Half-day tour of the island
Day 288 – La Sagesse, Grenada
My aunt booked a guided, half-day tour of the island’s West coast -the one less known since they are based on the eastern coast.
We were the only people on the tour, so it was cosy, and the guide had a clear accent, so we could follow without any trouble.
He talked a lot about the vegetation, which I enjoyed, especially about the spices we saw a little later on!
The first stop was near the high point of the island, in the rainforest. There, if we are lucky -or if a guide has a banana he cuts in pieces-, we can see mona monkeys. The monkey knows exactly how to peel a slice of banana, and can be coaxed on a tourist’s shoulder by judicious placement of the next slice.
Mona monkey and banana
From there we went to a region called the Belvedere (French influence again), where many fruits and spices are grown. There are of course cocoa trees, bananas, papayas, but the spices were what had me mesmerized.
Cocoa tree
Nutmeg, allspice, clove, and cinnamon. Nutmegs were brought from Indonesia (today’s first producer) and took very well to the island (but a hurricane tore up the trees some time ago and nothing was done to replant at the time and so they are only starting now to work on regrowing them).
Nutmegs on the branch
Nutmegs grow in yellow fruits. The fleshy part is used in jams and syrups. When ripe, the fruit opens and shows the nut in a red shell. Most growers wait for the nut to fall from the tree before picking it up (but waiting too long will dry up the oils contained it the nut and lessen the quality).
We visited later on a nutmeg processing plant (featured above), and I learned a lot about the drying and sorting and so one of the spice.
But before that we went to the Jouvay chocolate factory. According to my sources (my aunt), it’s cheaper to buy their chocolate in the supermarket than in their shop.
The visit was a bit disappointing, our tour guide was reciting by rote the visit, the factory itself was in maintenance (we saw the machine being painted), and I learned more in Peru in two rooms with pictures and exhibits than here in a real factory.
Cocoa pod – The beans are in a white layer that tastes sweet, a bit like mango: you can suck on it.
So from there we saw the nutmeg processing plant then we went to Concord Falls. You can swim, but it’s cold!
Concord Falls
Someone offered to jump from the top if we paid him, but we weren’t quite impressed enough.
And we went back for my last afternoon in Grenada (or so I thought).
