Grenada Part 1 - December 14

It was hard to get up to such an early alarm, but the Emerald Princess was scheduled to dock in Grenada at 7:00 am and we needed to go onshore to meet Clement Baptiste, our guide for the day. I was the one that had done the research and booked all of the tours for this cruise and I carefully copied all of the correspondence and placed it in a folder…with plastic protector sheets and everything!

A couple of weeks before we left, I emailed all of the tour guides just to confirm our bookings and for some reason, I didn’t make a copy of my last email with Clement. He had stated that we should meet him inside the welcome center at 8:00 am…not 7:00 am as we had discussed in previous emails. That meant we left the ship an hour early…and could have slept later and had a more leisurely breakfast. :( 

When we couldn’t locate Clement at 7:00 we started asking other guides and they led us outside through the parking lot to a small building with a covered deck…and there he was hanging around with the other guides. Oops…I felt just a little silly when I realized it was my mistake. 

Clement was gracious enough and offered us chairs to wait until others from the tour arrived. Laurel and I decided to wonder back through the welcome center to get some photos and ran into a couple that had shared our tour in Dominica. They were looking for something to do and since our tour was not full, they decided to join us. 

Clement’s tour was billed as a “historical tour.” The following is his description:

Thank you for choosing C.B.Historical tours,serving you will be my pleasure.This will be our North east tour.But recently we have added a section of the North west to it,which means we travel up the west coast and then cut across the island to the North east.
On this tour we visit the nutmeg station,there you will learn the processing of the nutmegs our number one spice on the island,we then cut across the island passing through the spice plantation,where you will see how the spices grow on the trees,on to the rainforest,visiting the
waterfalls,reterning to the ship by (12:45)pm.The highlight of the tour is a comprenshive account of our island history,from our discovery up to the U.S.led invasion of the island in(1983.)

As he drove Clement would point out the sites on the island and also give us a running account of the history of Grenada. He had been an employee of one of the high ranking communist officials during the time Grenada had been under Marxist rule so was able to give a firsthand account of the U.S. invasion in 1983 that lead to their freedom.

Driving through the city of St. George…the local market area was being renovated (according to Clement) so many people had set up shop on the sidewalks, selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables.

Most of our day was just spent driving…with very few stops. It gave us a chance to see a good part of Grenada, but it started to get old after awhile...it would have been nice to stop more often and explore. By the end of the day we were all tired of spending so much time in the van. 

Many of my photos were just shot through the van window. No explanation or story to go with them…it is just what we saw driving by. Hopefully it gives you a little flavor of life in Grenada.

It was interesting to see these fishermen pulling in their nets...

One stop we did make was at a nutmeg factory…fitting because Grenada is known as the “spice island”. yes, I was excited to see this place! There is nothing better than freshly ground nutmeg over homemade rice pudding! I purchased whole nutmeg in Jamaica on our first cruise and have been a nutmeg lover ever since! 

Nutmeg grows in three layers…the outer hull, the shell, and the “nut” that is the actual spice. Here is a nutmeg tree:

What I didn’t know was that the shell is also covered with a thin red layer that is “mace”. Once the mace is removed and dried it becomes orange-yellow. Ground mace has a flavor that is a combination of cinnamon and pepper. Here is what the mace looks like before it is removed from the nutmeg:

Because we were there on a Saturday no production was taking place but we did get to tour the building. The factory seemed very primitive. Large wooden racks were used to dry the nutmeg before it is sorted.

The nutmeg is raked so that it will dry evenly.

To sort the nutmeg, it is placed in water...the good ones sink, the bad floats. In the past, this sorting process was all done by hand. One couple on our tour had been here about 20 years ago and said that women sat on the floor doing the sorting.

The factory was rather dark and dreery...but oh what a view out the window!

As we drove, Clement pointed out many different trees and plants that grow on the island.

A cocoa tree…

Bananas

Papaya

More nutmeg

A wild goat

Palm nuts

An old plantation house

And although we had nice weather all day, it was evident that we were in a rainforest by the heavy mist hanging over the hills.

Clement pulled off on the side of the road at Grand Etang National Park where some monkeys were playing. We got out of the van and watched them for a short time and got some photographs. There were a lot of other vans and people in the area so not sure if there was something to see besides the monkeys or not...we didn't stick around long enough to find out.

We passed by a Rainbow Eucalyptus tree.

To be continued...

Grenada Part 2 - December 14

The mountains in Grenada are beautiful...but I'm glad I don't have to drive them on a daily basis. One of the many hairpin turns...

Some of the views as we drove...

A zoomed in view of the Emerald Princess.

So many power lines!! Our city has buried all of our utility lines so I forget how ugly these things are. 

Our final stop of the day was at Annandale Falls. There is actually another waterfall that you pass by just before getting to Annandale Falls, but it was alongside a busy road and it didn’t appear that there was any place to pull over.

