Country #121: One Spicy Spicy Island

I wasn't even done telling everyone how cool my visit to Dominica (aka country #120) had been, when I learned of an opportunity to visit its neighbor to the south. Faced with the chance to visit the tiny island nation of Grenada, you best believe I jumped on it like a hungry mona monkey. 

Granted, it was going to be a short stay. I would arrive Thursday evening and leave early Saturday morning, leaving only one full day to enjoy the island's many offerings. It wasn't a lot but never underestimate the power of a determined traveler with FOMO on high. 

My hope was to do an early morning dive of the dreamy looking underwater sculpture park. It is a collection of 75 works sitting at a depth of 5-8 metres. I love diving. I love art museums. This is one of those things that feel like it was made specifically for me. I tried to make reservations before my arrival only to learn that all the dive operators were fully booked. Undaunted, I was up at 8am walking up and down the dive shops of Grand Anse Beach, like a crackhead trying to get some sweet sweet Nitrox. The answer was always the same, 'we are booked today but if you come back next week, we would love to take you diving'. A week?! Oh, to have such a luxury.

The culprits to my misfortune were the three cruise ships- floating cities really- that had descended onto the island. They had taken up every tank in town. There was nothing to do but come up with a plan B. A couple of local guides offered to take me on an island tour, but seeing as I was by myself, even their lowest price was too high for my budget. 

I decided to take the bus to St George, the capital city and current home of the three invading ships. Perhaps I could join on one of the impromptu cruise people tours, as I had in Dominica. 

One of the guides that had approached me on the beach was heading that way, so together we jumped on a northbound jitney. I was carefully watching the transactions taking place between the 'money guy' and the multitude of passengers jumping on and off, trying to figure out how much this was going to cost. When it did come time to pay, the guide had taken care of my passage. He then walked alongside me, pointing out the many things to see. He seemed genuinely nice, as did everyone I had encountered so far, but surely there was some sort of hustle here. Only, as best as I could tell, there wasn't. We hung out a bit until I told him I was going to wander by myself and offered him a small tip for his time. He declined a couple of times, to the point that I worried that I might be offending him, before eventually taking it. 

Seeing as I had declined his tour, I did not want to tell him that I was looking for the central cruise ship area, where the taxi touts would be offering much cheaper tours. I was having a hard time finding such an area but did see a bunch of little tourist trains going up a hill. Time was still of the essence and these trains were going super slow. So slow in fact that I was able to keep pace on foot and eavesdrop on their tour almost the entire way to my intended destination, Fort George.

Whatever the Fort part of Fort George was, it was closed for renovations but the view from the lookout point more than justified the price of admission.

After chilling up there for a bit, I wandered back into town and quickly spotted a guy standing around with the tell-tale laminated sign. He was offering tours, I was certain of it. Perhaps my non-diving day could be salvaged. As I got closer, I heard him talking to some cruise ship people, pointing out the stops pictured on his laminated card. The couple declined his offer and he began walking away. That was when I found myself yelling, in a voice much louder than I intended, "Hey!! Tell me about your tour! Please!!" Seeing as this is not how these transactions normally go, we both kind of stood there momentarily confused. 

He explained that the tour was 2 hours, would cover 4 stops and cost $20. I was already set to say yes when he said the most magical words. "And you will probably see monkeys" Take my money and take it now!!!

I got into a van full of German cruisers and set off to stop #1, a spice farm. This is only fitting as Grenada is known as the Isle of Spice. The climate and soil are ideal for growing cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, mace and nutmeg. Everywhere you go, you find spice vendors. Now we got to see what the plants actually looked like and learn about how they are processed.

This particular spice farm had a lot of rules but they also had a lot of plants so I guess it all cancels itself out.

Full-nakedness, on the other hand, is encouraged.

Our guide picked and plucked and had us smelling all kinds of deliciousness. I may even have pocketed a sprig of lemongrass to sniff later on. 

Cacao Tree or as I prefer to call it a Pre-chocolate Tree

Grenada is second to only Indonesia in nutmeg production

After our stroll through the gardens came the best part. We would have a chance to taste many of the things we had just seen. The Germans had varying levels of English proficiency so the instructions were kept to their most basic. When we were handed cacao seeds, they came with the direction "Only suck, no bite".  This is due to the fact that cacao is bitter af before extensive processing. Cinnamon sticks came with the following guidance: "No mouth, only smell" and so it went until we got to another of the island's chief exports. It was time for the rum tasting. Why there was no disclaimer when our guide had us do shots of jet fuel remains a mystery to me. 

