Dominica, Barbados, and Grenada

Entering the country of Dominica

Dominica

The island of Dominica looks very retro-authentic, a lot like all of the Caribbean islands probably looked years ago. 

Colorful town of Roseau

Our ship docked next to a simple platform, and we walked down a narrow pier directly into the colorful laidback city of Roseau.

We had no tour planned; instead we just wandered around the small downtown. The streets near the pier were lined with umbrella-covered tables where locals were selling their wares. We bought a small basket made by the Caribe, an indigenous Indian tribe on the island.

The vendors of Dominica

One of the faces of Dominica

Frank tries what has become his fave Caribbean beer!

We also dropped into an eatery to try the local beer, Kubuli. Excellent brew!  One of the best we’ve tasted in the Caribbean.

Beautiful Barbados!

Barbados

For a change of pace, we had reserved a tour at the Agapey Chocolate Factory in Bridgetown, Barbados. We left the ship and walked about a mile into town to the Agapey facility.

Derrick teaches us all about fine chocolate

We received an excellent tutorial on chocolate-making from the owner, Derrick. Derrick had been a chemical engineer in the U.S. before chucking it all to make fine choco in Barbados. We got samples of his chocolate wares, all dark, delicious, and fresh.

Derrick shows us his handmade winnowing machine

Afterwards, Derrick walked us through the processing: roasting, winnowing (to remove the cacao shells), and mashing (to grind out the grit).

Derrick and his mashing machine

The mashing process was especially interesting. Two wheel-shaped stones exerted a 1000 pound force on the chocolate nibs, rolling back and forth over the nibs, crushing and liquefying them as they put pressure on the chocolate.

Chocolate oozes out of one of Derrick's machines

Of course, we had to buy some of this delicious chocolate, but some of the other people on our tour bought so much, we were afraid Derrick was going to run out. We think Derrick thought so too!  These folks were serious chocoholics. Luckily, they left a couple’a bars for us!

Banks Beer of Barbados

All that chocolate-making had made us hungry, so we stopped by The Polka Dots Café for some chicken with rice and beans. Delicious! We also tried the local Barbadian beer, Banks Beer. Always good to drink some beer as we work on this blog -- gets the creative juices flowing!  Banks Beer was good, but we liked the Kubuli on Dominica the best.

Lush and colorful St. George, Grenada

Grenada

We were really looking forward to exploring the famous “Spice Island” of Grenada. Anne had read about this island years ago and always wanted to visit. This was a real highlight, and the last island of the cruise before we head back to Puerto Rico.

Our cruise ship (docked next to another one) in St. George

Our ship docked at St. George where we met our tour guide for the day – Glenroy Grey.  Glenroy was a 50-year old native Grenadian who had many wild tales to tell us about his days working for the American Embassy after the revolution of 1983 when Ronald Reagan sent our Marines into Grenada. Glenroy was still in high school at the time of the revolution and was actively involved in protesting against a communist government. He was lucky to live through it, since many Grenadians were executed by pro-communist forces.

When he spoke to his many street friends as we walked along, Frank thought he was speaking a foreign language.  At one point, Frank even asked what language he was speaking.  Glenroy responded in his quick stiletto-like voice, “I am speaking English.”  Then we could hear it.  Glenroy called it “Creole” or “patois,” but to us it sounded like a slurred, fast-spoken unintelligible stream of English words.  It was tricky, but as we grew to know him, we became more familiar with his way of speaking.

Glenroy took us all around St. George in his white Nissan van, and we experienced a town with a tight network of narrow one-way streets, lots of traffic, and steep up and down hills that reminded us a little of San Francisco. Cars were parked on each of the narrow streets, making driving even tighter and tougher. Sometimes Glenroy would try to make a turn, stop, backup, then make more tries until he succeeded. That’s how you do it on Grenada. Driving on the left added another dimension of difficulty to the driving equation. The bottom line is you really don’t want to rent a car on Grenada if you can avoid it.

Steep terrain of Grenada

Out in the jungles of Grenada, the hills are every bit as narrow and steep.  Maybe even worse because now the roads are two-way. If you meet an oncoming vehicle, you need to find a wide pull-over spot that allows both vehicles to pass. Then passing each other in slow mo is required, all the while hoping you don’t scrape each other in the process.  The turns are tight and often blind going up and down the hills, and you could meet an oncoming vehicle coming around the bend at any time. Sometimes even an unexpected tour bus. The drops off the sides of the road can be deadly, if not vehicle-disabling.  A horn warning is almost perfunctory when you enter a blind switchback. Here in Grenada, caution becomes second nature to drivers. As Glenroy said, “Driving in Grenada is all about cooperation!”

Dramatic Concord Waterfall

He drove us into the countryside to see the Concord Waterfall, an impressive cascade surrounded by dense green vegetation. Grenada is one of the lushest, most verdant places we have ever seen!  And one of the few small Caribbean islands that actually has a  few rivers for fresh water.

Beans drying in trays in the sun at the old processing plant

We stopped at an old cocoa processing plant that looked like a derelict building but was still in use. We saw cocoa beans drying in the sun, and Glenroy opened a cocoa bean pod to show us the cocoa beans surrounded by goopy white stuff.

Goopy insides of a cocoa bean pod

Nutmeg in its natural state

He also showed us nutmeg in its natural state surrounded by a yellowish pod and covered with a stringy substance called mace. The red mace is used in making cosmetics such as lipstick and nail polish. The colorful nutmeg looks like a work of pop art!

Magnificent jungle scenery and plantations in Grenada 

Glenroy was an expert on indigenous plant life, and he was always pointing out spices and fruits that we knew from shopping at our supermarkets, but had never seen growing in the wild. He drove us through a plantation in dense rainforest with all kinds of trees: nutmeg, passion fruit, golden apple, guava, clove, papaya, mango, 5-fingers, rock figs, blubber, plantains, bananas, squash, cinnamon, and more.

Nutmeg processing plant in Gouyve

He took us to a nutmeg processing co-operative in the town of Gouyve where we watched workers go thru the steps of sorting, crushing, shucking, and bagging raw nutmeg nuts by hand.

It appeared that the nutmeg operation was about the same as it was 100 years ago – backward, very labor intensive, no mechanization, and probably using mostly underpaid, unskilled workers.

Ladies removing nutmeg shells at the processing plant

Nutmeg has always been a major crop on the island, but in 2004, hurricane Ivan (known as "Ivan the Terrible" by those who lived thru it) wiped out 90% of the nutmeg plantations, and the nutmeg industry is still recovering from the devastation.

Crater Lake in Grand Etang Tropical Rain forest

On a lighter note, we stopped at the Grand Etang Tropical Rain Forest of central Grenada which has been likened to the great Amazon rain forest, on a smaller scale, of course. As we entered the park, we were serenaded by steel drums welcoming us with the reggae beat of island music. From the observation deck, we enjoyed beautiful views of Crater Lake and jagged mountain tops with a thick canopy of green.

Incredible lushness and scenery of Grenada