Annandale Falls must be included as a destination on every tour. With two cruise ships in port that day, the parking lot was filled with vans and there was a crowd of people coming and going. There was a small fee ($2 I think) to view the falls which Clement paid as part of our tour price. 

As we approached the walkway to get to the falls, there were multiple stands set up selling spices…all appeared to have the same items. The vendors were aggressive…yelling and trying to get people to stop at their stand. Women with fruit baskets on their heads were looking for tips in return for their photograph. 

Clement took us to one of the stands and introduced us to the girl working there and told us she would be a good person to buy from. I assured her I would be back and we continued on. There was a short walk to the falls on a paved path that passed by all sorts of tropical plants and flowers.

Local divers were at the falls and would climb to the top of the cliffs and dive into the pool below for tips. (Levi’s dive into Titou Gorge the previous day was much more spectacular!!)

Walking back from the falls the girl at the spice stand remembered me and before I even had a chance to say anything, she had called out and reminded me of my promise to stop. Besides several bags of nutmeg, I purchased eight of the spice necklaces she was selling…their scent was amazing. I was also excited to see they were selling vanilla. For the last 12 years, I have managed to buy enough vanilla on our cruises to keep me supplied for all of my baking. I had finished my last bottle right before the cruise so was looking to stock up.

The vanilla was bottled in recycled bottles with a handmade label stuck on…she said she had made it herself. Since I was buying so many things, I was given a better price…$17 total for 3 small bags of nutmeg, 3 bottles of vanilla and 8 spice necklaces.

We have learned from previous cruises that often the best shopping is done in the local grocery stores! At the end of the tour, we asked Clement to drop us off at a grocery store close to the ship. Bob was excited to find nutmeg banana ketchup. Banana ketchup was something we had purchased in St. Lucia on a previous cruise and really enjoyed...but NUTMEG banana ketchup was something new! I also bought another small bottle of vanilla. 

The currency in Grenada is the Eastern Caribbean dollar. Luckily they were willing to take our US dollars and their cash register did the conversion automatically. The change was given in the local currency.

As we were walking back to the ship, this guy started carrying on a conversation with us. At first I just thought he was being friendly, but then realized he wanted us to pay him to be a tour guide. Bob’s backpack was so loaded down with bottles of banana ketchup and vanilla all he wanted to do was get back to the ship!

The Sendall Tunnel is located right by where the ship docks. 

Had we not been so tired it would have been interesting to climb up and see this fort overlooking the city...but the hill was steep and there were so. many. steps. Really...this would have been something that should have been included on our tour I think.

As we headed back to the ship I convinced Bob we should just stop for a bit and check out the craft booths set up near the pier. Can you believe it…I bought more vanilla! I’ve given some away, but kept enough that I should be set for some time!

Here is a photo I took of some of our purchases in Grenada. (Notice the vanilla is in recycled pop bottles!) The scent of the spice necklaces was so strong that for a couple of days I could actually smell them from the hallway on the ship before we opened the door to our cabin! I am sorry to say that they have not retained the scent. I have read that you can rejuvenate the smell by dipping the necklaces in hot water, but it didn’t seem to work for me. 

With one more big bottle of vanilla, Bob’s pack was now just about ready to burst, but I insisted we look through the Esplanade Mall at the cruise ship dock. Our only purchase was a Grenada t-shirt for him so at least it didn’t burden him down too much more.

With this being our first Princess cruise I was surprised to find out that at each port there is a crew member handing out chilled washcloths to passengers as they return! How nice…and something that I had never seen on Carnival.

One last look at Grenada as we set sail for Bonaire.

Winding up our day in Grenada…

While I was getting ready for dinner, Bob grabbed my camera and ran outside to get some sunset photos. I did the next best thing…watched the ship’s cam on TV. 

And also a moon shot...

Not having made a prior reservation for dinner, we agreed to share a table…but asked to be seated with other couples. Maryna (the hostess at the Michelangelo Dining room) was just about ready to seat us with some others waiting when the head waiter came and asked us to go to the DaVinci Dining room instead. Here is a photo of Bob and Maryna taken later in the cruise.

We skipped the entertainment in the Princess Theater...cabaret singer Lovena Fox…and instead went to the game show, Princess Pyramids, in the Explorers Lounge. 

There was one couple competing who kept the whole lounge in stitches laughing. They had been married 71 years and the wife had the hardest time trying to get her husband to guess a word from her clues. She finally had to give a hint for “Bill Clinton”. The hint was x-rated so I won't print what she said...but he got it! The whole room was howling!

The night ended with the Ultimate Deck Party by the pool. Bob, Kent & Laurel had gone to several line dance classes during the week and this gave them a chance to put the lessons to use. 

Coming up next...Bonaire!