Sailing Amélie

Thursday July 3rd 2014

So what's cooking in Grenada???

More like WHO is cooking, and the answer would be: Marie-Claude that's' who ! On Thursday Marie-Claude and Ingrid (from Rafiki) decided to join in on a Grenadian "Cooking Class". It turned out to be more of a "cooking demonstration", fuelled with plenty of rum punch and a chance to taste the finished product at the end. Our Hostesses/Cooks : Omega and Esther, had plenty of banter between them, like something from "Abbott and Costello”, and they kept us giggling while we tried to keep up with the recipe. We left with a full tummy, a light head and a recipe to try at home ! They made Turmeric Chicken and Esther shared her "Special Seasoning" recipe, which can be used as a marinade. Try it if you dare !

M-C takes a Grenadian cooking class

Omega and Esther

Esthers' Special Seasoning (Marinade)

A couple of weeks ago, while on tour with Cutty, we had a chance to see where Turmeric came from. It is the root of a plant which is dried and grated into a fine powder, to make one of my favourite spices!

The root that gives us Turmeric

Turmeric

Canada Day :

Meanwhile, a few of us Canadians got together for a pot luck pic nic on the beach on Tuesday to celebrate Canada Day together. This lead into an impromptu soccer game which was witnessed by a few of the locals and, if nothing else, left no doubt as to why Canada did not make it to the World Cup ! The nice part about playing soccer on a beach is that at any given time any player could yell out “ Water Break” and within seconds all players were found floating in the sea, swapping cruising stories, until someone reminded us to get back in the game.

Canada Day treats !

Canada day on Grande Anse Beach, Grenada

Canada Day with fellow canucks !

St George. We took a walk around the picturesque capital of St George with some friends. We visited the spice market as well as the fish and meat markets. The meat market especially had me raising my eyebrows and breathing through my mouth. We then walked up to get a better view of the bay and walked through an interesting cemetery.

In St George's harbour, we also got to see the Windjammer "Mandalay". I found out later that Mandalay is truly a historic tall ship. It is a 236-foot barkentine built in 1923. It was used by Columbia University and evidence gathered on her voyages confirmed the theory of the continental drift. It is now used for sailing tours around the Caribbean. Look up: Windjammer Sailing Adventures. They have a great reputation for legendary holidays.

Swimming with the Statues !

Another fun thing we found ot do was to snokel off Dragon Bay/Moliniere Point on the West Coast, where the Worlds' First Underwater Gallery is located. This is called the Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park. It was so much fun to swim around and try to find all the statues which were displayed here. Although we did not manage to find them ALL, it was an exciting scavenger hunt just the same ! Some of the statues looked quite eerie as we came upon them in their silent underwater home, some had acquired marine growth which gave them an even more peculiar look !

Mermaid

Underwater statues park, Grenada

Praying man

Joys of riding the bus

Taking the local bus has been a great eye opening experience for us. The overcrowded minivans with loud music blaring, are quickly filled with laughter and comradery between the driver and the local passengers,inside jokes flying way over our heads which leave us smiling, wishing we were in the know, these buses are, in my humble opinion,the very model of efficiency for public transport, buses drive by, every few minutes, they are very affordable and will stop where ever you are when you wave them down (who needs a bus stop?), and they are filled to capacity, passengers help the driver and are all on the lookout or potential passengers and give a gentle tap when they want off, and, just when you think buses have reached maximum capacity, folding seats and extra cushions are pulled out to fit “just a few more”. Canada and the rest of the “developped world” could learn a thing or two from Grenada. I am not sure if people from Canada would be ready to give up their comfort and respect of their “personal space”,but the entertainment alone would more than make up for it I am sure !

The ubiquitous buses of Grenada

River Antoine Distillery :

Meghan has asked me to tell you a little bit about the River Antoine Rum Distillery. This is the oldest running rum distillery in Grenada, since 1785 and it is still running as it was way back then, they even still use a water wheel to crush the sugar cane. It is a very intersting place to visit, but the rum is not everyone's cup of tea, they make a very strong, 70% proof rum which will temporarily stun your senses! No wonder it is not legal to fly with this stuff ! (Anyone who wishes to buy this needs to get the watered down version to be able to board their flight.)

River Antoine Rum Distillery

Sugar cane

River Antoine Distillery

Matthew playing the tambourine with the band-Fish Friday

Goat heads, St George's Market

Meg eating a "water lemon" (like passion fruit)

Tambourine Meg at Fish Friday

Drums at Fish Friday

Cuban Relic Planes left from the Grenada Invasion of 1983

Mark having a look at the Relic Cuban Planes

Fun with morning balls

Marie-Claude Turns 45

One of the many goats we encounter on our walks

The Carenage

The St George Tunnel

Meg getting braids on the beach

The Carenage

The Carenage in St Georges

Port Louis Marina

Crabs for sale

Cemetery with a view, St George

The Mandalay

View of St Georges and Port Louis

Windy day in the National Park

Hello again everyone! A lot has happened since I last wrote the blog but a lot has happened even since last week’s blog so that is what I am here to talk about today!

Island Tour

We had a great island tour around Grenada thanks to an awesome tour guide named Cutty! We started the tour by getting out in the forest and exploring all the different fruit and spices and learning what they look like. If I can remember correctly this is what each of them looked like.

