty.
Lance Aux Epines feels increasingly like home, though we're a bit nomadic, moving round to vacant apartments - yesterday we moved back to Osprey where we started nearly a fortnight ago. Apparently these gaps in bookings are unusual as this 30 year old family business enjoys a high level of repeats. The gardens are full of birds and lizards. We're never lonely, as the latter make free with the dwellings, wandering in to mop up stray ants and insects. One little chap spent twenty minutes roaming round the computer stopping to look quizzically with his head on one side - any bugs? A less welcome visitor was a mouse who made occasional apearances round the work surfaces and cooker. He made the mistake of jumping into the sink, haring round as if in the wall of death untill cunningly trapped under a glass. He was a cheeky chap, and deserved better, so was released just along the beach into the grounds of the rather nobby Calabash Hotel, home of the Gary Rhodes restaurant - hope he flourishes. The beach here is very pretty (see below), and has a great view out through the anchorage. It doesn't have the same clout as Grande Anse, a golden line of sand nearly two miles long on the western shore, but it also doesn't have the large hotels and tourist traps. Anyway, casual scrutiny indicates that Grande Anse would be better named if an 'r' substituted an 'n'.
Work on the boat is proceeding apace. Unfortunately the pace is extremely slow, but there is progress, light at the end of the tunnel, real hope of moving forward, green shoots of recovery etc etc.... and the weather continues to be stunning! 
 
Lance Aux Epines at a busy weekend
 
 
Looking southwest over St Georges - foreground, prison - background, an obscured view of Grand A(n)se