the sweet and spice of grenada

As had been the case at our other stops, we had an excursion planned for first thing when we arrived in Grenada. Things got off to a slow start that morning, however. It was raining and the inclement weather was causing swells that prevented the ship from docking at the port. After an hour or two, it was determined that it would be OK to use tender boats for passengers to get off the ship. Instructions for getting off the boat and who would be able to get off first were blared over the loudspeaker. We went to a particular lounge, as instructed, and waited. It's moments like this when you start to question the intelligence of your fellow man. People weren't following instructions, and many people were approaching the (visibly and audibly annoyed) cruise staff to ask questions and try to get off the boat faster. Exasperating, to be sure.

Our first stop was a spice plantation. I'm glad it turned out to be interesting, because I was getting sick of driving around in buses and on narrow roads. I don't think Becca was really enjoying it, either.



Looking around Grenada was interesting, though. Grenada has had a difficult history over the past 50 years, including revolutions, being invaded by the US, and being devastated by multiple hurricanes. There are many places on the island where this history is still plainly evident, as buildings have not been rebuilt or restored since the hurricanes due to poverty and the fact that most people had no insurance. Anyway, back to the plantation.

We were led into a building and then give a short lecture on different spices and their uses. I found this to be both fascinating and embarrassing at the same time--fascinating because I had never seen a lot of the plants where spices come from, and embarrassing because I quickly realized that these people knew so many different uses for the plants they had at their disposal, while the typical American has no idea where his food comes from, how it's grown, or about the multitude of uses for not just the spice or fruit, but for other parts of the plant. Yup, we're spoiled.

Ever wonder where cocoa/chocolate come from? Here's your answer:





This fairly large pod is cut open, and the seeds inside are dried and then ground into powder. What's also interesting is that the original product doesn't smell anything like cocoa. Becca bought some cocoa powder and we're looking forward to trying it. It's not sweetened (obviously), but it smells really good.

The plants and objects on the various tables in the room made for nice still lifes:





If I remember correctly, our next stop was Annandale Falls. As had been the case in Dominica, the water was chocolaty brown due to all the rain. When we got to the falls, we encountered a few locals that were accepting "donations" for climbing up above the falls and then jumping 30-40 meters into the water below. It sounded entertaining to me, so we gave them $5 and one of them screamed and called out our names before jumping into the rushing water below. Scroll through the following several pictures to see the experience:

































And here are the falls:



The area around the falls was nice, and would have been a lot prettier in sunny weather.







Ever seen where bananas come from? Me neither.



Interesting that the plant dies after producing one bunch of fruit.



And here's where cocoa comes from:



Our next stop was the Grand Etang crater, but we have no idea what we would have seen because it was entirely covered in clouds. Bummer. We did buy some local food to eat for lunch, though. It was something called pelau, which included rice, peas and chicken. Of all the food we got on land in the Caribbean, this was amongst my favorite.

Our last stop was Fort Frederick, an old fort on a hill overlooking St. George's, the capital and port where we had come in. Again, the views would have been much better if the weather had been better, but it was still a worthwhile stop.

















After we finished up at the fort, we were taken back to the port. At this point we decided to walk around St. George's for a while, since the weather had cleared up a bit. This ended up being my favorite part of the day.







After wandering around the sea front for a while and making our way up to an old church, we walked down a hill and encountered the local spice market, which was really cool to see. We bought another bottle of hot sauce, but nothing else, since we had bought some stuff earlier in the day.





It was at this point that I screwed on my 135mm lens and went into surveillance mode so that I could take pictures of things/people from a greater distance. I'm really pleased with the photos I got doing this.





Check out the dreads:



It was early afternoon, so we encountered a lot of kids getting out of school. As was the case everywhere in the Caribbean we went, all the kids wore uniforms.







I also took photos of lots of other random people and stuff.

Statue on the shore:



Crazy guy working in a boat. He'd periodically stop and yell at his (presumably) friends on the shore:









This is one of my favorites, as it kind of sums up the cluelessness of tourists (in this case, some of our fellow passengers):








Home sweet home:



When we got back to the ship, we went to the top deck to get some photos of Grenada, but none of them turned out that great due to the crappy weather. We were both pretty tired, so we didn't stay up top very long.



