Grenada

My Grenada travel summary:

Visited: November 2017

Duration of visit: 4 days

Capital city: Saint George’s

Population: 120.000 (2017)

Grenada travel blog reading time: 6 minutes

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

Grenada is known as the island of spices, is one of the most fascinating small islands to visit in the Caribbean. It is famous for nutmeg, the main export and a symbol on its flag. I included this former British colony in my Caribbean Islands Trip in 2017.

I boarded Troy’s boat at Union Island in St Vincent and the Grenadines. After a two-hour journey, accompanied by locals and some cargo, I reached the island of Carriacou before midday.

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, I rushed to a small port just fifteen minutes away to catch the midday boat to the capital, St. George’s.

My Airbnb apartment wasn’t luxurious, but it was fully equipped with everything I needed. The enormous fridge was stocked with ingredients for a proper British breakfast: toast bread, milk, and butter. The apartment was a bit outside the center, but I reached it easily thanks to the frequent minivans.

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

The place seems to be very popular with cruise ships, as there were always at least two docked at the jetty.

I didn’t find many attractions or exciting things to do, but the vibe of the central market, the spice market, and the steep streets with colonial buildings made the city worth exploring for half a day. I hadn’t seen so many tourists for quite some time, and the crowds surprised me. Still, I enjoyed wandering around.

When I visited the fresh food market, I realized they had excellent fish. Since my apartment had a fully equipped kitchen, I decided to buy some tuna fillets. Accompanied by sweet potato and tomato salad, tuna steaks turned out to be my best dish in Grenada.

I really enjoyed it since it’s not so easy to get good and fresh fish for a decent price everywhere.

Of all the Windward Islands, Grenada probably has the most worthwhile places to visit and things to do that aren’t related to the beach. Therefore, I decided to explore the interior on day two.

As I travelled on Grand Etang Road, the first place I visited was Seven Sisters Falls. The Grand Etang National Park is home to many different plants and animals. It has beautiful rainforest scenery and some very 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 pickup truck. 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 winding road. Aside from sharing a name with my old U.S. hometown, Greenville had nothing interesting to do. Even finding a decent lunch was a challenge.

Rum distillation was once a big business in Grenada, but now it’s mostly a tourist attraction. I skipped it.

Instead, I traveled to the Belmont Estate to see how cocoa is produced. For a first-time visitor to the region, everything is new: spices, tropical fruits, and local crops. Not for me, of course, but still a nice place to visit — just not for eating, since lunch cost steep 25.00US$.

During the educational tour, the guide explained and demonstrated how cocoa beans are turned into some of the world’s best chocolate. 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.

My Grenada travel adventure was an amazing experience.

Grenada is probably the most picturesque small Caribbean island and gave me much more than just white beaches and turquoise water.

After visiting some other islands before, it was intriguing to observe the strong connection between Grenada and the United Kingdom. English influences include the language, traditional food, drinks, driving on the left, political system, and newspapers.

British colonists devastated the island in the 18^th century, establishing sugar plantations with African slaves. Today, the majority of tourists are British.