Grenada

Visited: November 2017

Duration of visit: 4 days

Capital city: Saint George’s

Population: 120.000 (2017)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

• The Island of spices and fruits offers much more than white beaches.
• Seven Sister Falls and the jump over almost 10 meters high waterfall.
• Friendly locals offering help, advices and free rides.
• The connection with Great Britain is still strong and present in everyday life.

The island of spices and the most interesting small island to visit in Caribbean – ex-British colony, Grenada – was part of my 2017 trip around the Caribbean. After 2 hours ride on Troy’s boat, with locals and some cargo aboard, I arrived to the island of Carriacou, still in the morning.

A very pleasant migration officer welcomed me with a quick passport check and I was ready to explore the country. Instead of waiting for the afternoon ferry we hurried up to a small port, 15 minutes ride away, to catch the midday ferry to the capital city St. George’s.

My Airbnb apartment was not luxurious, but fully equipped with enormous fridge, filled with ingredients for good British breakfast: toast bread, milk and butter. It was located a little bit out of the center, but easily reached by mini vans that were passing by every few minutes.

St. George’s is the most beautiful capital city in the region and climbing up to the top of Fort George gave me wonderful views to harbors and bays on both sides of the hill.

The place seems to be very popular for cruise ships, as there were always at least two docked on the jetty. There is not much too see in the city as such, but the vibe, central market, spice market and steep streets with some nice colonial buildings, made it worthwhile exploring for half a day. I haven’t seen so many tourists for quite some time.

Visiting the food market, I realized they have some good fish available and having a fully equipped kitchen in my apartment, I decided to buy tuna fillets. Accompanied by sweet potato and tomato salad, tuna steaks turned out to be my best dish in Grenade. I really enjoyed it since it’s not so easy to get good and fresh fish for a decent price everywhere.

Grenada is probably the place in Windward Islands section, with the longest list of sightseeing that doesn’t include beach activities. Therefore, I decided to explore the interior on day two.

Travelling along Grand Etang Road, my first stop was Seven Sister Falls. Home to a rich diversity of plants and animals, Grand Etang National Park, offers some beautiful rainforest scenery and rewarding hikes.

Back on the main road, I decided to hitchhike to Grenville, a village on the eastern side of the island. It took only a minute to catch a ride on a pick up. Together with a local fellow, I was holding tight on the back of the truck while enjoying beautiful view on a curvy road.

Bananas, coconuts and papayas were bouncing from side to side, and I used all the power in my hands to maintain balance on the curvy road. Besides having similarity in name with the place where I used to live in the USA (Greenville) there was nothing interesting to do there. Even finding a decent lunch was a challenge.

Rum distillation used to be a huge business in Grenade, but these days, it looks more as a tourist attraction. I preferred visiting Belmont Estate – to observe cocoa production. For somebody being in the region for the first time, everything is new: spices, tropical fruits and all other local crops. Not for me, of course, but still an enjoyable place to visit … not eating though, since they charged 25.00US$ for lunch buffet.

During the educational part, I was explained and practically presented, how cocoa beans are transformed into some of the best chocolate in the world. Cocoa beans are grown, harvested, fermented, dried, aged and processed with passion and knowledge. They add some unique flavors to create a luxury brand of organic single-estate chocolate in small batches.

Grand Anse beach is the most popular beach to go to, while in the capital city. A few minutes ride on a bus took me there. Another beautiful Caribbean, white-sand beach with some facilities and a mix of locals and foreign tourists, was a good stop after exploring the island. The beach is lined with small resorts and private houses, but the access is easy and free for everyone.

The world’s first underwater sculpture park, Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park, is just a short ride from St. George’s, but the majority of visitors still take a half-day tour to visit this area. It was created by British sculptor Jason de Caires Taylor.

A collection of ecological underwater contemporary art is expressed through concrete figures, fixed into the ocean floor, mostly consisting of a range of human forms facing into the oceanic currents.

I took a mini bus and walked down to the coast with the idea to find somebody, who can offer me a boat ride to snorkel around the sculptures. I found a boatman, who was going to charge me 30.00US$, which was above my budget and even more than the cash that I actually brought with me.

It didn’t look very promising as there were not many options and all guys work for the same company, so I decided to start walking back to the main road. Soon, a young guy with a joint in his month offered me a cheap, but short ride in his own motorboat that was finally negotiated down to 10.00US$.

Since I brought my own goggles, I really didn’t care about snorkeling equipment and fins. The visibility was good and I managed to avoid cruise ships groups as it was early in the morning. Not too many fishes, but interesting sculptures reflecting local life: circle of life size figures, a man working at his desk, a ring of 26 standing children, holding hands and facing outwards, male figure riding a bicycle, 18 concrete heads fixed to a rock face in shallow water.

The whole experience of visiting Grenada was really good. It is probably the most picturesque small Caribbean island, which offered me much more than only white beaches and turquoise water.

The Island of spices has a huge industry of spices, nutmeg being the main export crop. Other important spices are cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, bay leaves and turmeric. However, nutmeg is so important that it is present even on the national flag. Besides being used as food additive, it is proved to have health benefits and improve blood circulation.

After visiting some other islands before, it was intriguing to observe the strong connection between Grenade and Great Britain. The language, traditional food, toast bread, fish and chips, English drinks, driving on the left-hand side of the road, political system and even newspapers. In the 18^th century, British colonists killed most of the Caribbean population on the island and established sugar plantations, eventually importing African slaves for work. Today, many of the cruise ships tourist are of British origin.