All in all, I really enjoyed our visit to Grenada despite its weaknesses and the weather. The people seemed the friendliest and most interactive of any on the islands we visited--they wave and/or honk to each other when passing each other in cars or on the street, and they seemed a lot more willing to talk to us as we walked through the markets and such, with several people calling Becca "sweetie". I had a blast walking around the spice market and while taking my surveillance photos. We saw a lot, and at the same time, I felt like we only scratched the surface. In short, I'd go back. I'll give Grenada a solid B.

carsick in dominica

I woke up early the morning we sailed into Dominica, and was able to catch a beautiful sunrise. I don't remember ever getting photos like this, where the sky was kind of gray but it wasn't actually overcast. The camera and optics choices certainly helped, but still--very cool.









It had appeared that we might get rained on again, but by the time we boarded the bus for the day's excursion, things had cleared up quite a bit. We were taken up a mountain overlooking the city and got to enjoy a great view of the capital, Roseau.



While we were up there, we saw the most colorful caterpillar I've ever seen in person, just trying to cross the road. Always cool to see things like that when they're not in a zoo or a museum.







Afterward, we were taken further back into the mountains to Trafalgar Falls, a double waterfall in the rainforest. As we were walking to the falls, our guide pointed out a type of crab that lives in the rainforest. The picture isn't the greatest, but I thought this was pretty interesting, as I'd never heard of such a crab.



Here are the falls:







I believe it was at the entrance to the path to the falls that we picked up our first edible souvenirs of the trip, some hot sauce and some vanilla extract. I'm not big on souvenirs, but I'm always up for trying the local foods and seasonings.

We were taken to a kind of rest area for a snack, and this is what it looked like outside:



Dominica was the lushest and greenest of the islands we visited, and for my money, the most beautiful with its mountain terrain and rainforests. The terrain also made for very windy roads, and with the roads not being kept up very well, I experienced a decent amount of carsickness as we made our way around the island.

Our final stop of the day was the Emerald Pool, a blue-green pool at the bottom of a waterfall inside a rainforest. Here's a piece of what the walk to the pool looked like:



And the pool itself:



Becca and I went swimming in the pool, and it was a tad cold but felt great after 30 seconds or so. We took the underwater camera in, and it gets surprisingly decent quality shots. And, of course, the nice thing about it is that you get photos you otherwise couldn't get.





No one else in our group had come to the pool prepared to swim, so we didn't stay in the pool very long so as to not keep the others waiting.

Back at the entrance to the pool there was a snack shop, so we picked something that seemed local, a fried fish sandwich, and chowed down. It was a bit dry, but actually not too shabby. I'd add some mayo next time. We also shared some plantain chips, which are kind of like potato chips but a bit starchier. I was surprised at how much I liked them, considering the fact that I typically hate anything banana-oriented.

When we got back to Roseau and the cruise pier, we decided to wander around for a while, starting with a short, pleasant walk along the pier.



We then went into town to look around and see if we could find something to eat. Roseau's brightly colored buildings are fairly typical of what you see in the Caribbean, and they looked especially bright on that day due to the sunny weather.





For food, we eventually settled on some Jamaican patties that we found being sold out of a cart on the street. They're very much like pasties, which are kind of like the British version of a pot pie. We got curry chicken and beef and shared them. Becca preferred the former, and I the latter.



After that, we headed back to the ship to rest. I don't think we did anything special the rest of the day, but I did get a few more photos of the area.







All in all, I liked Dominica the most of any of the places we went, and it was the first of the islands we visited that I thought might be decent for a return visit. The people seemed friendly and the place was relatively clean. And, of course, it's very pretty. I'll give Dominica a solid B+.

the double rainbows of st. kitts

Right away, St. Kitts was far more visually appealing than St. Croix had been. It looked cleaner, more developed, and more colorful, particularly the buildings and homes. There were also green mountains in the middle of the island.

