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| One of the beaches on Grenada's coastline. Very pretty |
Another hot sunny day on another hot sunny Caribbean Island. This is the life isn't it. We were supposed to be parked on the pier in Grenada, 'cept some hulking great Yank ship has taken our space. The captain told us a couple of days ago that CMV booked the slot and has confirmation of the booking, but apparently money talks. The Royal Caribbean ship is much bigger, with more passengers, so the Grenada authorities decided to allow them the berth and make the little Magellan anchor out in the bay, so everyone has to tender across.
We're escorting again - Discover Grenada - a tour of 4 1/2 hours. It's mostly scenic driving, firstly around the coast, then through the the spice and banana plantations in the middle of the island, along the edges of the rainforest and back out to the coast and Fort Frederick. There are a few stops thrown in of course.
The buses are quite small, only 20 seaters. It was chaos loading them - I ended up on bus number 11, but my CMV paddle said number 8. We were late getting to the buses anyway, and then we had to wait for about 20 mins for the final passengers to turn up because they had missed the tender boat that the rest of us were on. We were easily half an hour late starting
Our first stop was at the Dougaldston Spice Estate, where we were first shown how cocoa beans are turned into chocolate, and then given a brief show and tell re the various spices that are produced in Grenada. I was that impressed with what I'd learnt, I ended up buying some of the pure chocolate that is produced in the area to use to make drinking chocolate. Apparently I have to dissolve it into boiling water, simmer for 5 mins, strain, and then add milk and sugar. I'm told that I'll know that it's the real thing due to the oil of the chocolate on surface of the cup. I can't wait to try it.
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| This is how the cocoa bean looks when the pod is first cut. A bit ugh! actually. The farmers can tell when the pod is ready, because it starts to heat up as the beans start to ferment. So there you go. |
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| Then the beans are fermented for a bit longer - 8 days they told us. After the fermenting bit, they are dried on tables like this. When the beans are dry and you bite into them, they really taste of chocolate, not quite Lindt or Cadbury's, but chocolate nevertheless. |
Driving through the countryside was pleasant.
And Annadale waterfall was nice. The island has had an unexpected amount of rain in the last month, so the falls were full, and young men took it upon themselves to leap into the plunge pool in the interests of photography and making themselves a few bucks. I missed the picture though.
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| Annandale Waterfall |
We finished at Fort Frederick, with these excellent views. As usual, I managed to find an lizard of some sort.
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| Our excellent view included being able to watch the Royal Caribbean block of flats sail off. Unfortunately, logistics prevented the Magellan from being able to move in and take up the berth. |
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| Another lizard. I have no idea what type though. |
As I said, the tour was supposed to last about 4 and a half hours. We set off late, and then we had the easy, relaxed, no worries attitude of the Caribbean driver to contend with, add a return tender journey, and we didn't get back to the ship until nearly 3 o'clock. Everybody was starving and ready for afternoon tea. We worked out that it wasn't worth trying to get back to the island for the remaining time that we had, because the tenders would add an hour in travelling time.
So that was our day in Grenada. Tomorrow we are in Barbados.
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