Avocado

Cinnamon Nutmeg

Cocoa

After that we (ie: me) had a quick jump and swim at the Annandale waterfalls! Let’s just say it was not the warmest water I’ve been in!

The view when you look up!

My dad and Matthew wathcing the falls!

How we tried calling them!

We then drove and stopped at Grand Etang to search for the monkeys (which was what I had been most excited about the island tour). We went walking through the forest making a deep “Hmm, hmm, hmm” sound to call them while holding bananas out. We had started walking back quite convinced we wouldn’t see them that day until Cutty called us back saying he had found some! We ran at once and there were not one but two beautiful mona monkeys standing there ready to be fed! For me, it was my first time even seeing monkeys so it was absolutely the coolest sensation ever and still today I bring up: “Hey, remember when we saw the monkeys?”. Also when you felt the pouch under their

chin, you could feel all their stored food… too cool!

Here are some pictures of them at their best!

They sure have some funny faces!

The monkeys really make themselves at home!

After the monkeys were full we set off to see a couple factories that helped us understand the process of how chocolate is made!

We started at the cocoa processing factory where all the harvested fruit was dried, packed in sacks and then shipped to different places around Grenada with chocolate factories (as you see in the pictures).

Edmond our tour guide with the cocoa grinder

We then went to the chocolate factory which is where they make the cocoa into chocolate! I feel that I really do now know where chocolate comes from since I went from seeing the plant in a tree to eating the chocolate bar right where it was made! Here are some pictures in case you too are curious about what that delicious melting sweet stuff is made with!

-"Nibs" size organizer!

Cocoa butter is what they use to make white chocolate

Hot chocolate powder

Couldn't be eating the chocolate more fresh than this!

All chocolate bars are hand packed!

We also visited the nutmeg processing factory which they had 17 of in Grenada! I’m not too worried about not having any for my eggnog at Christmas (hee hee!!)! The pictures describe the experience better than words can so here is the nutmeg processing factory.

Spices made with nutmeg

What wet and dry nutmeg look like

Nutmeg as far as the eye can see!-

-Nutmeg size organizer

To finish off the trip we visited a rum factory. I am not going to explain the experience of this factory because this is the third I’ve been to and I think the adults will be much more enthusiastic to explain it than I will!

In our log book we have a section to record the new foods we have tried and it is called “Culinary Courage”. During this tour we all tried breadfruit. I don’t know if it is just me but when I heard that name I never wanted to try it because it made me think of soggy bread but it turns out that I really liked it and funny enough it tasted exactly like a potato!

Sea Turtle Watching

The night after the great island tour, we went to go turtle watching on the beach! We first took a really long and not to mention crowded (15 people in a 13 seat bus!) ride to the centre near the turtle watching beach. The instructions and information was briefly explained and then we were off to the beach hoping to return with wonderful memories (because it wasn’t a guarantee we would see anything).

In a few minutes of being at the beach the scientists released some baby hatchlings out of a sandy bucket so we watched (but never interfered) them struggle and find their way to their ocean home (we later found out that those hatchlings had hatched in the morning so the centre had put them in the bucket so no predators could hurt them)! You are probably all frantically wondering this question: “Did they all make it?!?!” so here is the answer: “Yes!”.

After those hatchlings had all finally made it (the ones who had started going the wrong way figured out the right way to go) we sat for a while and just watched the stars. It really is like a ceiling of diamonds (everything you could see was shining!) and I even saw my first 4 shooting stars! Yes, even waiting for the turtles was exciting!

After a few hours of stargazing and waiting for either more hatchlings or a mommy turtle to come, the tour guides decided that in order to see a mommy turtle we were going to have to move so we walked for about 20 minutes while during that time we saw 2 more groups of hatchlings (one which we came a centimetre close to stepping on!) and then finally we saw the great mama turtle who had come to lay her eggs!

A bit hard to see but these are the eggs!

It was really, REALLY cool seeing the whole process right there a few metres away from her (even though it took around 4 hours)! We didn’t see her come out of the water (sadly) but I am still in awe that we just even got to see her! When she started digging the hole, the scientists looked for a tag on her back fins to see if she had been there before but there was none which means that this was her first time (so she is only about 15 or 16)! She first dug the hole, then laid her eggs, camouflaged it (covered it up), after that she made a few fake camouflages to fool any predators watching and finally made her way back to the ocean! I found it quite amazing to see the huge difference between the little tiny babies who were no bigger than your hand and then seeing the adult who was the size of your dining room table and just imagining the transformation over the years! We were pretty close to her the whole time but once, they let us sit right beside her while petting her and watching the eggs coming out…SO COOL! Then she struggled a bit to move but over a couple of hours she managed to make at least two fake camouflages while panting heavily! My favourite part though was when she got herself back to the ocean!

You could tell she was so excited to feel the water again because she was moving quite fast across the beach and then finally a big wave came and she was back home! While walking back to the van, we walked by 3 other mother turtles laying eggs. In the end we got back on the boat at around 1 am but it was so worth it!!!

That is about all that has happened in the past week but here are some random pictures of all those little moments in between all the exciting things!