We are having fun, exploring, relaxing... And I am behind on the blog... So, today, I am combining two islands in one post...
First Dominica, A mountainous, wet, green island... There is little level land, so, sugar was never cultivated here... Instead, here they grew limes... They once made lime extract, and lime marmalade here. The island is the home of the last of the Carib people, on their own reservation, on the other side of the island, but the local beer is not Carib, but Kabali...
There is, of course a stone fort, but the fort is now a high end hotel rather than the typical historic site... A hotel with gun ports in the lobby.
We had booked an adventure.... canyoning, with a local guide service, Extreme Dominica. We walked off the ship early, past the guest gathering for their ship's tours, past the locals hawking local tours, past the taxis and trams... Then up the hill to the left, past the traffic circle, to the old fort, now hotel. There we found our guides, and fellow travelers... A large boisterous group all college friends, as well a a second smaller gathering, including ourselves, three couples, and a single woman... The large group had been before, and was excited to go again... Among the rest of us, introductions are made, fears and expectations are discussed.
We all pile into vans for a short ride out of town, up a valley, to the climbing center... A bright blue building, with a small climbing wall, also bright blue, made of discarded tires... (Alternately tyres, this being a onetime English possession). Freda, the dog was making her rounds, in search of attention... We sign releases... There are questions about experience, medical issues, contact lenses, glasses, and swimming skills. Then, we suit up... Wet suits, climbing harness, floatation vests, and helmets... Straps are tightened. Then, all go outside to the wall...
Two of the guests, including Tina are called to the top of the wall. The staff demonstrates how to repel, then rig ropes for the guests, then each of us in turn, get a chance to repel. All having successfully made it 10' down the tires (or tyres) we are divided into two groups, each with two guides... The larger boisterous group was headed for the intermediate course... We were headed for the beginner's route... it was raining... Weather reports and radar was consulted... High water would force a cancelation... The weather gods seemingly smiled upon us, and off our group of seven headed in the van.
We stopped along a creek... Walk across a shallow ford, then down a path, through the bushes... We reached the first repel quickly. Jeffery and Shinjie(?) quickly rigged two ropes to pre-set anchors... (The first, for us to use to repel, the second a belay, in case our newly learned skills fail us). Then each of us in turn, stepped up, and are talked through our first real repel, ending in a large pool... Then down the canyon, sometimes swimming, sometimes walking, scrambling over the rocks, to a falls... This time, we simply jumped or leaped into the deep pool. This was followed by more scampering among the rocks... More leaps into pools (in some cases there were bypass routes) and more repels... It was all spectacular.
We ended at the highest of the repels, at a spot they called the cathedral... likely only 40’, but seemingly much, much higher when you are standing at the top of the falls, looking down. Jokes about prayers and collections are offered… Below was a natural bridge, and a tree trunk wedged tightly in the canyon, making a second bridge. Pirates of the Caribbean (the movie(s) not real cutlass waving pirates) have been here before us.
Just beyond, we climbed up a side canyon, through an orchard, with grapefruit and oranges... Up to the road, and a very short walk back to the van. The area is now clogged with vans, each carrying a miniature mob of tourists… One of our group had asked about a well known waterfall. They offered us an additional short hike to one of that waterfall, Trafalgar Falls..."used when they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean" (as had the canyon we had just passed through, and many other local sites).
We hiked less than half a mile, past parked tourist transports... M.B. Unimougs, painted bright colors, aross a narrow bridge, along a heavy wooden water pipe, the pentstock for a power plant. Reaching the end, we found an area with tourist, vendors, and a river seemingly emerging from the mountain. The tourists were stripping down to swim suits and were being issued life jackets, for the swim through the pool to the falls. We, being already suited up, plunged in to the surprisingly cool water... We are either highly over prepared, or the others are frighteningly under prepared... What at first appeared to be a cave, was in fact a very narrow crevice in the rock face... We swam upstream, against a surprisingly strong current. Eventually we reached a pool, into which poured a small waterfall, above, a smaller pool, at the base of a much taller falls... I climbed the smaller fall, to reach the base of the larger... Tina stayed below...
The group then returned to our van, and the ride back to the climbing center, stopping along the way at an overlook, where Shinjie's father had a tourist stand... We of course had feat our money back at the climbing center, but we could take anything, then pay shinjie later... It was wonderfully informal. Then, back to the center, to return gear, reclaim backpacks and such, pet Freda the dog, then walk their Eco-lodge for home made cocoa tea (as in they grew the cocoa pods, fermented and dried and ground the beans), conversation, and the ritual swiping of the credit cards...
