Our Tour of Grenada Continues…

We drive through the west coast fishing town of Gouyave

We drove through the country, listening to Assassin’s descriptions of the various areas while he filled us in on the details of the upcoming elections.  There are two major political parties in Grenada. This was not hard to remember, as signs, banners, and tshirts were everywhere you looked.  It seemed to us that many people were very politically active and that certain villages preferred one party over the other.

a rainbow surrounds the water as it enters the pool

Craft stalls leading to the waterfall

We arrived at the Concord waterfall, which was tall and had a delightful pool beneath it.  There were several craft stands along the road, so we had to use our duck, confuse, distract, and avert techniques to get past all the men trying to get us to buy their shell jewelry.  Once at the entrance to the waterfall, we needed to pay an entrance fee and walk through a gift shop to get there.  This was a far cry from the natural beauty and remote nature of Dominica.  We had hiked for an hour in the wilderness in Dominica to get to a waterfall.  Once there, we felt like the only people in the world, and it could have been the year 1589.  Here, our bus pulled up right along side it and the focus was on making money as opposed to communing with nature.  Apparently, I’m not quite over Dominica yet, because what kind of person complains about a waterfall?

Chris jumps off the cliff into the chilly water!

We ignored all of that and enjoyed the view.  All the daring ones in our group jumped off the high ledge into the water.  I enjoyed swimming behind the waterfall and getting that fullness of air in my lungs.

We had the place to ourselves right up until the end, which was wonderful.  After we changed, we had to walk past the vendors again.  The men making jewelry and sculptures were all very nice, but it is just not possible to buy something from everyone, and it still makes me feel uncomfortable to have to say “No, thank you” several times while they make their best attempt to persuade me.  Luckily, many of them are simply very nice people, and when I stay open to making a connection, I am usually rewarded with a smile, a great conversation, or even just a moment where our eyes meet and that twinkle tells me that we really see each other.

Reese Jumps In (photo retouching by Maggie:)

A local fish market getting ready for the Friday Night Fish Fry

Cacao Beans Drying In the Sun

We were ALL looking forward to our next destination: the Belmont Estate.  You are going to pretty much hate us for this, because ALL they do at Belmont is make chocolate!!!  We headed straight to the restaurant for lunch and were treated to a lovely Grenadian buffet lunch.  The outdoor covered seating area was breezy and comfortable with beautiful views of the surrounding hillsides.  The food was wonderful, but the chocolate cake for dessert was amazing!

Our beautiful hostess greets us in traditional Grenadian dress.

Enjoying a lovely luncheon together.

Traditional Grenadian food

Chocolate Cake for dessert. Dessert at lunch!!

Porter waits for our tour to begin. Can you tell we haven’t seen anything “American” in awhile!?

Watching the interesting video on the cacao process.

We walked around the building to start our tour and were handed sample cups of hot chocolate.  Yum!  A table was set up with fruits and vegetables commonly grown in Grenada.  We felt very local checking out the table and seeing that we knew almost all of the tropical produce and had cooked and eaten most of it.

The plantation is beautiful.

Our tour guide was a sweet young woman who showed us around the estate and walked us through the process of turning cacao into chocolate.  I found myself wondering over and over again how in the world the ancient peoples figured out how to do this.  There are so many steps, and if you skip even one, you would not have an edible product at the end, much less one of the tastiest ones the world knows.  I have often wondered this same thing about wine-making, beer-making, and flour, amongst others.  It’s no wonder one of the shows I find most fascinating is “How It’s Made”!

trying to listen to the tour guide but slightly distracted by the fermentation smell

Drying platforms slide under the building when it rains.

The cacao processing starts off with a malodorous step that surely should have stopped any long ago inventor in his or her tracks.  The cacao beans are put in covered bins and allowed to ferment.  The smell is horrific.  After weeks of being turned and mixed, the beans are taken out and laid on platforms to dry.  Here’s the thing.  Grenada is a lush Caribbean island with tons of rainfall.  It would take the beans forever to dry if they just sat outside.  The invention they devised to handle this is very clever.  The platforms were put on wheels, which were set on rails, which ran right under a building.  When the rains started, plantation workers of old would run outside and push each giant platform under the building.

Mace, the outer coating of a nutmeg, dries in the sun

We get to walk around on the beans, just as the plantation workers did years ago. It was fun for the kids, but I connected with the hard work that those long ago slaves and workers had to endure.

