Around the Spice Island

Clement telling us about Grenada's history beside the Lagoon in St. George's

Women grading nutmegs by hand

We gathered a group of other cruisers and took a tour around Grenada with Clement Baptiste of CB Historical Tours. This guy knows his stuff! Our first stop was in St. George’s, where we not only learned about historical battles over the island, but also about modern-day altercations. A big truck backed into Clement’s nice van, breaking a tail light. In the States, this would involve insurance companies, weeks or months of time, increased premiums, etc. Here, we both drove to a dealership, and the driver of the truck bought Clement a new light. Done, and we were on our way again! We drove up the west coast, stopping at the nutmeg processing facility in Gouave. During the last hurricanes, Grenada lost a huge percentage of their nutmeg trees, so they’re trying to build back up, slowly but surely. But there were still women sitting there, grading nutmegs by hand. And the whole place smelled fantastic!

Beautiful outbuilding at Rivers Rum distillery

We also stopped at the Rivers Rum distillery on the east coast, which has beautiful old buildings, as well as old practices; the sugar cane grinder is water-powered, and the distiller is wood burning. The vats were concrete, however, instead of the original wood. We stopped at the Belmont Estate, which produces all sorts of fruits and vegetables, and has a goat dairy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to tour the estate, but did eat a delicious lunch at the restaurant in the original estate house. Back through the rainforest in the center of the country, where we saw a Mona monkey enjoying a snack on a fence. Then to Anandale Falls, and back to the marina.

Anandale Falls