GRENADA ! !
Our first REAL Caribbean Island. ( According to some people Trinidad doesn’t quite qualify.)
Grenada is a popular ‘stay over’ destination for cruisers during the Hurricane season as Hurricanes so seldom hit this far South. It is THE place to go if you are interested in meeting fellow cruisers. We found the amount of boats quite overwhelming, especially when trying to anchor. BUT….
For the first time in 3 months, we were able to swim next to the boat.
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- 1. At Hog Island. Marike jumping into the sea from the deck. Here you can see her swinging from the halyard.
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- 2. We are on our way to church. Our family John Go with John Gordon and the Yoshima family. The walk ended up being quite strenuous, which only meant that we arrived at church perspiring nicely. This seems to be the norm and we are really grateful for air-conditioned buildings. We never know what to expect from the service. This was a Lutheran church. The sermon was sound, but we found it strange that they had a strict policy of ‘Members Only’ for the Communion Table.
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- 3. After church, we split up and our family went for a walk. This sign was just n front of a normal residential house. No shop or people visible. Lambie is the local name for the edible, inside part of a Conch shell.
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- 4. The girls at the Grenada dove Sanctuary. It was a lovely walk through a wooded area, but not even ONE Grenada dove in sight! Franci was very dissapointed.
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- 5. After a VERY long walk, we managed to emerse from the foilage at quite the wrong place! It was so far from our dinghy that we actually asked our friend John to help. He took myself and the two younger girls back to the boat. Marike and Franci opted to join Frans in walking the long, overgrown path to the dinghy. When they arrived, Franci took this photo of the first (of many) Pirate ships we would see. It was only after admiring the boat for a while, that they realised they did not have the keys to unlock the dinghy! They gave it to me. They had to walk ALL the way back and fortunately for us, John came to the rescue again and we could borrow their dinghy.
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- 6. At St. George in a museum. Karin and Sophia fooling around with the signage.
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- 7. The view of St. George from the Fort above. On the right you can see a large ship. This is not nearly as big as the Cruiser Ships that normally dock here. The ship in the picture is a Chinese Hospital ship. One of the Radio Net controllers (on the cruiser radio network) kept on referring to it as “That Communist Ship.”
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- 8. “The Thinker” and Sophia at the Fort.
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- 9. Franci with another view of St. George.
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- 10. We decided to go on an Island tour to experience Grenada “in a nutshell”. It is a lot easier – and a lot more expensive – than trying to hike everywhere or take the bus. The “tour guide” also knows what kind of places to visit. We started our tour at Fort Frederick, high above St. George. The lady in the picture with us, introduced herself as “Alice in Wonderland”. She knew a little about the fort – but not much. She was a kind of self-appointed tour guide and depends on tips. The people in Grenada are much poorer than in Trinidad and the unemployment rate much, much higher. Hurricane Ivan that hit Grenada in 2004, wiped out huge portions of the Nutmeg plantations. This is the main industry for the Island.
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- 11. In South Africa we would never consider feeding anything to our wildlife. The Babboons in Cape Town have become a real danger to people, due to being fed before. Here, however, the tour guide stopped to show us where we could feed the Mona Monkeys. They are not tame, but will come up to the tourists to fetch the fruit.
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- 12. Here you can see that the only restriction is WHAT to feed them. The Grenadians have a love of eating wild things like monkeys, Iguana, Possums etc. We drove past a sign that advertised a ‘Wild Meat’ buffet. Mona monkeys are found in West Africa and Grenada because they were transported herer on slave ships.
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- 13. One of the picturesque scenes the driver pointed out to us. Karin J completely missed out on this one as she fell asleep in the minivan. Two derelict Antonov planes — Soviet skeletons once gifted to Cuba — lie on the grass at the former Pearls Airport . Scavenged and sun-bleached, they are a rare visual reminder of Cuba’s presence here from 1979 to 1983.
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- 14. Grenada is known as the Island of flowers. Here I’m standing in front of an old Rum Factory that is still being used today.
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- 15. After our very interesting tour, we were allowed to taste the rum. The most exciting bit was when we tested to see whether ice really sinks to the bottom in rum. Yes! it does! Rum is less dense than ice.
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- 16. This waterwheel is what drives the whole rum factory. It is truly amazing to see one of these in action.
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- 17. Our ‘tour guide’ took us to the Sulphur Springs. He didn’t give any explanation, but just pointed the way. At the place, there were some mud holes and a little yellow-brown river and some shacks. A friendly lady showed us where we could change into bathing suits and by the time I came out, this same lady was already plastering Marike with mud. Fortunately for us, we found out that it cost 35 EC’s per treatment and we it wasn’t compulsary. It did make for some great photo opportunities though :).
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- 18. For no fee at all, we could all jump in the river and put on our own mud. The mud is supposed to be very good for your skin, hair etc. , but I can vouch that it is not so good for the bathing suits.
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- 19. Our visit to the Cocoa Bean processing plant was very interesting. The guide opened up a fruit from a Cocoa Tree and allowed us to taste the white flesh around the beans. Afterwards, he directed us to spit the beans into the fermenting bins! The cocoa beans will be kept for up to 6 days in these bins where the fermentation process gives off enough heat so that you can feel from up close.
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- 20. Our last visit for the Island Tour was a waterfall. Wonderful, fresh water. MUCH nicer than the sulphur pools! We spent way too much time at each of our sights, so that the guide informed us that there was now no time to visit the Spice plantation. Oh well, we just can’t do everything 🙁
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- 21. We also paid a lot of money to join a two-cylinder dive to hunt Lion fish. Only later did we learn that it is not a speciality dive at all and that we could hunt them ourselves on any dive. They are such a pest in the Caribbean. The natural enemies of the Lion fish, sharks and bass are not here to cull the numbers. I must admit that the absence of sharks does not upset me too much. In the photo you can see Sophia in action. We bought our own little shooter and take it along on our dives.
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- 22. In this photo the dive master whose job it is to clean the fish on the boat while we travel back to the dive centre, is holding a Lion fish up for the photo. If you cut the spines off, their is no more poison and you can clean it just like any other fish.
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- 23. Included in the price we had to pay, we DID get to have a Lion fish barbecue, side dishes included. Here Karin J, Marike and Franci are inspecting the food. Lion fish tastes really delicious! Everywhere on the Islands they are trying to encourage the locals to acquire a taste for Lion fish. How do you know a fish is a Lion fish? Swim up to a fish and ask it if it is a fish. If it says no – then it is a Lying Fish 🙂
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- 24. Marike and Frans trying to decide what they want to eat. We were at ‘Fish Friday’ held in the little fishing village of Gouyave. Nearly every Friday the locals set up foodstalls to sell all kinds of food that consists of fish or things that go well with fish. A really good outing with good food. Karin J especially liked the ginger cooldrink that they sold there.
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- 25. Our last dive that we did while anchored at St. George, was on the Underwater Sculpture Garden at Moliniere Point. It was a VERY, VERY long dinghy ride to get there, but absolutely worth it. Here, Sophia is hovering over the typist.
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- 26. In the magazines, the ring of statues look very clean and detailed, but in reality – under the water – the alienation has taken its toll already. There is nothing new under the sun. Even the patterns for aliens have been designed by God.
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