Another New Adventure Begins

Wednesday 15th July 2015.

Following another day of horrendous travel, thanks to the very disorganized and always chaotic airlines, I finally arrived back in Grenada, late but ready to celebrate my safe if somewhat dishelveled arrival. For my first flight I was in a middle seat between a man with the worst breath (who insisted upon continually trying to strike up a conversation) and a man who farted, (left and right, there was no escape for me) in the row of seats in front of me I had a woman with a baby (that screamed and cried throughout the flight and a petulant child screeching constantly that she wanted to get off, and jumping up and down in her seat like a small kangaroo. If all this wasn’t enough, upon our arrival, American Airlines belted out the most obnoxious music so loud it was deafening, while we all sat and waited for 40 minutes on the runway. Our Captain had been so happy to announce that we would be arriving 10 minutes early, but by the time we actually arrived at our gate we were 30 minutes late… Such is the efficiency of the airlines. No fault of the crew just consistent mismanagement by the airlines.
Upon arrival in Grenada I was delighted and relieved to find that my luggage had arrived without damage (this time). However, I then faced the dreaded customs. For anyone never having traveled to Grenada I should warn you, unlike other airports where you are watched as you walk through the green channel with the random, occasional, unlucky passenger pulled over for a search, in Grenada you have to go through one at a time and be interrogated by one of two women, (they are not nice). I had a pile of bags higher than myself on the luggage cart and I knew without a shadow of a doubt they were going to want to search me. Customs here will charge you tax on anything you bring out that’s new, especially if you live on a boat, they can make lots of money with taxes and “administration charges” on boat parts, and their charges vary from 2 1/2% to 6 1/2% depending upon who you see and what mood they are in. I had so much stuff in my cases and they were packed so tight, that had I had to unpack for inspection I would never get everything back into the bags and be able to zip them up again, also the charges would probably strip me of all the money I had with me and then some. I strongly begrudge paying again for something I have already paid full price for. Also, if what you are bringing into Grenada is not staying there, (as in all our boat parts which will be leaving with us on the boat when we leave in a few weeks) you legally do not have to pay tax on those parts. However, the customs here have added another set of rules, which I will detail at a later date.

Just as I thought, the customs woman I saw (who’s glare could turn a lesser person to stone) glared at me and asked what I had in my bags. I truthfully told her I had personal possessions, kitchen equipment, curtains and cushions… I won’t go into full detail as to our entire conversation but suffice to say she sent me to the red isle for more interrogation and search. I thanked her and headed over.
This next chapter of my story is probably best missed as I don’t want to write anything that might incriminate me, not that I did anything wrong, or broke any rules, I simply wasn’t going to get ripped off if I could avoid it. I managed to walk out without having to pay other taxes… Exhausted but happy, I found Bob waiting outside to drive me back to Daisy (and all the chaos)…