While the beans dried, workers would walk around on them to “polish” them.  We could not ascertain why, because the following steps negated any benefit from having cute little polished beans.  The beans are then put through a number of other steps, including going through grinder to make cocoa butter with a by-product of cacao nibs (kind of like the pulp).  At this point, I might have stopped listening, because it is such a long process and I just wanted to get to the part where they make the chocolate!  As you know, various recipes can be utilized to make dark chocolate of various qualities, milk chocolate, cocoa powder, and more.

We’ll take the lot!

Here was one time we didn’t mind stopping in the gift shop on the way out.  We purchased several bars of chocolate made by the Grenada Chocolate Company.  My favorite was the sea salt and dark chocolate bar.  The kids like the 60% Dark Chocolate bars.

Bryson gets to hold a turtle.

The rest of the plantation was interesting and we saw huge palm trees, monkeys, turtles, and more.  Unfortunately, I was being eaten alive by mosquitos and had to hide out in the van while the rest of the group explored.  Olivia got her braided hair too close to the monkey cages and one of the little scoundrels pulled her beads off and tried eating them as a snack.  Kate, undeterred, got close as well, and one monkey got a hold of her bangs and wouldn’t let go.  Olivia and Kate handled the excitement well, but Porter was traumatized and “never wants to see the monkeys again!”

Our guide struggles to release the monkey’s tight little fist from Kate’s bangs!

Chris and Craig snuck off to the nearby rum distillery while we toured the plantation. They came back after “sampling” a number of products…

Back in the bus!

The crater left by the volcano has created a serene lake.

We had one more stop on the way home: the Grand Etang caldera, which is a collapsed volcano.  We had thought earlier in the week that we could do a big hike to this popular spot, but we never made it.  Assassin said he could get us right up to the edge of the crater, which used to be a volcano.  We were so tired that we drove up, walked to the edge, snapped some pics, and piled back into the van.

I’m surprised any of them agreed to smile after a full day of posing for pictures!

colorful buildings along the way

a local village home

a ship cruises the coast

The end of the tour

It had been a great day exploring this huge island country.  Assassin kept up a running commentary about all the villages we drove through, but our questions started to dwindle and it was pitch dark out by the time we pulled into the marina parking lot.  We had seen enough to know that we had only scratched the surface of what Grenada had to offer.  Our time in Grenada had come to an end, for Carnival was starting the next day and we needed to get to Carriacou for the party!

A few last pics:

We celebrate Grenada’s Independence Day by wearing the national colors.

We enjoy conch fritters with lambi caught by the men

pumpkin fried rice with local ingredients

Some of the loot we collected on the Isle of Spice

Wouldn’t it be cool if we all named our cars back in the US?

On our last day in Grenada, we got up early and headed out on a tour of the island.  Grenada is BIG.  We had been in Grenada for over a week and we had only seen the very southern tip of it.  We chose our top destinations and Kaylon (the fisherman who took the guys out) arranged for us to do a tour with his friend, Assassin, whose last name is Sylvester. (Sylvester Stallone was apparently in a movie named “Assassin”.  But then, most people probably knew that.  I didn’t because I don’t watch scary movies.)  It was impossible to forget his name, because ASSASSIN was written in huge letters across the top of his windshield.  Everywhere we went, people shouted to us, “Assassin!!!!” and we obliged by honking back with as many beeps as we could get in before the person was out of sight.  After many such trips down here in the Caribbean, I still find myself in awe that anyone’s horn still works after a year.  It is the most used part on any Caribbean car.

Our first stop was the Laura Spice Development Project.  Wendy and I were very much looking forward to this tour.  A teaching farm had been created to show specimens of native Grenadian trees, herbs, and spices.  The farm was laid out well and allowed for a quiet meandering through acres of beautiful greenery.

The kids smell, inspect, and taste dozens of herbs and spices.

Our tour guide had seen happier days, but she was knowledgeable and answered all of our questions.  We were allowed to take a few samples of the more interesting species, such as a leaf that would close up in half if you wrote the name of your beloved on it and put it under your pillow.  I’ll let the photos tell you the rest:

Nutmeg shells line the pathways and make a pleasant crunchy sound when you walk on them.

We learn about the prickly “Lipstick Plant” whose red center gives lipstick its bright color.

Chris takes a snack break.

