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St. Georges, Grenada - Part 11
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
One of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean
The only thing I knew about Grenada was that for some reason the U.S. fought a war there. In reading about the war I found that a lot of people have claimed it was simply a distraction by Reagan away from other issues. That said, when I looked out from the ship, into the bay, I was nearly convinced that it was a distraction as I really couldn’t envision there being a war in a place so pretty.
Of all of the islands that we visited, this was by far the most beautiful. It wasn’t flat like Bonaire; it wasn’t overly ritzy like Aruba. It had rolling mountain hills and vegetation everywhere.
That said, we got a tour of the island from Mandoo.
Who is Mandoo?
Mandoo is the one man on the island who knows the entire island. And when I say that, I am referring to not just the sites, sounds and places, but every single person. When I walked down the street with Mandoo, I walked with a man who might be better known than the President. He was a tall, well-built, royal looking man with a presence of knowledge and kindness, all in one. Needless to say, this made him an incredible tour guide. Fortunately, this is what he does for a living.
The first thing I noticed about St. George’s, Grenada is that it seems to be much prettier than the other islands and I know I shouldn’t mention it again, but it’s really very pretty. It’s much more natural, with nice rolling hills and foliage. You also notice that it’s extremely British as edit out the you driving on the left side of the road and for the first half an hour we instinctually leaned to our rights in hopes of subliminally influencing the driving.
Either way, we left the city. See, people visit Grenada as they do most Caribbean islands for either shopping, partying or sun bathing. They ignore the natural habitat. Mandoo doesn’t ignore such things.
We pulled up to Annadale waterfalls , one of the most beautiful waterfalls that we’ve ever seen. But it wasn’t the waterfall itself that made it so beautiful. The water essentially did its job of falling from a higher place to a lower place. It did this rather well. What made the waterfall beautiful was everything else. Imagine a standard waterfall. Not that exciting unless you’re dealing with Niagara Falls. But anyway, now imagine an environmentalist pack rat emptying their closet around the waterfall. When we stood in the middle and looked around, every crevice was filled with vegetation. Where there appears to be a rock, they simply put more vegetation on top of it.
"Go change and swim in the waterfall." Mandoo said suggestively.
I’m slightly aqua phobic but as Margherita wasn’t going in at all, it simply increased the social pressure.
Now, he insisted that it was a lovely experience. For me, it was beautiful but yucky. Yes, there are other words to use that are much more intellectual than yucky, but to be honest, yucky fits the bill.
I stepped into the pool and my foot sunk three feet down into the volcanic mud. That was yucky. Then I felt yucky things in the yucky mud and that felt yucky. Margherita insisted on not only taking pictures of me, but mocking me for my tormented face. I mean, it was really yucky.
One woman on the "shore" insisted that the mud was good for me. I offered for her to walk in the damn stuff, but she politely declined.
We left the waterfall, and I prayed that I didn’t catch any disease. Margherita bragged about how beautiful it was, and Mandoo pointed out all of the beautiful foliage.
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Grenada's Beautiful Waterfalls | |
Our next stop was the Dougaldston Spice Estate. This was one of my highlights as it satisfied Margherita’s shopping needs and was historically interesting. The Dougaldston Spice Estate showed the history of spices, which include nutmeg, cocoa, cinnamon, cloves and more nutmeg. Second only to Indonesia, Grenada is the nutmeg capital of the world. They don’t call Grenada the Spice Island for nothing.
Margherita was most amazed by the fact that she bought raw cocoa for $2 a bag.
"Do you know how much this would cost at home?"
Margherita saved us money by buying spices for everybody as souvenirs.
But what do they do with all of this nutmeg? We drove over to the Nutmeg Station Factory to find out.
The factory has more nutmeg than anyone could imagine. Okay, maybe can imagine a lot of nutmeg, well double that number. On the top floor it there is a system to de-shell the nutmeg and basically separate every part of the nutmeg. At the end they have barrels of shells, husk,the nutmeg and well, everything. From here it gets shipped around the world.
There are many tourists around the factory going in and out and buying their nutmeg supply. We had enough nutmeg to last us a decade or so. Actually the unbroken nutmeg itself doesn’t go bad for some time so really it wasn’t a bad idea at all to stock up.
Anyway, we were back in the van with Mandoo and off to the jungle. And when they say jungle, they mean jungle. You don’t have to go all the way to Brazil or Africa to see a jungle. It’s right here and only 15 minutes from the five-star resort.
Anyway, Levera National Park is located near an ancient volcanic crater. I mentioned earlier that the vegetation is everywhere, and I wasn’t kidding. Imagine a fancy wedding where they import tropical flowers. Here it’s like the florist shop just exploded. Even the ferns are wacky. I mean, they have this sensitivity plant that curls up when touched. I touched a field of them just to watch them move.
We walked along one of the nature paths and then upon returning, Mandoo was making monkey sounds. That doesn’t sound right, although it was accurate. In the jungle, about 20 yards away from the shops were a few monkeys in a tree. And every time Mandoo called, the monkeys started to come over. This was one of the highlights. Just picture it, standing in the middle of the jungle and watching the monkeys. Everywhere you look you discover a new flower that you’ve yet to notice before. The air is cool; the weather is wonderful.
I was feeling a little under the weather (I found out later I am allergic to nutmeg) and ordered some soup from room service.
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Up close and personal with Grenada's wildlife | |
Tonight for dinner, Margherita insisted that I needed protein to be strong. Her mother, "La Madre" insists that eating a steak will fix anything, so it was worth a try.
"Waiter, can I have a steak with horseradish on the side?"
Steak and Risotto. I was feeling better already.
San Jose - Part 1
San Jose - Part 2
Silversea's Silver Wind - Part 1
Day at Sea - Part 2
Panama Canal/Gatun Lake - Part 3
San Blas Island - Part 4
Cartagena, Colombia - Part 5
Day at Sea - Part 6
Aruba - Part 7
Curacao - Part 8
Bonaire - Part 9
At Sea - Part 10
St. Georges, Grenada - Part 11
Barbados - Part 12
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