Grenadine is not Just Something You Add to a Drink

The Grenadines are a chain of islands just north of Trinidad and Tobago.  The largest island, Grenada, is divided into parishes, after the French tradition.  St. George's is where we docked early in the morning.  Darrell's tour met at 7:15 and mine at 7:30.  We are usually still sleeping at that hour, so we tried room service breakfast which arrived promptly at 6:15!

The included tour went all over the island on one of the small 20 passenger buses. 

Buses waiting for tourists while a single dead tree stands guard.

At one time Grenada was the world's largest exporter of nutmeg as well as producing other spices, giving the Island the nickname of "The Spice Island."  Unfortunately, several years ago a couple of hurricanes took out most of the larger trees and the production has never recovered.

Another victim of hurricanes

Sue chose an Eco-Hike to Bamboo Falls which was labeled as "Demanding."  That was an understatement.  The island is quite hilly, but when we drove for quite a while going up the mountain, I thought that we would not have much more to climb.  Indeed, the first part of the trail did go up steeply on a old road with loose rocks.  However, when we reached the top, it was all downhill from there.  Our guide, Kenrick, grew up on a spice farm and stopped several times to point out spice trees on the abandoned farms.  It seems that the younger generation finds farming too strenuous!  Nutmeg trees, cacao trees, cinnamon trees and other fruit trees were intermingled to prevent the spread of disease.  Other plants were used to attract insects so they left the productive trees alone.  The nutmeg fruit looks like peaches.  When they are ripe, they split open and drop to the ground.  All parts of the fruit are used.  The fleshy part can be eaten.  The red seed covering is used as a coloring in such diverse products as lipstick and sausage.  The hard shell is used to surface trails, among other things.
When the shell is removed, the remaining part is the whole nutmeg which is grated to make the nutmeg we can buy in a store.

Cocoa grows a large pods in a tree.  When they are ripe, the pods are cut open, showing white covered beans.  The white covering is allowed to ferment to reveal the actual beans which are dried, roasted and ground to make powder which is used to make chocolate.












It was a leisurely stroll downhill until we got to a stream with  large rocks and a rapid current.  A rope was strung across the stream, so it looked easy to step from rock to rock.  But, no.  The rocks were slippery, so we had to take off our shoes and go barefoot, walk in with our shoes on and get wet up to the knees, or stay behind.  which the guides would not allow.  I took off my shoes and socks and put my water shoes back on to cross the stream.  The guides helped us all make it safely.







The waterfall was nice but cold; some of the hardier (and younger) ones actually went swimming.

Let's just say that that leisurely stroll downhill was replaced by an agonizing uphill struggle.  I am sure that the temperature was at least 15 degrees hotter and the way was much steeper and the hike was interrupted by many stops to let my heart rate slow down.  Time to go to the gym!

Our ship shared the waters with others.