To atone for this, he did add fresh nutmeg to our rum punch, so all was forgiven. 

After the presentation, I was looking forward to purchasing all kinds of rum and spices but alas, there was no credit card machine on the premises and I was low on cash. This led me to a greater concern. Since I had set off in the morning with the intent of diving- a very credit card friendly endeavor- I had not bothered to go to an ATM. In my wallet, I had $20 US, enough to cover the tour and $20 Eastern Caribbean (about $7.50 US). I knew the next two stops had entrance fees. What if I didn't have enough money for the monkeys?? Was I going to have to panhandle for monkey money???

I posed this question to my guide at the next stop, Annadale Falls. He did some quick calculations and informed me I would be ok. With that cleared up, I walked down to the two waterfalls.  They were ok but an unfortunately placed tarp on the second one made it impossible to get a good pic.  

Stop #3 was the undisputed highlight, the Grand Etang National Park and Forest Reserve. This is a long way of saying it's the place where the monkeys live. Sure, the lake set in the crater of an extinct volcano was cool but my priorities were elsewhere.

Our guide asked if there were any monkeys around and was told that there was one but he was full and about to head back up into the trees. The reason he was so sated is that park guides give them small pieces of fruit to lure them onto tourists. I am always conflicted about animals as photo props, but it was clear that these were still wild monkeys with the option to avoid humans altogether if they so chose. Also, if I'm being honest, I really wanted to hold a monkey. 

The guide had me extend my arms and placed a small chunk of banana on my hands. Suddenly, I was holding the world's cutest mona monkey. I expected him to grab his treat and dart back up the tree but instead, he chose to linger. I want to think that he and I even shared some meaningful eye contact but realistically speaking, he was most likely checking out his handsome self in my mirrored sunglasses. 

 

He stayed with me a couple of minutes until the guide was able to lure him onto the next tourist. He was indeed full so the fruit was no longer appealing to him and he quickly sprung back into the trees but not before generously posing for many many photos. 

On the trail that leads to the visitor's center, we saw many more monkeys, happily playing in the trees. Despite their chill island vibe, they are not actually indigenous to Grenada. It is believed that they were brought over from Ghana by French colonists in the 18th century.

The same rain forest trail led to a pretty spectacular lookout point, highlighting just how lush and verdant the Isle of Spice actually is. 

Did I subconsciously wear a monkey shirt just to show that I was friend, not foe? Maybe. 

The final stop was a very handy one. Our group was getting dropped off at Grand Anse Beach, which was only a fifteen minute walk to my hotel. Had this not been the case, I'm not sure how I would have paid for the return bus trip. I mentioned this to our guide, the same man that had done the math and knew that I was now totally cash poor. Even with this knowledge and the fact that no tip was forthcoming, he insisted on driving me back to my hotel. I'm telling you, the Grenadians are genuinely nice people. I only regret that I misplaced his business card so I can not provide a link to his info. 

There was now nothing left to do but continue enjoying the day. Where better to do that than the Caribbean's longest infinity pool? Located at the Silversands Luxury Resort, it is even cooler than it sounds. I went with the intent of grabbing a drink, taking a couple of pics and that would be it.

But there is no way after seeing that refreshing oasis that I wasn't going in. I grabbed my mango Margarita and casually strolled over to a pool chair, dropped off my stuff and eased into the water. A staff member came over, surely to boot me out. 

Nope, instead she offered me a free popsicle. If there is such a thing as a heaven, I'm certain this is what it must be like.

One drink led to two and I would have stayed there all day but for one last item on my to-do list. 

That evening's big event, the thing that everyone on the island was talking about, was a soccer match between the US and Grenada. It was one of the biggest games ever to be played at the Kirani James Athletics Stadium and seeing a game abroad sounded like fun. 

And it actually was, even if it was soccer. The fans were super into it, there was live music in the stands, the drinks were crazy cheap (less than $2 for a Carib beer!) and thanks to an unfortunate blowout- I think- they did not add any extra minutes after the game.

I returned to the hotel tired but happy. In only one day's time, I'd managed to spice it up, meet a new monkey friend, catch a game and most importantly add country #121 to the list.