Random photos of Grenada

Grenada flowers

Scuba diving teacher

Sunset in Whisper Cove

St George's Harbor

Halloween Grenada style

                       
                                                      Noodling with cruiser friends

Friends and Places

                                           

Chocolate factory tour

Yesterday was tour day!  We were met at the Whisper Cove marina office at 8:30 am to spend the day with 14 other cruisers to tour an organic chocolate factory and other interesting stops along the way.  But first we had to stash Bentley some where for the day.  Luckily we had some cruiser friends here in the harbor that we had met last year in Eleuthera.  Small world....but great couple, and they were excited to dog sit for the day.

After making several stops to pick up the other passengers at other harbors, we were taken to a recently opened French bakery with breath taking views of St. George and Morne Rouge Beach where Oprah Winfrey has a house.  Her house is the large one with the white roof in the middle of the three houses in a row going down the hillside.

Oprah's beach..but she probably has a pool!

   

Next stop was the Crayfish Bay Organic Chocolate Farm.  We drove for about 45 minutes to get there crossing rivers that divide the different provinces.  The road ran along the western coast of Grenada and along the water for most of the trip. We passed by beautiful St George Harbor.

 Traveling through some of the small town such a Gouyave, you held your breath and closed your eyes hoping you would make it through the tiny streets that are for two way traffic with barely enough room for one car.  But our trusty driver Cutty got us though with no incident.

The organic chocolate factory was originally a 800 acre British plantation that raised various crops including sugar and chocolate.  It is now divided and owned by many different people....many of which are local Grenadians.  The current owner of 15 acres is an English retired sailor who originally planned to buy beach front property and drink beer.  Now he runs this farm and drinks chocolate tea with brown sugar and rum.

Owner of Crayfish Bay Chocolate Farm

Fresh spring water 

The factory is run much like it did back in the 1800s.  The red bud is a young chocolate pod.  They are not harvested until October or November when they are much larger.  They are shaken off the trees or cut off with a knife attached to a long pole.  They naturally roll down the mountain and down to the farm area where they are put into holding bins to ferments for 2 to 3 days.  

Baby chocolate pod

Mature chocolate pod with beans inside

The next step is to dry the beans out.  This building has huge drawers that slide out from under the eaves and the fermented beans are put on to these flat drawers to dry.  A process called shuffling takes place with people walking up and down the drawers and shuffling the pods with their bare feet.

Then they are roasted over a hot wood burning fire and stirred until they have a crisp skin.  This lady has been working on the farm for over 12 years.

The beans are then separted from their hulls, and ground at high speed until they become a liquid.

They are then shaped into balls and are sold like that to candy manufacturing plants.

        

We were treated to chocolate cake and hot chocolate tea flavored with rum. 

Next stop was a chocolate making factory.  It was very modern and large machines spinning and churning the chocolate to be exported to all of the major chocolate manufacturers around the world. The plant was well protected by glass windows so pictures didn't turn out very well.

Time for lunch at Andy's Soup kitchen located in a house built in the 1800's overlooking the Caribbean Sea.  I had fish creole and Will had a roti...a local version of a tortilla wrap.

After lunch we walked to a nutmeg factory.  This is a ripe nutmeg.  It has a shell and the seed is protected by the red coating called mace.  One of the uses of the mace is to actually make the mace spray. 

There are a lot of nutmeg trees around Grenada, and we have learned how to recognize them.  There sure are a lot of nutmegs around here.  All of these will be exported off the island.

Finally, after many short rain showers, we venture up into the mountains to look for monkeys, view a volcanic crater lake, and finally a hike to the Allendale waterfalls.  It was dusk by the time we arrived at the falls, and all of us were quite tired.  It was a quiet drive back, but some people with headaches probably caused by the caffeine in the over indulged amount of chocolate they ate during the day.

We arrived back at the marina after dark and dinghied over to get Bentley.  It was an awesome day!

Prickley Bay

I arrived back to Prickly Bay on August 16th after an all night flight on Caribbean Airlines. Our good friend Fred gave me a lift to the airport, and I checked one of my 50 pound pieces of luggage.  The plane arrived in JFK at 8:30 pm, and I claimed my luggage.  Then I had to catch an airport shuttle to another terminal.  It wasn't a pretty sight watching me lug two suitcases up and down the escalators.  But I made it in time for my 11:30 pm flight to Trinidad.  The plane was full and being in the middle seat did not help me get any sleep.  We arrived in Port of Spain at 4:00 am and had to clear customs.  The plane to Grenada was delayed so I sat in the sparse terminal wishing for a cup of coffee.  Finally arrived at Prickly Bay marina with Will and Bentley patiently waiting for me.  Back on the boat and slept most of the day.

                                               That is Varua in the middle of Prickly Bay

So now back on the boat and the normal routine of trying to stay cool.  There is usually a good breeze, but inside the cabin the heat and humidity is almost unbearable.  We keep busy with daily boat chores and trips to shore to do shopping.  The best way to get to the stores is by taking a bus, which is actually a van and packed full of people.  

The grocery stores are very nice compared to many other places we have been, but the selection of produce and meats is quite limited.  I have never seen many of the items available for sale, and there are lots of chicken feet available.

Returning to the dinghy with groceries

There are lots of activities available besides swimming.  My favorite is the Grenada Mexican train days on Wednesday and Sunday.  There is also a weekly bingo game that a lot of locals come to and try to win the many prizes that range from toilet seats, live pigs or goats, and the grand prize this week was a 6 month old female cow. Not sure where we would put that cow if we won.

One day as I was riding on a shopping bus, I spotted friends we had met in Salinas, Puerto Rico.  They were getting married in Virgin Gorda at the end of May, and we were actually there the week before the wedding and spent some great times with them.  They have their boat at a marina near us, but had rented a villa in the hills of Grenada for their honeymoon.  We were invited to have dinner with them there on their last night.  It was a one bedroom/one bath air conditioned place with the kitchen outside on the veranda next to the pool.  It was nice to have a meal without rocking back and forth in the water.  

So finally after 8 weeks at Prickly Bay we moved the boat two hours away to another harbor called Whisper Cove.  It is much larger than Prickly with lots of room to anchor.  The water is clearer and a lot less rocky from the surges.  I sit now at the marina restaurant being eaten by bugs and doing laundry.  Mostly French or French Canadian dominate this area, so it is nice listening to them speack their language even though I have no idea what they are talking about.