This was such a great hike, with breath taking views, magnificent flowers (heliconia), huge bamboos swinging in the wind and finally, Mona monkeys!!! (Not the one with the striped shirt...that's a canadian mammal!)

After the hike with Carole and Daniel to the Seven Sisters Fall, we regretted not to have taken a picture of our muddy feet and legs...Heiner and I had to look for another opportunity to get dirty! And we did...

We traveled, by bus again, to the Grand Etang National Park with the idea in mind to walk around the Grand Etang ...we had to ask a guide where the path is ...she gave us some general info but forgot to mention that the best maintained trail was the one for going to Mount Qua Qua, a much more rigorous one. And guess what: that's the one we took. Lucky mistake as the view were just breathtaking ..and the mud as plentiful as on our previous hike!

Next step is to determine what nuts are good or not: they are plonged in water basins and the "floaters" or bad ones are set aside! After they dried, they will be sorted by size and shipped throughout the worlds...yes, one worker of the plant is applying red paint to the jute bags to mark their final destinations! Gouyave ius where it happens!!!! Fascinating...we already have been enjoying nutmeg syrop on our pancakes and are including the spices in several of our dishes!!!!

Ainsi se termine la petite histoire de la noix de muscade: une simple petite noix qui fait l'economie d'un pays, le gagne-pain d'une famille, la prosperite d'une communaute. Les arbres les plus vieux sont ceux qui produisent le plus de noix: une tres grande proportion de ces arbres ont ete decimes par l'ouragan Ivan et cela va prendre au moins 10 ans avant que cette generation soit aussi productive...il y a bien des noix qui proviennent d'Indonesie mais on nous assure, ici, que c'est la noix de Grenade qui est la plus savoureuse! pensez y la prochaine fois que vous raperez cette petite noix dans votre mets prefere!

After a long drying period, the shells must be broken: first step is now done with a wooden mill that cracks the shells..women used to crack the shells with a small wooden hammer! What a job...now these workers "only" separate the broken shells from the nuts manually. They must process 700lbs of nuts a day to earn their 30 EC (12 Can $)...very boring and arduous work.

We had an interesting visit of the nutmeg processing plant in Gouyave: after hurricane Ivan destructed up to 80% of the nutmeg plantations on the island, this is now the only plant actually processing the nuts brought by farmers from all over Grenada. Frank was our guide; he had helped us earlier to find a neat little restaurant in town. He was very good at describing all steps of processing. First we were shown huge racks where nuts with envelope were left to dry. One such nut can be kept for 10 years...without the envelope (like the ones we buy at our stores) the nutmeg is good for up to only 3 years. Here in the pan are three kinds of mace (the envelopes of the nutmeg): depending on the degree of dryness, they will be used for cooking, food preservation or in cosmetics.

There is a small town on the west coast of Grenada called Gouyave reknown for two things: its Friday's fish fry and its Nutmeg Processing plant (seen here in the picture). The day of our visit, the town was kind of depressed because of the road blockage ...in an effort to widen this very busy road, workers had detonated explosives and caused more damages than good (it appears that the contract for this job had been given to a firm whose prices were cheaper than all others bidders!!!) : as a result, rocks began falling on the road and it became unpassable! All traffic had to go through the interior (much longer) and on the way back, we had to walk, in the mud again, in order to catch the bus to St George!!! Adventures!!!!!!!

After underwater adventures, we went on land expeditions... Taking Bus #5, we drove to the interior of the island, passing Grand Etang national park and reached the starting point of an hour long walk through the rainforest before reaching the Seven Sisters Falls (altitude 1990 feet). The driving was fun and the hiking was even more fun: we fulfilles our children's dream of playing in the mud!!! We were dirty.........good that we had sticks to help us stay upright because it could have been a very very dirty hike.

