True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Today was our big tour day. Dale & I and Mike & Sara were met at the resort entrance by Kennedy Jawahir, a 3rd generation East Indian, who knows this island and (what appeared to be) most of its inhabitants, very well. His tour brochure proclaimed his “knowledge of the island’s social, political and geographical span” but neglected to mention that this was in addition to his vast knowledge of the island’s flora & fauna (and their Latin names). He also writes a column for the newspaper encouraging the locals to embrace their island’s assets.

We began our tour through St. George’s to the north of us and on the west side of the island. Kennedy pointed out a huge stadium being built in downtown St. George’s that the Chinese donated to the island. The Chinese even brought in all their own labor to build it! The only payment the Grenadians owed was not to fly the Taiwanese flay anywhere on their island. The Taiwanese donated something (I missed that part) and only wanted a vote on whaling rights in the United Nations (I think they actually made their donation before the Chinese made theirs). Kuwait built a sea wall along the south side of the island after the Americans assisted them in the Gulf War. (We noted further in the tour that the Kuwaiti’s need to build another sea wall along the north side too.) For a sleepy little island in the south Caribbean, Grenada garners a great deal of international courting.

We continued our tour to the north along the western shore stopping for views of various harbors or fruit trees along the way. Kennedy would point out cocoa trees, breadfruit trees, nutmeg trees, cinnamon trees, painted eucalyptus, and various crater lakes and waterfalls.

Then we stopped at the Dougaldston Spice Estate where the fruits and spices were displayed, discussed, smelled and of course, sold in neat little bundles.

Our next stop was the Gouyave Nutmeg Station where thousands of pounds of nutmeg nuts are brought in and the mace is separated from the nut. Then the nut is stored for aging, rinsed and sorted for oil content, then bagged moved to a different level and resorted for size, all of this is done by hand. This particular station is the last of what used to be 6 fully working sorting stations. The hurricane 2 years ago decimated 90% of the nutmeg trees and it takes 6-8 years to re-grow the trees to fruit bearing size. At that time you figure out which tree is male and which is female, the male doesn’t produce fruit.

After the nutmeg station, it was time for lunch. We stopped at a small café where several of the local dishes were prepared for us. We had fried fish, curried meat, peas and rice, plantains, salad and other vegetables I didn’t recognize. It was all wonderful.

After our nourishment, it was off to River Antoine Distillery. Now don’t misunderstand me, rum is my favorite toddy, but this rum reminded me of moonshine. Not that I would know too much about moonshine, or any of my relatives in Arkansas would know anything about moonshine, but the one and only time I ever tasted it, it left an indelible mark (or should I say evaporation) on my tongue that I will never forget. Walking into this distillery made my eyes water and brought back memories of the time everclear did pass my lips.

The cane press is still run by a waterwheel, the juices are still boiled by using wood stoves, the fermentation is still done in the open, transferred from vat to vat by hand scoop, and when it is declared rum, it is drained off into a bucket that is used to fill the bottles by hand. No aging in oak barrels for this operation; rum, straight out of the still. They had two strengths; straight (75%) (you cannot take this on a plane out of the county) and diluted with water (65%) (you can take this on a plane). Both could be sold to boaters. The one diluted with water? You guessed it, they filled it about a 1/3 of the way with straight rum and then poured water into it from another bucket. No fancy measurements, no bottled water, no fancy conveyor belts, this is rum done the old fashioned way. Don’t worry about germs, they wouldn’t have a chance in this brew; flies couldn’t even get close to the door. Dale and Mike took sips of the samples provided and decided that it was too volatile for boats as well.

Our next stop was at the solar powered chocolate factory. Finally, someone harnessed the island’s greatest resource for something other than selling umbrella drinks on the beach!

Now the history of this little enterprise had a rather inauspicious beginning. Apparently, ‘these two dudes’ (we all have heard stories about the “two dudes”) one a white dude from a well to do family was here attending the medical school; the other was a black dude whose brother was attending the same school. The black dude’s brother invites the white dude home where the two of them meet and decide to hike up into the mountains to celebrate life with a toke. Somehow, the chocolate enterprise rose from the smoke like a phoenix and took flight. The white dude’s parent’s offered the initial capital, the black dude’s family offered the property, medical school went out the window and now they have a thriving ecologically friendly business making award winning chocolate. All the power is solar, including the air conditioning, mixing machines, refrigerators, presses, lights, you name it.

We were thoroughly impressed with the set up. With the cost of the earth’s resources constantly on the rise, Dale and I have often talked about alternative energy sources and how to get the most out of our water supply. It’s the initial set up costs that are so prohibitive. Here was proof positive, it can be done with all of the creature comforts we have come to depend upon. (Yes, Virginia, you can be conservative and think ecologically!)

Our last stop was though the rain forest where we saw that the top trees forming the canopy still have not bounced back from the hurricane, though they are making a valiant effort.
Kennedy stopped to pick up a few bananas giving us a quick lesson on the many varieties available and giving us each one of the sweetest variety. We thought he was being very thoughtful but then learned that he was just starting to feed the animals along the way. A bit further, we pulled off the road near some trees overlooking the valley where he started whistling. Pretty soon we had 5 or 6 Mona monkeys scrambling for the proffered bananas. That was the highlight of a great trip.

We returned exhausted. In fact, so exhausted, we called Buddy & Melissa and asked them to join us at Bananas (a nearby restaurant) for dinner.

So if you’re ever in Grenada and want a tour of the island, call Kennedy tours! It was well worth the money.