We had an excursion planned for the morning, so we got off the ship first thing and assembled on the pier. Unfortunately, it started raining really hard right as we started the short walk to our transportation, which was an open people-mover kind of vehicle. It had clear plastic drapes on either side, and these were pulled down to protect us from the rain. Under normal circumstances this would have been fine, but the appearance of the first double rainbow I've ever seen in my life made it unfortunate, because the plastic was too opaque to attempt taking pictures. Bummer. We ended up seeing another set of double rainbows shortly thereafter, which was pretty amazing. Two sets in less than one hour, and then to top it off, we literally drove through the end of another rainbow as we made our way to our destination. It was a morning of firsts.

Our first stop was a botanical garden, which had an interesting assortment of tropical plants.









After a short walk through the garden, we were taken to a shop where we saw a demonstration of caribel batik, which is kind of like the Caribbean equivalent of tie-dyeing. I liked the colors and the depictions of laid back island scenes, so we bought a couple pieces of batik cloth which we'll have framed at some point.

We were next taken near an old sugar mill, and then into a rainforest.







We walked in the rainforest for over an hour, occasionally stopping to look at an interesting plant, vines or whatever.

A fungus growing on a tree:


The bark of a tree:


Spikes on a certain type of palm:


Our tour guide talking about the pod of a tree that "smells bad, but the inside tastes good":


Typical rainforest:


Many of the hanging vines are so strong, people can swing on them:


When we were done in the rainforest, we were served refreshments which had been made by our tour guide's wife. Kind of weird, but they were pretty good--banana bread, raisin biscotti.

We had seen a couple of monkeys in the forest, but I was never able to get a picture of one. These caged monkeys outside the sugar mill will have to suffice:



The view from where we ate our refreshments:


When we were done there, we were taken back to town. Becca and I decided to wander around for a while. Things were pretty nice and fairly touristy by the pier, but the situation got a lot sketchier the further away from the pier we got. We wandered by some food stalls, made our way through an open air market (it was pretty dead), and then walked around a grocery store for a while to see what interesting things we could find. It smelled pretty bad inside--frozen meat and fish smell--and a lot of what was inside came from the US, so it wasn't terribly different.

The smells coming out of one of the stalls we had passed were pretty decent, so we decided to go back there and sample the food. The stall was manned by an older Rastafarian dude with long dreads. I asked what he had, and he said it was "good vegetarian food" (standard for Rastafarians, apparently). Since there were multiple pots, I asked him what he recommended, to which he sarcastically replied "some good vegetarian food". I don't mind a bit of sass with my meals, so I agreed, and we got a box of stew with beans, rice, and lentils, topped off with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. It turned out to be a lot blander than I was expecting, and also had been flavored with coconut milk, which was interesting and unexpected. It was good, and I'm glad we tried it out. Here's a photo of Becca pounding some:



We were pretty tired after that, so we went back and took a nap. Afterward, we wandered around the top of the ship so I could get some photos. The weather had cleared up quite a bit, so I got some decent photos of St. Kitts and Nevis, its sister island.













Nevis is in the distance, with its peak covered by clouds:


As was the usual on this cruise, we had dinner in the sit-down restaurant. I was trying to have a lighter dinner, so I had a cod fritter, Asian consomme and grilled wahoo fish for dinner. It was all pretty decent, if a bit more seafood than I would typically like.

In an unfortunate twist of fate, I had to join a conference call while we were at sea later that evening. I somehow got a cellular signal that was land-based, but I'm sure the call will still cost my employer a fortune. It sucked that I had to do this while on vacation, but one small benefit did some out of the call. It's this photo:



It doesn't really look like it, but it's the moon. I noticed that the moon was coming out from behind the clouds toward the end of the call, so I pulled out my camera, put on my macro lens, cranked up the ISO to 12,800, and took this photo. If you look at the bottom of the photo, you can see there's an island there. It couldn't be seen with the naked eye, but my camera caught it. I guess that's where the cellphone signal was coming from. Cool.

All in all, St. Kitts was pretty decent, and a way better place to visit than St. Croix. I'm sure we only scratched the surface, but what we saw was OK. I'll give St. Kitts a B-.