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.
