Grenada Island Tour

We had been in Grenada for a couple of weeks now but yet to go on the infamous island tour done by a local guy called Cutty. With another cruiser organising a bus, we jumped at the chance of getting someone else to deal with the admin and eagerly awaited our pick up time of 9am.

I was all intent on wearing a dress until Dylan told me we would be doing a lot of walking so I decked out in shorts and tevas, totally unnecessary in hindsight!

There was an interesting mix of people on the bus with us. A couple with an adorable 3 year old daughter, an overly flirtatious Texan woman who insisted on sitting next to the bus driver and “whispering” in his ear. In summary, all Americans and us the token Brit and Saffa. Cutty was a really informative tour guide explaining the days route and stopping points of interest. 

We made regular stops en route to our first destination to sample or review the various native fruits and flowers. All the while Cutty explaining the medicinal properties or what it is used for. The first thing we learnt about was a Noni. A white waxy fruit that smells like ass. The juice is used as a health drink to boost the immune system. To get the juice, you have to let the fruit “ferment” in a glass and you drink whatever oozes out of it. Needless to say we did not try it or bring one home yet we were assured they are all the rage in health shops.

To counteract the pungent smell left in our nostrils we were then shown ylang ylang, honeysuckle smelling leaves used in perfume. Much better!

Eoucou

As with most of the Caribbean islands we have visited, the chinese have arrived. On Grenada they rebuilt the cricket stadium after Hurricane Ivan knocked the old one down. To thank the Chinese, the Grenadians had a big ceremony and then played the Taiwanese national anthem. Chuckle chuckle. We also looked down on the prison (figuratively and literally) which is in an old fort, where we heard about 5 British people being held there. All (surprise surprise) being held for drug smuggling. Further down the road, the Grenada police force band has its own building for it to practise in. We did not notice many houses adjacent...a bad sign? On the same road we passed a Coca Coca bottling factory, no wonder this soft drink is cheap over here!

Cocoa pod

There were many many fruits, herbs and veggies that Cutty pointed out but I shall only mention the more quirky ones. EouCou are a funny looking red soft spikey flower that locals use for red lipstick, colouring and nail polish. Basically it stains the hell out of everything a kind of reddish colour. I have a bunch sitting in a vase in our saloon, pretty looking flower decorations. Not all fresh produce is in abundance though, the hurricane destroyed 90% of the nutmeg trees. We drove past many abandoned nutmeg processing plants. Sad to think of the loss of an entire industry after a day or two of severe weather. Grenada was apparently 3rd largest producer of nutmeg in the world prior to Ivan.

Eoucou

We stopped off at an old plantation where we sniffed, prodded and tasted cocoa, golden apples, tumeric (good for fighting skin cancer – but then again most things that Cutty pointed out were apparently “good for fighting cancer”), nutmeg and mace, rockfig (like a banana), cloves, cinnamon bark (which we chewed and was very cinnamony), lemongrass, allspice berries and soursop (anti cancerous and they export it to the US). Just before we got back in the taxi, we were shown “Sleeping Beauty”, a grass like plant who's leaves curl up at the faintest touch. Apparently slave owners would plant this around the slave quarters to see any tracks of escaping slaves. I spent a good 5 mins touching these leaves, rather therapeutic!

Our first official stop was Annandale Falls. Most people decided not to swim, but we did. Why on earth would we pass up on the chance of wallowing in fresh water?? Leaping into the pool we swam under the waterfall and were stung on the head by the falling water from 30ft above us. Feeling like I hadn't bought any souvenirs for a while, I purchased a spice necklace, loaded with the spices we had previously been sniffing and prodding in the plantation. It now has pride of place hanging in our boat, giving off a wonderful fragrance of cinnamon and bay leaves.

Next on the agenda was the cocoa processing plant. We were just in time to see the farmers bring their buckets of cocoa beans to sell. They received about $18 EC for a bucket. Seems like a lot of hard work for £4! Interestingly they still use the old method of drying the cocoa in the sun on these enormous drying racks placed on narrow gauge tracks. If it starts to rain the racks are hauled under cover. The cocoa is still placed in hessian sacks and probably hand sewn shut for the trip abroad to be processed into cocoa power / chocolate. 

We drove to a stop off point where Cutty honked his horn a few times and out popped a pair of male monkeys. Here Cutty held bananas out for them and they would leap on people in order to get them. So perched on someones shoulder, they would then endure stroking by admirers while they ate their bananas. Great to have your photo taken with a monkey on your shoulder, until it decides to have a pee on you! Luckily I didn't get the pee but I did have a monkey shove his hand in my eye, they were so tame! Apparently Cutty was the only person that came to feed them when hurricane Ivan tore down their usual feeding habitat so now they even recognise the sound of his engine!

Off to Rivers Rum Distillery next where we had lunch. Fairly average lunch for the $35EC's /pp we were charged. This distillery is one of the only still using a traditional water wheel to drive the mechanism to crush the sugar cane. Huge mounds of cane stalks litter the distillery and Dylan couldn't resist climbing up one. It is a very impressive sight to see the waterwheel in action crushing the cane. We toured the premises with a lovely lady providing the tour that she had done a thousand times and had long ago lost interest in both the tour and the patrons. Sampling the rum was an experience not to be missed. The rum produced is specifically for the local market. It is all white rum and at 75% alcohol content is enough to use as cooking fuel if ever needed. Drinking it should come with a number of health warnings. The mere fact you are not allowed to fly with a bottle of the stuff should be warning enough. It tasted terrible and smelt like nail polish remover. It had a numbing effect on ones mouth and would probably make a good substitute for rubbing alcohol in a pinch.

Suitably fed and watered we headed back to our boats, stopping at a crater lake on the way where we saw a mongoose run in front of us. A fantastic tour that we would whole heartedly recommend!