This day is a lot more interesting. We had a mission: to climb Mt. Qua Qua, in Grand Etang National Park. The main
obstacle, other than the climb, was getting there with Grenada's very ad hoc transportation system. Al, Faisal and I set out reasonably early,
taking a University bus into Grand Anse, and then a reggae bus to downtown St. George's. Now we realized why the city had looked so dead two days
ago: we had never gone through the Sendall Tunnel into the real city! This was a real city. The challenge before us was to find a reggae bus to
take us to Grand Etang. We feared not a lot of locals would be going there. Of course in Grenada you don't find the bus, the bus finds you. In
this case, a guy who was just standing against a building suddenly asked us where we wanted to go. When we told him, he said, "that's gonna be a
problem. The road that goes there, it's blocked off [or something], so you gotta... [something] Vendome, and you walk, a long way, uphill. Or
maybe you could find a cab to take you, for about $50 EC [$18 US]." Paranoia kicked in, but he wasn't trying to sell us a cab, he just kept saying
"go to the market" and "Vendome." So we went to the market, but we didn't know what the hell Vendome was, so we told a bus guy our destination,
and he said "Oh boy." and then pretty much said what the other guy had said, and to get into the bus which, coincidentally, he was about to get in
and be the conductor for.

That bus took us to what turned out to be the town of Vendome, closest to Grand Etang. The conductor pointed us to the road
we then had to walk. It didn't look blocked off to us, but then again it was somewhat understandable why they wouldn't want to take us a long way,
all uphill, for our lousy $3 EC (75 cents US, a deal I still can't believe). We stopped at the general store for some sustenance snacks--amazingly,
though this looked like a pretty small town, the food was still mostly American junk food sorts of items. I got some cookies that ended up being
about as tasty as Cookie Crisp cereal (i.e., not tasty).

The guy in St. George's was not kidding about the walk to Grand Etang, it was arduous as fuck. The road was paved and that
made the walking easy, but it was the steepest road I've ever seen. We got about 2/3 of the way up (though we didn't know that at the time) before
a car finally made an appearance, and the driver told us to get in and drove us the rest of the way. He asked $10 EC of each of us, and this was
almost the only time I felt ripped off in Grenada, but considering how nice it was not to have walked the rest of the way, I really didn't care.
He told us we had to pay an entry fee at a booth, but typically, there was no one there. As we walked to the trail head, we saw some locals eating
lunch, and they said "hey guys!" and gave a big thumbs up, while apparently snickering to themselves. This was understandable, as I was wearing
khakis and Faisal had on all black including Jnco jeans, but still, we'd show them.

I found the climb very pleasant. It mainly went along ridges, so the views were fantastic most of the way. The trail was
often narrow, with very steep drops on boths sides, but with a rainforest canopy of plant life rising out of it. The plant life turned out to be
almost more interesting than the animals--bamboo trees, gigantic leaves, actual tarzan-like vines. The only animals we really saw were hummingbirds
and little lizards, the rest were too fast and clever to be seen by the likes of us, though we sometimes heard their scurrying. The trail got
pretty steep and muddy (red clay-like mud) at some points, and this created some problems for Faisal, but we all made it up, and were rewarded with
more views, and the experience of watching clouds blow up the side of the mountain and right through us. On the way down Faisal ended up sliding a
lot, so he was pretty much covered with mud at the end of it. Not wanting to pay our driver any more, we walked down the long steep road to
Vendome. Faisal had been exhausted by the 3.5 hour climb, and walked like the living dead down that road.

Al and I got to the town about 15 minutes before him, so we sat down in the 'town square' with sodas. We must have looked
pretty funny sitting in a town with no tourist draw, with mud on our pants and shoes, because the locals were giving us some weird looks. When
Faisal got there, covered in mud and stumbling, an old man sitting on some steps said "the war is over boy, the war is over!" All the locals
walking through the square erupted in laughter, causing the man to repeat his comment several more times. Al and I couldn't help but join in. Once
that settled down (the old man was still laughing), we waited for the bus, slightly worried their concern for mud-free upholstery would strand us.
But they didn't notice, and we got home for some showers and rest. That night we went for some TCBY, and I recognized one employee from the party
(not the most enthusiastic employee in the world) but he didn't recognize me. When Faisal ordered a banana split one of them surreptitiously ran
out and bought some bananas. Good guys.