CARIBBEAN ADVENTURE – PART 2

After a short flight from Trinidad, we landed at Maurice Bishop (more on him later) International Airport in Grenada.  I noticed from reading bronze plaques as we stood in the Customs line that Cuban aid had helped build the airport and that Venezuela had close ties with the country as well.  Hmm!  And I thought all these Caribbean countries were carbon copies of one another.

After settling in to our seaside lodgings, the Kalinago Beach Resort on beautiful Morne Rouge Bay, we walked 20 minutes or so to a nearby mall where we took the local bus into the capital city, St. George’s, for the princely sum of $1.25 CDN each.  After walking around a bit, hunger pangs got the better of us and we took a table with a view of the inner harbour at The Nutmeg restaurant.  It was time to try “jerk”, a Jamaican delicacy I’d been told.  My first mouthful of jerk pork almost blew the top of my head off!  Jesus, Mary and Joseph!  Talk about hot!  No quitter, I finished both pork chops and was none the worse for wear; not even the next morning!

Grenada is about the same size as Barbados, barely one-sixth the land area of Prince County, Prince Edward Island, and has a population of 110,000.  It’s a sovereign country and a member of the Commonwealth with a form of federal government very similar to ours.  Known as the Spice Island, it is one of the world’s largest exporters of nutmeg and produces very fine chocolate as well.

The main island is volcanic in origin and very mountainous.  First settled by the French in 1649, Grenada was ceded to Great Britain at the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763.  It gained its independence in 1974.

In 1979, following a coup, Maurice Bishop declared himself prime minister.  He headed a communist-style government for four years until, on October 25, 1983, US President Ronald Reagan ordered an invasion of the island country to remove Bishop from power.  Reagan didn’t want another Cuba in the Caribbean.  Bishop was executed by soldiers of the Barbadian armed forces and his body was never found.  But, the country has moved on and now enjoys a very stable government.

We had plans to explore the west coast of the island on our second day, Sunday, but the whole place shuts down on the Lord’s Day.  No buses!  So we took a walking tour of St. George’s with Percival Smith, local guide who’d no doubt been expecting a quiet day.  We learned that Hurricane Ivan damaged or destroyed 85% of Grenada’s buildings in 2004.

From hilltop Fort St. George, we walked past the ruins of the Presbyterian church and the Parliament Buildings, a tree rising up out of the shell of the latter.  The country has rebuilt and evidence of the contributions of wealthier countries is everywhere: South Korea, Japan, the United States, Canada, Venezuela, and the World Bank.  The United Arab Emirates and Mexico are helping cover the cost of Grenada’s new Parliament.

We rode the local bus up the main west coast road, got off, and started the 3-kilometre walk to Concord Falls, thinking it would be a piece of cake.  It wasn’t!  the road goes straight up, the last half featuring grades of 20-25%.  We were so soaked with sweat when we reached our destination that we looked as if we’d dived into the pool at the base of the falls.  The walk back down was easier but I was pretty well cooked.  The forest greenery along the narrow road was incredible.

We also visited the most northerly town in Grenada that day, Sauteurs, so named because it’s where the island’s last remaining indigenous Caribs leaped to their deaths rather than surrender to the French in 1651 at a site behind the present-day Catholic church.  It’s a beautiful place, with wonderful views of the islands to the north, the Grenadines.  We stopped in Gouyave on our way back for a short visit to a nutmeg factory.

Next day, we took the ferry from St. George’s to Carriacou, an island off Grenada’s north coast.  Since it was just a day trip, we faced the choice of walking around the main town of Hillsborough, taking a taxi tour of the island for $100 CDN, or riding the local buses.  We chose the latter and, for less than $15, saw the whole island!

Travelling the buses with the locals was fascinating.  More than simple transportation, the system fills many other roles.  One woman called in her order from the bus terminal and we picked up her fresh fish at the market along the way; another passenger looked after a woman’s young child as she went into a store to get something; one woman handed her phone to a shopkeeper, asking him to top it up in time for her return; a spear fisherman asked the driver to drop off a nice fish he'd caught on one side of the island to his aunt’s place on the other; a driver picked up his lunch box left hanging on a post at the end of his driveway.  Way better than a sterile air-conditioned bus filled with old white people!

We wanted to learn about the cultivation and processing of chocolate, so we boarded a bus at the main station in St. George’s and headed across the island toward the town of Grenville on the east coast.  There isn’t a patch of flat ground on Grenada and the central mountains rise to almost 3,000 feet.  Bus passengers endure a stomach-churning ride around switchbacks and hairpin turns on a road barely wide enough for two vehicles to meet.  Up to the highest point and down the other side - a thrill rivaling the best amusement park at a fraction of the price!

While Grenada is a popular tourist destination, it would be an exaggeration to say that its attractions are world class.  Exceptions to the rule were the Grenada Chocolate Company and Belmont Estate, both well worth a visit.  The former is a small cooperative that processes cocoa beans into chocolate bars.  The latter is a full-fledged plantation.  We took guided tours of both and, at Belmont, sampled the most delicious chocolate confections I’ve ever tasted!  The photo below shows dried and raw cocoa beans.

On our last full day in Grenada, we took the mountain bus to Grand Etang, a National Park smack in the center of the island.  It had rained hard the night before and the trail we’d hoped to take around Crater Lake was too treacherous.  So we just hung around and watched as cruise ship passengers poured out of their fancy air-conditioned buses.  Hundreds of them!  It was all too much.  “Too many white people,” I remarked to the locals as we careened down the road back to St. George’s.  “We had to leave!”  They all laughed.  “You blendin’ in,” one woman answered.  Safely back in the capital, we took a bus up to Fort Frederick.  This highest point in the city afforded commanding views, including those of the two cruise ships, carrying 6,000 passengers.

