June 24th
Our next adventure took us up the west coast heading north and into St John’s and St Mark’s parishes to see a nutmeg processing station, Concord Waterfalls, Jouvay Chocolate Factory and Grand Etang Lake which is in the center of the island. We went as far as Victoria before turning inland.
We furthered our nutmeg education watching workers husk, sort and seal the nuts in large bags for export at the nutmeg processing plant. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the processing plant but it was very interesting. In the sorting section we were allowed to look over the shoulders of the workers and watch. One nice lady gave me a few nutmegs to add to my collection. At the height of the nutmeg production there were sixteen processing plants but now there are only four that are working. The others have been leased to individuals to operate as restaurants, stores etc. until the nutmeg crops come back to their full potential.
The nutmeg backstory is that 80 percent of the nutmeg trees were destroyed by a hurricane in 2004 because they are very tall trees with a shallow root structure. They are now at about 40 percent of the original production and increasing every year. Even so they still ranked at number two for worldwide nutmeg production.
Along the coast at Grand Bay we found the ideal seating area to watch the sunset. Apparently someone stops trucks with tires on the way to the landfill and adds the tires to this “stadium” area. This is recycling at it’s best.
Every year, a few weeks before Grenada’s Independence Day in February, the local paint stores give away free paint in the national colors of red, green and yellow. Each town uses the paint to create something be it a mural, signs or just painting something to look better and a contest is held to see who is the best. As a result you see the green, red, yellow paint everywhere. It really does look nice.
We drove up to Concord Waterfalls, one of the few that are accessible by car. The rest you have to hike into and it can be a 90 minute hike or longer depending on which one you go to. At this point we’re more interested in driving around the island and learning as much as we can. If we get bored later in the summer we may consider hiking but it’s doubtful.
In Gouyave, where they are famous for the “Fish Friday” street festival each week, it was interesting to see the shacks on the beach where the fishermen live next to their boats and then a few streets over, the large houses where their families live.
The Jouvay Chocolate Factory was a great experience and we came away with many chocolate bars and even some chocolate creme liquor which we taste tested last night. As Gary said it’s like drinking chocolate mousse. Chilled, it goes down easy. Good thing it’s only 20% alcohol.
There are three more chocolate factories on the island and our intention is to visit all of them.
Grand Lake Etang, one of three lakes, sits up in the mountains in the center part of the island. At the entrance there are Mona monkeys. Apparently you only find them here and in Africa and the locals are very protective of them. One in particular knows that the humans will bring him bananas and he gets up close and personal to get those bananas.
We climbed the hill for the lookout over the lake, a ten minute hike straight up the hill. The flowers are beautiful as this is the interior of the island and is not affected by the dry season.
Our driver, Rawl, continued to amaze us with his extensive knowledge of flora and fauna. Apparently his grandmother was responsible for much of this knowledge as she would take walks with him and ask him to name the various plants. He taught us how to tell the difference between banana, plantain and bluggoe trees without seeing the fruit. It has to do with the color on the edge of the leaf stems.
We continue to play golf and the course is starting to “green up” with the advent of the rainy season. It should look really nice in a couple weeks.
Diving was a grand adventure on Wednesday. Our first dive was a wreck dive called Shakem. Apparently a ship was coming into Grenada with a load of warm concrete and got caught in a storm a few years ago. The ship floundered and the cargo shifted resulting in the ship now lying on the bottom of the ocean in about 100 feet of water. As we dropped onto the wreck I was watching my dive computer to make sure I didn’t descend too quickly. When I looked up I was staring into the eyes of a large (3′) hawksbill turtle. Usually when we encounter turtles they swim away as soon as they see you. This one was totally unconcerned and just stayed there with me so of course I reached out and touched his shell. Now I can say I’ve petted a turtle in the water. Of course this was the one day we didn’t bring our underwater camera so no pictures to document this incredible experience. Guess it will just have to be a “Kodak moment” in my mind!
Our second dive was at Northern Exposure which was a shallow reef with lots of corals and fish.
On both dives we entered the water in sunshine and came up in pouring rain making it a little chilly moving from one site to the next. EcoDivers has turned out to be a really good group to dive with and we will see them once a week for the rest of the summer.