Our position today at 3:00 pm. Cruising in Caribbean Sea.
As I promised let me tell you about yesterday's all day tour of the island of Grenada. The buses used were small but seemed fairly new and well maintained. The ride was comfortable and air conditioning worked. I was assigned bus #7 and Vaughn was our driver. I sat in the front seat across from him so had nice view and was good for taking photos. Only down side was I was half terrified all day with the way they drive on this island. The roads are about 1 1/2 lanes wide and less than that in a lot of places. The bus drivers all drove like bats out of hell all day. However, they did have to slow down for the numerous speed bumps. The island is very hilly and mountainous so the roads had lots of curves. Vaughn was a delightful man and I could understand his English most of the time. There are lots of people walking on the roads as there are no sidewalks for them. Also it seems the numerous skinny dogs liked to lie on the roads too. I was sure we would hit someone today but didn't. School was out as we returned to the ship so lots of kids were walking along the road. I wonder how many people are killed each year walking along the roads. Occasionally you would see a man walking with a machete. Vaughn said they were "farmers" and it was legal but if they went into a town with the machete it had to be concealed.
I loved the name of the tour company Regent hired for our excursions today.
The little flags over the streets were red, orange, and yellow: the national colors.
My mini-bus driver/tour guide. Vaughn would steer with his right hand. With his left hand he would talk on mic and also shift gears.
Note the narrow streets and lack of sidewalks in St George's as we set off for Fort Frederick.
Granada is very hilly and has mountains topping out at over 3,000 feet.
We wind our way on the narrow streets up the hill to Ft Frederick. It is located on a ridge 800 feet above sea level with a superb panoramic view of the horseshoe shaped harbor where our ship is docked.
As we arrived at the fort it started raining so out came the umbrellas. Regent supplies them to all who wants them but I carried my own small one that fit nicely in my backpack.
The construction of Ft Frederick was started in 1779 by the French but was completed in 1783 by the English. It was one of a chain of 4 forts which were said to be connected via tunnels. The large underground cisterns which held water for the troops are still in use today.
We then continued our drive up the winding roads climbing higher until we reached the Grand Etang National Park. This is a rainforest at 1900 feet above sea level. It was very lush and green and located in the central part of the island.
Crater Lake exists in the crater of an extinct volcano. Our guide said no one knows how deep the lake really is but that it is VERY deep.
This is the visitor's center for the park.
These are our tour buses.
They do have monkeys on the island but we did not see any. Some islanders actually eat them.
Here comes a man walking down the road with his machete.
Sorry, but most of my photos were taken through the front window on the bus.
This is the "Great River"
Big houses like this were called "Great Houses" as they were owned by the slave masters.
During the day we passed through several small towns like this.
Our next stop was at the Belmont Estate to see how coca (cocoa) was processed.
This is a coca pod which is harvested from trees. Inside it is approximately 35 beans. The workers will remove the beans after the pod is picked and are paid by the amount they can harvest per day.
The beans are then put in vats like this for fermenting for several days. The length of fermenting determines whether the chocolate will be dark or lighter.
You can read about fermenting if you click on the photo to enlarge it.
This is the guide at the Belmont Estate explaining about how coca is processed. The Estate is one of the oldest functioning plantations on Grenada and dates back to the 1700's. He is holding the coca pod. The 35 or so beans in a pod will make just one candy bar.
After fermenting the beans are the dried outside on these large trays. Every half hour they are "walked". A bare footed lady slides her feet through the beans to stir them. These "trays" are on rollers and can be rolled inside if it rains and at night.
The dried beans are then put in burlap sacks for exporting. Chocolate making companies will then process the beans into chocolate.
These are some of the fruits growing on the island.
After our tour here we had a lovely buffet luncheon of local foods.
Back on the road now and on to our next stop. Had to include a church photo!!
We drove past several schools in each of the town. The kids all wore uniforms.
This is a sugar cane field.
Our next stop was at the River Antoine Estate, a rum distillery. This is a still operational water wheel dating back to 1785.
The harvested sugar cane is cut into about 2 foot long pieces and put on a conveyor which takes it to the press.
This is end of conveyor and a man will feed it into the press.
After having the cane juice pressed out the stalks come out and are discarded.
This is the mechanism that the water wheel runs to operate the press.
There were huge piles of cane stalks. Some were spread back on the land and some were used to fuel the fires for the boiler house.
Click on the photo above to read about the boiler house. Below is inside the boiler house.
This is where the final distilling takes place.
The machinery is all old and pretty beat up. This tractor pulls the wagon of cut cane from the fields to the distillery.
Another sugar cane field.
We are now on the east side of the island and this is the Atlantic Ocean.
Our last stop was at a spice house where the many different spices grown here were shown.
The streams we saw today did not look very clean.
This is the spice house.
Interesting way to make use of old tires. Our drive back to the ship took us along the western coast of Grenada which was the Caribbean Sea side. We drove through a couple fishing villages. We were suppose to be back to the ship by 3:30 pm as sailing time was to be 4:00. We arrived late despite the fast driving of Vaughn and the other drivers on this tour.
Last Night:
We did dine at the French restaurant, Signatures. We did not care for it so will cancel our next reservation and not make any more. Just our opinion as others enjoy it. We went to the theater for Mikah's show. We initially sat up in balcony but sound was not good up there so moved down to main theater. Mikah has a beautiful voice but the orchestra was too loud and covering her up. I mentioned it to Jamie, the cruise director, on way out after the show but he said it was Mikah's decision on sound levels.
Rebecca last night in Signatures.
My dessert in Signatures
What We Did Today:
No rush to get up on a sea day so slept until 8:00 am. Room service showed up at 8:30 and I began downloading yesterday's photos on this posting. It was extremely slow!! It took me 4 hours!! I took a break and worked out before finishing during lunch up in La Veranda. On sea days the chef prepares a special pool side buffet. Today it was Tex-Mex. It's one of our favorites and always very good.
We have had a few passing rain showers here in the southern Caribbean Sea. Above is a small rainbow for one of them. It is a humid 89F today. Very smooth sailing today as we are only doing about 10 knots speed and the swell is only 3 feet. Why are we cruising so slow? Well, originally we were scheduled to be at a Venezuelan port today but it was cancelled several months before the cruise began. This was apparently due to political issues there. Fine with us!! So now we have lots of time to kill before arriving at Bonaire tomorrow morning.
This evening planning on cocktails in the Horizon Lounge before dinner in Compass Rose. The show tonight is the comedic magician again, Fred Becker. We enjoyed his first show so will be going to it.
****Once again I recommend you click on the photos to enlarge them for more enjoyment.
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