Porter holds an opened cacao pod. We each grab a bean and suck on its sticky sweetness.

Mmmm. Guava!

Olivia gets a fresh aloe treatment for some bug bites. Then we all line up for some!

Colorful cacao pods growing in the trees.

Bryson loves tamarind right off the tree.

The split tailed lizard. We asked how rare it was to see two tails and our guide said she had never seen it before!

The Sour Sop, looking a bit intimidating…

My little Laura Ingalls! Reese finds a water pump in front of a giant palm-like plant and washes her hands.

ginger

This is the leaf you write your beloved’s name upon to see if they love you back.

Grenada is known for its nutmeg. Here is the nutmeg tree.

While the boys were braving the open seas with the local fishermen, the kids and I decided to test our own strength of will.  We decided to take a bus to Grand Anse, a beautiful crescent-shaped beach south of St. George’s.  We headed out of the marina and started walking along the road.  In Grenada, walking along the road is how you hail a bus.  “Just start walking along and wave down any bus that happens to come along,” we were told.  “And good luck,” was always added.  Technically, there are “official” busses on “official” routes, but in reality, just about anyone with a van seems to be a bus driver here.  We started walking towards Grand Anse and hoped that a bus would come along soon, because there was no shoulder and the road was dangerous.  I was also lugging all our beach stuff.

After walking up two windy hills and across a busy intersection, a bus finally saw us and stopped.  The bus driver wouldn’t talk to me, so we just climbed inside and he took off.  I had heard about the less-than-helpful attitude of the bus drivers here, so I asked a fellow passenger how much the fare was and requested that she let me know when we got to Grand Anse.  She was helpful, and luckily, I had exact change in EC (Eastern Caribbean Dollars).  The kids raised their eyebrows questioningly as they looked around the bus.  The entire ceiling of the bus, from the windshield to the back, had a GIANT graffiti-style painting of Jesus Christ on it.  Around the edges of the ceiling, it said, “God & Me”.  The kids looked at me as if they were going to start making comments or asking questions but luckily they held their tongues…

riding the bus

We hit the beach and it was just as sweeping and lovely as the guidebook said it would be.  Having an adventure to get to a place always sweetens the prize.  We met several couples on the beach who wanted to know who we were and what we were doing.  Since it was not a typical U.S. vacation week, we stood out to the vacationers on the beach.  They were all lovely and intrigued by our story of living on a boat and exploring the world with our children.  They had lots of advice on what to do on Grand Anse, but I had an agenda: eat at Umbrellas and get a massage.

having cheeseburgers in Paradise

We had done schoolwork in the morning and the travelling took longer than you would expect, so we were ready for lunch.  We walked down the beautiful beach, which was lined with shady coconut palms.  Visitors and locals alike sat under them, enjoying the gorgeous view.  A few couples waded in the water.  We found Umbrellas, which reportedly had great burgers and a fun vibe.  We found both to be true and Bryson, who has never ordered anything BUT a cheeseburger at a restaurant, deemed it the “best burger of the trip”.

Soothing Touch Massage

After our filling lunch, we walked along the beach and discovered a lovely place for the kids to play: right in front of Soothing Touch Massage.  We swam in the water together for a bit and then they were happy to play in the sand while I had my massage.  Wendy and I had been tipped off about this place.  I’m not sure who started it, but several blind people of Grenada had been trained in massage therapy in order to give them a way to support themselves.  What an amazing idea that I was eager to support…The building was modest but clean.  The treatment rooms were small and the dividing walls didn’t go to the ceiling, so the environment wasn’t completely ideal.  But the people were absolutely lovely and the massage was amazing.  To top it off, the cost was $30 for a one hour massage.  If the kids weren’t playing by themselves on the beach outside, I would have stayed till quittin’ time!

The kids play in the sand

We were all a little anxious about taking a bus again.  As we passed through the parking lot, we ran into the couple we had met at the pirate party back at the marina.  They stopped to say hello and then offered us a ride.  How lucky!  We all piled into their car.  I think there were six of us in the back seat!  It was great to see our new friends again and the kids looked forward to playing together once we got back to the marina.

their fort village

Once back at Patronus, we met up with Chris and Anything Goes to hear about their fishing adventure.  They were so excited to share their stories with us and proud to show us their catch: buckets of conch, some huge lobsters, and several snappers.  We had a delicious lobster dinner that night to top off an exciting day for everyone.