GRENADA EXCURSIONS

Shore Excursions

     On the other hand, there is just so much time to see and experience the places of interest of your choice.  In that case, read through all that is offered and if you can't find an excursion that fits your desires, book your own with a taxi or tour guide on-line after getting a quote. They will create your personal itinerary and get you back to your ship on time!

Cricket National Stadium, previously known as, Queen's Park, is the name of a cricket stadium complex in River Road, Grenada in the Caribbean and was a location for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Annadale Falls

     About 15 minutes from St. George's enroute to Grand Etang there is a small but impressive falls near Constatine. This is the easiest waterfall to get to, with a well tended path which is lined with local fruit trees and flowering plants. It is a favorite stop off point of interest for bus tours. The water falls from a height of 35 feet into a bathing pool which runs 15-20 feet deep in the current dry season. During wet season, the pool rises up to 25-30 feet, and the falls appear much shorter. You can swim in the pool if you choose.
     The park surrounding this waterfall is filled with all sorts of beautiful native and exotic flowers, and a herb and spice garden. The chili peppers are small and extremely potent. The papaya is used as a meat tenderizer, and the elephant ears are about two and a half feet long.

Grand Etang National Park

     Two and a half miles northeast of Constantine, after the road winds steeply up to an elevation of 1900 ft, a roadside sign welcomes visitors to Grand Etang National Park (admission US$2).The Grand Etang Rainforest and Nature Reserve is a bird sanctuary and forest reserve with a cobalt- blue lake formed from the crater of an extinct volcano, the centerpiece of the park. Excellent hiking trails range from easy 15-minute stroll to a more rigorous expedition of several hours. The trails wind past cascading waterfalls with inviting swimming holes.

     Grand Etang Crater Lake is where you may see the Mona monkey.  This common West African primate is found in tropical rainforests. The Mona monkey was introduced to the island of Grenada during the 18th century via the slave trade, and a wild population has established itself there. A speckled reddish brown color, with white under parts and an oval patch of white on each side of the tail, makes it very distinctive.

Mona Monkey

     Its face is marked by a pale band across the forehead and a thin black stripe between each eye and ear.

Dougladston Estate

      A visit to the spice plantation  will give you a great feel of the island. At the Dougladston Spice Depot you will see a presentation on many of Grenada's spices, and where fresh quality spices are available for purchase. To get there, you will drive  through the lush volcanic mountains to where multiple spice plants, cocoa and bananas plantations will be pointed out to you. 
     The Dougladston Estate is just outside Gouyave, about two thirds of the way 'up' the Island as you go up the west coast from St. George's. Just before you enter the fishing town of Gouyave, there is a bridge. And immediately before the bridge, a right turn on a very bumpy road. You will see an impressive area of callaloo on the right.  Callaloo looks like rhubarb but when cooked, tastes like spinach.  Some odd trees on the left without bark are pimento trees, and there are bananas galore, leading up to, and then down from, a little bridge.

     Soon you'll come upon a boucan which is a building with huge drying trays on rails, so that the trays can be pushed under the building if it rains and locked up at night, for security. What is on the drying trays depends on the time of year: it may be mace, cocoa, cinnamon, pimento, cloves.  But not nutmeg, which is not dried in the direct sun.

Sorting....

     Inside the building, you will be led to a table where you will be invited to 'scratch 'n sniff' the leaves of a succession of twigs and guess what the different spices are. You will then be enlightened in some detail how the various spices are harvested and processed, and what they are used for. You will hear of many new (to you) products; tonka beans, and sapote. And although cocoa is hardly a spice, it is there. Many of the spices will be in Calabash shells, excellent and practical bowls.

     Dougaldston has seen better days. Grenada's famous nutmeg industry has been a bit slower to recover (the trees take seven years to grow mature enough to bear fruit), but interested visitors can still tour spice plantations and processing stations to learn about the hardy new varieties of nutmeg trees that are being planted -- varieties that will hopefully survive the next big storm.  You will certainly be sharing the room with some bats, but Dougaldston is a major slice of this Island's history. Ask to see the steam powered cocoa processing building, with its asbestos clad boiler, its steam powered drill for maintenance of the steam technology, and the first, small-scale, attempt at a nutmeg oil distillation plant.

     If you want to purchase spices here, this is an opportunity to do so. You will find plastic bags containing cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace and bay leaves for around $US2. All fresh, and not ground.  That way, they keep longer. And this is one of the places where you can buy cocoa balls: grate them over hot water, add milk and sugar, and you have 'cocoa tea'. Or use them to give a chocolate flavor to ice cream and in baking.

River Antoine Rum Distillery

Waterwheel squeezes juice out of sugarcane for rum