Our ship got into Grenada by 7:00 this morning – a bright,
very warm and humid, sunny morning – and we enjoyed our breakfast out on the
back deck enjoying the view of the island and the clouds as they danced about
the mountain tops. This is another volcanic
island with lots of rain forest in the center caused of course by the enormous
amount of moisture that comes from such clouds.
But today we saw only white fluff rather than any threatening ones.
We were off on our tour of the island before 8:00 am again
traveling winding, steeply built roads in a mini van/bus. Ken unfortunately ended up in a seat where
one of the rear wheels was so he had to sit with his knees up to his chest. Luckily we were in and out a fair amount so
he could stretch them often and there were times when he could turn toward the
aisle (he was in a single seat) and put his feet out there.
Our tour took us to one of the old forts – Fort Frederick –
that sat up high on the hill side. While
we could get a good view of the sea from there that was the back side. The guns were mounted facing in land as that had
proven to be the way the French chose to attack. There was a tunnel – now blocked by fallen
rock and so forth-that allowed soldiers to move from one fort to another
underground. We could get a good view of
our ship in the harbor from there.
Grenada refers to itself as the Spice Island because it
raises and exports twelve different spices some of which are processed on the
islands and some of which are processed in the country where they are
transported to. So part of our tour took
us to Gouyave Nutmeg Station where huge quantities of nutmeg is dried and
either processed or packaged to travel.
The smell in the huge building was wonderful!!!! Lots of products are created from the nutmeg
including a healing oil, syrups, jams, and of course the spice itself. Many of those were being sold at this
Station. Prior to going there we stopped
at a plantation where lots of cocoa beans were being dried on trays outside
(the trays could be pulled in under the building if it was raining). Our guide took us inside and showed us what
it looks like when it is growing and then what the inside of the big “nut”
looks like. She also showed us bay
leaves, tumerac, ginger, and cinnamon “branches” and shaved some into our hands
to smell. We had an opportunity to check
out cloves and nutmeg as well. All of
these are heavily used in the islanders food along with coconuts and bananas.
Our drive then took us into the rain forest up to an
elevation of about 2000 feet where we could see the cauldera of one of the
volcanoes which is now a lake surrounded by lush growth. There we could enjoy some of the beautiful
plants and flowers found on the island as well as many of the trees. We were lucky enough to have one of their
monkeys show himself on one of those trees so we could see it in its habitat.
From there we visited the Annandale Falls falling in a very
pretty cove with hanging ferns as well as flowering and medicinal plants. It was a refreshing place to stop simply
because of the cool feeling created by the shaded area.
We drove by a beach area where better than a dozen fishermen
were working together to pull in nets from a boat off shore and capture
hundreds of little silver fish. It was
interesting to see the process that has been used down through the ages.
This was Grenada’s Thanksgiving holiday so many people were
out just enjoying a day of leisure resting on their balconies and gathering in
groups to chat. But for many it was a
day of work since they are heavily dependent on tourism for income and our ship
brought in 3500 passengers – lots of customers.
After lunch on the ship, we went to the second rehearsal of
the Pop Choir and finished run thrus on the remaining songs. If anything, there were even more people at
this practice. Then we enjoyed some
quiet time reading, resting and playing games on the computer.
Following dinner we attended the production show “What the
World Needs Now”. It was a series of old
songs shared by the lead singers with the backing of not only the other singers
and dancers but the ships band and the Liberty string quartet. Again the background was wonderful with all
kinds of animated images constantly changing to fit the tunes.
Ken then went up to the Movies Under the Stars screen to
watch Monday night football while I worked on this blog, plugged in the battery
charger for my camera, downloaded pictures, and check the Internet.
Another day is done……
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