Now that we’ve settled into the marina and squared away the boat we’re looking for things to do. We played golf at the Grenada Golf and Country Club and have a month to month membership that is all inclusive. It’s a nine hole course and if you want to play eighteen holes you simply use different tee boxes for the second nine. You are required to use a caddy and we lucked out with Sam and Kelly who couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. Especially since we haven’t played golf since February.
Then on to some diving with the local dive shop EcoDive. Again we’ve purchased a package of dives so we will be busy for the foreseeable future diving and playing golf every week.
We have found a great driver, Rawl, who really knows the island and have embarked on a series of half day excursions to learn about the island and it’s inhabitants. We’ll do one a week until we feel we’ve seen it all.
Our first trip was last Friday and we concentrated on the southeastern part of the island from St George’s south and inland to the spice company.
Grenada is comprised of a series of parishes. which harks back to the early catholic influence. Religiously it’s a very diverse people with about 15 different religions being practiced; everything from Catholic to VooDoo including Muslim and Rastafarian. Religious freedom is celebrated here and everyone gets along just fine. They could be poster children for the rest of the world!
The schools are a series of public and private with kindergarten, primary and secondary. There is a large university in the south with the emphasis on medical both human and veterinary. They are now offering course work in other majors such as business administration as well.
Grenada is the second largest producer of nutmeg in the world and spices are huge here. We took a tour of the local spice company and Gary was amazed at the range of spices used for medicinal purposes. The walkways on the outside tour were covered with crushed nutmeg shells rather than the mulch we’re used to at home.
One of the really interesting things we learned was how to harvest cinnamon. They cut down the cinnamon trees and peel the bark away. Then someone scores the trunks about every foot and the next person bangs on the bark with a glass bottle (Coke was the preferred choice). Then using a sharp blade the inner bark is peeled away in sheets to be ground into what you find at the market.
I had never really thought about where pepper comes from and was surprised to see it growing on bushes. We learned that the various colors of pepper are just the different times it is harvested. Green for early pepper, then pink, white and finally black.
We tasted tamarind right from the pod off the tree (a sweet/sour flavor) and smelled a variety of herbs. Of course no tour is complete without stopping at the visitors center to purchase spices. I came away with cinnamon, bay leaves and a fish seasoning I’m anxious to try.
We then headed to Calabash Resort for a great lunch by the water and back to the boat.
Next week we head north to the chocolate factory. Gary can’t wait!