We are staying in Woburn this visit, a small fishing village on the southern coast of Grenada.  I like Woburn.  It’s big enough to have a couple of good local restaurants, small enough not to be too congested and well situated to be able to get into town or out to the country fairly quickly.

We were looking for a nice house that had 3 bedrooms, a pool, air conditioning in the bedrooms, would accept a dog, hopefully have a good view and would fit our budget.  Since we were coming to Grenada in high season, many of the places we’ve stayed at other times were out of our price range.  Our good friend, Marion Pierre suggested we work with Terra Caribbean Realtors after my internet research and inquiries with a few local rental contacts came up short.  Terra found two houses that met our criteria and financial range and, after getting more details, we decided on Welcome Villa.  The pictures showed a clean, basic villa that had air conditioning in the master bedroom only, but should have good airflow.  Depending on the temperature and how much wind there is, we often don’t use air conditioning down here anyway, but it’s a great backup if it gets really hot or still, especially for sleeping.   A bonus is that the villa is fenced, so Mick has run of the house and yard anytime he wants.

We arrived late Saturday night and woke up Sunday morning to this extraordinary view.   YEAH! The house is actually bigger and better that we expected.  The owners, a Brit couple, have done a good job.  The house is nicely furnished with good couches and comfortable beds, has great appliances (which is NOT a given even, in high-end houses), and has all the basics that you’d need – a nice assortment of good towels, beach toys, coolers, etc. as well as spices and condiments, some liquor, suntan lotion, cleaning supplies, etc.  The general rental rule is – if you use something then you replace it, which works fine.  Having these basics makes it easy to settle in.  Often, houses will be stripped of everything except one roll of toilet paper (even salt and pepper are missing) which means you must run out immediately to get every-little-thing to get settled.  This allows us a little breathing room.

Since we were arriving so late on Saturday, Marion had the house stocked with basics like eggs, bread, some ham, cheese, butter, milk and a six-pack of Carib (the local beer) so we’d have food for breakfast and lunch the first day.  We really appreciated Marion doing this for us as a special favor.  This Caribbean custom of pre-stocking the house for the cost of the food is one I have really appreciated over the years and makes you feel at home right away (but usually is not done by a friend – thanks Marion).   The first place we stayed at in 1986 even provided homemade rum punch – and that began my romance with Grenadian spiced rum.

After unpacking and taking a quick survey of the house and its contents, we headed out to Windsor Forest to pick up the five boxes of items we store with our friend, Philomena. They hold things like good knives, good wine glasses, basic cutlery and kitchen utensils, ice-cube trays, hand towels, a pack, beach towels, a hammock, a good reading light, UK to US power adapters, battery pack for camera equipment, rope, and other similar items. These are things that might not be in houses we rent or their alternatives are not adequate. These familiar items also help to make each house feel like home.

We had lunch at La Sagesse, a delightful, small resort near our property and were treated to their consistently excellent food in their beachside restaurant and got so see some good friends who have worked there for years.  John, the server, told us he is cooking at his house on weekends so we will definitely stop by and try out his local food.  We also stopped by a roadside stand that is run by Patsy and stocked up on local fruits and vegetables.   A sweet bonus is that since this is a third world country, there is little fertilizer or insecticide used on plants so food is naturally organic.

We stopped for a quick dinner at La Boulangerie a very casual and excellent Italian restaurant.  Businesses here depend on each other and can very cooperative.  My favorite example is the trio of La Boulangerie, Carib Sushi and the Tortuga Italian Wine Bar restaurants.  They sit, side by side, in a small shopping complex and work together to provide a great experience for diners.  You can sit in one restaurant and still order from any of the restaurants.  This means if I want Sushi and Michael wants Italian, no problem.  And if we want a special wine, we can saunter over to Tortuga and order a bottle from there that they will deliver it to the table with glasses.   And after dinner, you just settle up with each entrepreneur.  LOVELY.

Last, we made a quick run to the grocery across the street from the restaurants to round out what we needed and we’re complete.  Next will be a nice relax on the deck to savor the day’s accomplishments.

We really lucked out – in addition to a great view from our house deck, the deck faces west so we’ll have more great sunset views. YUM!