San~San Adventures

Cleared customs in Hillsborough, Carriacou (carry -a koo) the first official landmass of Grenada.

(Gre-Nay-Da!)

The Caranage Bay in St. George, Grenada

In Grenada, St. George’s! Yea, we made it! This is our final destination. The trip from Carriacou was expected to be 8 hours, however, it was completely downwind on a beam reach and we were going 6 – 8 knots easily with just jib and jigger. We anchored in an area called the Lagoon and since we already cleared customs in Carriacou, we got off the boat and walked up to an area of St. George’s parish known as Carenage (car-a naj). The Nutmeg is a restaurant that has been written up in our cruising guide for good cheap lunch so we stopped in. What a view, food was good and the dining room was decorated by a local artist’s paintings for an Art Exhibit! We walked up hill past several beautiful churches with the roofs destroyed. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 demolished 80% of the island but you’d never know it until you saw these churches it was very sad.

Most of the homes have brand new roofs and the churches are usually the last things to be restored after the homes and businesses.

Henry’s Safari Tours! We called Henry on the VHF in the morning and he met us in front of the GYC ( Grenada Yacht Club) gave us the price and explanation of services. He then took us in his tour bus (van) to pick up our driver, Mr. Latouche. Then to his head-quarters surrounded by a plethora of star-fruit trees, papayas and bananas. He happily gifted some bananas and a papaya!

Papaya Tree.

This tour really gave us a great view of the island as well as taught us so much about why this is called the Isle of Spice. 90,000 people on the island, 80% of which own their own land. 80% of those people had damage to their homes and at the least have new roofs. 60% of all trees have something you can eat, because they just through the seeds and new trees grow.

We passed by a plum tree as it is also native.

The driest area is the southern land with the area to the north receiving the most rain and green to show for it. Since almost everyone in each parish is related there is very little crime. There is a flour mill on the island, although they do not grow wheat. Bougainvillea is the National flower and the Dove is the National bird.

Bougainvillea

A new stadium has been built for the National sport of Cricket and next to that is a smaller stadium for Track and Field.

Prime Minister has been in office for 5 years and could spend a lifetime as long as he is being re-elected. We also saw a mahogany tree as we neared Concord Falls waterfall.

After a perfect jump off some rocks 10′ above the water, below was 18′ deep and it was freezing, but the water rushing down was warm and powerful.

Next, we visited Douglaston Plantation that is 1000 acres and used to be a sugar mill but now grows allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cocoa and bay leaves.

To walk into this huge barn and find ladies shelling nutmeg, rocking in their rocking chairs and chatting was so neat.

The red stuff is mace which is not only what is wrapped around the nutmeg but a spice used in cooking meats and fish.

Entrance to the Douglaston Plantation, also a scene from the movie White Squall.

Allspice, Bay leaves, and Cloves.

On Laverie beach sea turtles come to lay eggs and tours are held so you actually watch a miracle as little sea turtles hatch and crawl into the sea! Those tours are held at night but we did get a chance to visit the part of Laverie beach that is protected by reef and okay for swimming.

Cashew Tree

Water Wheel

Rivers rum distillery has the oldest working water wheel in the Caribbean, the water powers the belt that sends the sugar cane plant to the press that squeezes out the juices out of the cane.

Cane going up the conveyor belt.

Cane being pressed.

Scrap pile which puts off a very pungent aroma.

Then it goes into the boiling room where it boils for a couple days to boil the water out of it and more dense.

From there it goes to the vats to ferment for 6-8 days, they measure specific gravity and if it passes the test it is bottled.

There are no preservatives in this stuff, it is amazing, 100% natural!

The last stop in the tour is the bottling where the liquor is stored in the floor so the government can come and measure for tax purposes.

After the tour a taste test is given and I’d like to say it was good but it was like pure alcohol and there was a 69 and 75 proof and we tried the 69! It was hot and we had heartburn for hours afterward. The people of Grenada are a truly fun and fantastically patriotic nation overall one of our top favorite islands!