This was possibly the best excursion we have ever enjoyed while on a cruise (the other contender, being 4 wheeling across the moors in the Falklands, in search of penguins)
Eventually, it was back to the van, and back to the ship. Once aboard, we snacked, and Tina settled in with a book, while I went off to explore Rousseau... The open market, xxx street, and eventually, the Rock the Ruins bar... I had a couple of Kabralis, very cold, but in small 7 or 8 oz. bottles... (Local joke, "you know what is wrong with the local beer? The bottles are too small"...) buy cinnamon bark, jerk rub, "local" rub and vanilla beans from the spice merchant who shares the bar space, then made my way back to the ship, for snacks, a nap (Tina and I are both a bit used up after the canyoning)
We of course awakened in time for dinner... This is a cruise ship, and dinner is important... We walk around the deck, then to bed... For tomorrow is a new island, Granada, and a new adventure...
Grenada
Grenada is known as the spice island, where most important crop is nutmeg, with cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, and cocoa also grown... here we have booked a half day ship's tour, to a nutmeg processing plant, a spice station, and an island drive.
This is an island, to which the US Marines were sent, by then President Reagan to invade in 1982. The invasion was in response to a coup... Communist lead, Cuban supported... Here, it is not generally (or at least publicly) called an invasion, and is generally (or at least publicly) called a rescue.
We walk off, through the cruise port, with its cruise line sanctioned shopping opportunities, to the parking lot where we are loaded into vans for our tour. There are 13 of us, plus our driver/guide shoehorned into our van...
We head out of town, past the local bus depot, past the fish market, along the coast... An election has been called… while there are many political parties, it is really between the yellow and the greens… posters are everywhere… there are campaign workers in yellow or green tee shirts canvassing for votes… our driver notes that while fuel cost can be adjusted monthly, it is stable, he believes a result of politics…
We turn inland, to a one time cocoa plantation, now mostly a ruin... We are here to learn about the various spices grown on the island, but I am fascinated by ruins of the onetime processing facility, with large cocoa bean drying racks on rails, allowing them to be quickly moved to shelter in case of rain. Old receipts molder where left when the plant was closed... There is a land rover abandoned in a shed... A local is sharpening his machete... He is trying to scare the tourists with tales of beheadings and such...
Back aboard the van, back to the coast road, to the Nutmeg processing station... It is on the main road... In town... We are here as tourists, but this is a real working plant, with drying racks, sorting tables and bags of nutmegs. There is a great contrast, between tourists with cameras crowding to listen to their guides, and the workers, raking nutmegs on the drying racks, at the sorting tables. There is of course a shopping opportunity, but also a sign, for the workers, calling for "God's Peace, not the devil's noise" and a union notice. Many nutmeg trees were destroyed in Hurricane Ivan, in 2005… it takes 7 years for a Nutmeg tree to start producing nutmegs… many of the drying racks were empty…
Back to the van, now driving up, into the mountains, through farms, with bananas, cocoa trees, cinnamon bushes and the like, to Grand Etang National Park, home to a lake, in a volcanic caldera... We are here for a short stop, a beer... and monkeys... African monkeys, now Caribbean monkeys... They are tolerant of tourists, if, there are bananas to be had. There were bananas, so there were monkeys.
Back to the van, and down the hill to town, to the ship. We walk around a bit, exploring the open market, before returning to the ship... and lunch...
Afterward, Tina stays aboard while I go back into town to explore... The fort... (Of course there is a fort... this is the Caribbean, and there is always a fort. Here there are two, one nearby, a second high on a hill above...) Both are old school stone forts, both stormed and taken by the Marines... The lower partially in ruins, is also in use by the Grenadian Police. The fort overlooks both the pier, where our ship is docked, as well as the old harbor... I climb up to the lower fort, then down, past the ruins of a church, It too a legacy of Hurricane Ivan, down to the old port, then through the market, past the bus depot, to the fish market, past an abandoned meat market, and then eventually back to the ship.
Now, a new day, we are at sea, in the Caribbean, somewhere to the west of Dominica, headed north towards St Thomas... Today is a sea day, a lazy day, to sit by the pool, read, eat, and drink... The captain is giving a talk… there is a cooking demonstration, a wine tasting. There is a special buffet, an officers vs. the guests water volleyball game… complete with a parade about the pool deck… with music and clapping, A Baked Alaska, leading the parade would not have looked out of place.
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