Apres une couple de jours a jouer dans l'eau, nous avons pris le bus vers les Seven Sisters Falls, a l'interieur du pays. C'etait fascinant de grimper dans les montagnes en bus - surtout avec leur style de conduite! - mais ce fut encore plus amusant de monter les sentiers tres boueux avant d'arriver aux chutes! Quand Carole et moi avons vu les chutes # 1 et 2, on a tout de suite eu envie d'y nager! Daniel et Heiner ont ete plus aventureux et ont gravi un sentier de bouette pour voir les 6 et 7....

Carole and Marleyne were looking forward to swimm in the first fresh water pool of the first falls...while Daniel and Heiner were more adventurous and decided to hike even further to the last falls...

Grenada has some interesting snorkeling spots to offer...we went back to an area already visited, namely Dragon Point and Molinieres Point ...and next day to Happy Hill bay in order to look at the Flamingo reef...we were amazed at the diversity of fishes, the clarity of water with cliffs offering beautiful views of corals and sponges ... one amazing thing was to snorkel amidst a bank of thousands silvery fishes...sorry no pictures! (If our friend Karen had been with us, we would have pictures!!!!).

Nous avons fait de la plongée en apnée dans des baies de la côte ouest de la Grenade. Nous sommes retournés a Dragon Point et à Molinieres Point qui, avec ses sculptures sous l’eau offre un spectacle un peu morbide mais intéressant..mais ce sont les poissons et les coraux et éponges de toutes sortes qui nous ont fascinés! Et, nous avons été ébahis de nager au milieu d’un banc de poissons, des milliers de poissons argentés (sardines?) qui ont envahi la baie de Happy Hill...

When friends are visiting, the weather is great! We had a great sail from Hog Island to St Georges...Carole and Daniel enjoyed the warmth and the gentle breeze! It had been a while since they sailed in the Caribbean but they felt right at home!!! We anchored at Ross Point close to St Georges harbour so we could shop for food and drinks. We all enjoyed our Gin and Tonic as sundowner!

On avait hate que nos amis arrivent ..afin de nous reposer!

Et ils arriverent...1 heure plus tot que prevu!!! Malgre l'epuisement des 24 heures de "voyagerie", ils nous ont accompagne a St George pour aller au marche du samedi!! En revenant, nous avons pris une bonne Carib en fut a la marina Whisper Cove...

Carole and Daniel arrived early on Liat's flight from Trinidad...we were late by an hour to pick them up at the Whisper Cove Marina of Woburn. They acquainted themselves with the new marina managers...and welcomed us at 8am!

Despite their fatigue, they were keen on coming with us to St George to go to the Saturday market and buy fish...When we came back, we were so thirsty..and had a draft beer on the marina's patio!

A walk up the hilly streets of St George reveals the damages inflicted by hurricanes such as Ivan, 5 years ago already. Churches such as the St. Andrew Presbyterian Kirk (referred to as Scots Kirk built in 1831) and other habitations, even the house of Parlement were just anihilated... it will take a long time to reconstruct these buildings. And what about the nutmeg plantations that were destroyed up to 80%...

Fort Georges still stands, however, and we liked its volcanic rocks surrounded by Bougainvillae bushes...Fort George played an important role in the crisis of 1983 when the leftist leader Maurice Bishop and several of his ministers were executed within its walls...Six days later, the United States military invaded the island.

November 11th already...Stores have begun to play Christmas music since last week...good thing that the "reggae" sound tones its down a bit...way to early for us! Besides, we don't think of Xmas when it's 30C and sunny...

Time passes quickly...we thought that we could do some sightseeing BEFORE our next set of friends gets here but no, maintenance work oblige...we have not done anything very touristy. We went to St Georges with the minibus from Woburn..it's a nice ride and we love walking around St Georges Carenage, walking up Young street, buy a vegetarian roti at the "D Roti Shop" and go shopping for fish and veggies.

After a nice couple of meals with fresh tuna, we had marlin last weekend. We are not raw fish lovers so we have to come up with different recipes: blackened or in a coconut milk sauce with plantains or okras...we love every version of fresh fish.

Now that we have moved to Prickly Bay, we took the bus for a tour to St Georges on Saturday, market day. We loved the activity, the smells, the noises...market days are the best.