We won’t soon forget Grenada.  Not only is it a beautiful place, it’s home to the friendliest people we’ve ever met.  I say that having visited 49 countries to date.  They greet you in the street; drivers help you find the right bus; everyone wants to know if you’re enjoying your stay; no one pesters you with things to sell.

Imagine going from downtown Charlottetown to Summerside and back on a small bus for about $20 CDN.  That’s what it would cost in Grenada.  Privately-owned nineteen-passenger vans running every 20 minutes or so, picking up and dropping off passengers along the way.  Imagine a fleet of them in and around Charlottetown, Stratford and Cornwall, back and forth on main streets at five-minute intervals with multiple pick-ups and drop-offs, all for $2-$4 a ride, depending on distance.  No government subsidies, just private initiative.  Maybe we’re not so smart in Canada after all!

Due to a mixup in our flight reservations, we spent an additional night in Grenada.  Our airline, Liat, put us up at the luxurious Radisson Resort, provided us with dinner and breakfast, plus a taxi to and from the airport.  Can’t beat that!  As we say in French: Chanceux dans notre malchance!

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is Grenada’s neighbour to the north.  It consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and a chain of 31 smaller islands and cays to the south.  It’s similar in area and population to Grenada.  SVG gained independence from Great Britain following a referendum in 1979, the last of the Windward Islands to become an independent country.

France and Great Britain fought over SVG as they did over other island chains in the Caribbean, with the British eventually prevailing in 1783.  But they faced resistance from a different foe: Black Caribs, descendants of escaped African slaves and Carib natives.  The British finally vanquished the Black Caribs, sending 5,000 of them to the island of Roatan off the coast of present-day Honduras.

Three hours late, we landed in the capital of Kingstown just around sunset and a taxi took us to our hotel, the New Montrose.  Hardly what we'd expected!  The room we were given reminded us of our one and two-star hotels in Central America.  We asked the night clerk where we could get a bite to eat and he directed us to Subway, saying there wasn’t anything better open close by.

So we walked through the darkened grimy streets, not too sure where we were going, found the Subway just as it was about to close, and ate back at our room.  Then the dogs took into the barking.  Dozens of them!  You’d have thought we were next to the SCPA!  We turned on the TV and the cable wasn’t working!  So we turned in.  At 2:00 am, it was the roosters’ turn.  It’s not true that roosters crow at the rising sun.  No, Sir!  They’re at it long before that.  As I write these words at 7:00 am, they’re still at it.

But, the intrepid traveller never gives up on a place.  We met the hotel owner, Ronald.  He served us a delicious breakfast, made arrangements for us to have dinner at the hotel, upgraded our room, gave us directions on how to get around the city, and offered to give us a tour of the island, for a price of course.

Everything shuts down in St. Vincent on Sunday.  People here are fervent churchgoers, so we joined in, attending Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral.  The choir sang beautifully; very upbeat, very Caribbean.  We then walked through downtown to find the ferry terminal.  Kingstown can only be described as a sorry-looking city for the capital of a sovereign country.

Two other attractions were on our list for the first day: Fort Charlotte and the Botanical Gardens.  The walk up to the fort took us a good half hour but the views of the city, the harbour, and the west coast were well worth it.  True to our tradition, we always look for the best vantage point and get there on foot if we can. 

Back down in the city, we walked to the Botanical Gardens, the oldest in the Western Hemisphere, established in 1765.  We found the gardens to be well worth a visit; a nice, cool and quiet place.  And throughout the day, we spoke to locals at every opportunity.  As with all the countries we’ve visited, people are very friendly.

On day 2, we boarded the ferry for the one-hour trip to Bequia (pronounced Bek’way), the country’s second-largest island, barely 18 square kilometres in area.    As we usually do, we dropped in to the tourism office in the main town of Port Elizabeth to ask for options for a one-day visit.  The young woman behind the counter told us we could take a taxi tour of the island for about $45 CDN an hour.  “Kinda steep,” I remarked.  “Isn’t there a local bus?”  She pointed at a map, rather dismissively, and let us know she was too busy.

Undaunted, we walked along the pretty main street and asked one of the locals where we could catch the local bus.  “Right next to the tourism office,” he answered.  We hopped on and rode to the other side of the island, got off at Paget Farm and strolled along the wharf there.  The ride to Paget Farm and back to Port Elizabeth cost us $4 CDN!  After walking up to Fort Hamilton for a spectacular view of the bay, we made our way back down into town, had lunch, and I went for a dip at a cute little pocket beach.  Our day on Bequia turned out to be well worth it!

On our last day in St. Vincent, we were ably guided by hotel owner Ronald Reddock.  He drove us up the west (leeward) coast as far as the road went and within sight of the island’s active volcano, 4,000-foot Mount Soufrière.  At our first stop, the location where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, we took a couple of pictures and took in the scenery.

Many breathtaking panoramas later, we stopped for lunch at the small town of Chateaubelair and ate a delicious lunch at a seaside restaurant.  Then we drove into Dark View Falls, a magnificent natural attraction; a cascade of water tumbling down from the slopes high on Soufrière surrounded by sheer rock faces on three sides and framed by lush tropical rain forest.

Although our time in St. Vincent and the Grenadines was brief, we made the best of it.  With Ronald’s help, we learned many things about the country that we found very interesting.  It’s a struggling democracy whose people seem to have accepted second-best from their government.  They deserve better.  Evidence of poor planning and substandard infrastructure is everywhere.  As I’ve said before, not all Caribbean countries are the same. 

Now, we’re off to countries five and six on our adventure, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda.