Grenada, West Indies Position 11:59.934N 61:45.594W
SeaTrek
Bill and Judy Stellin
Sat 26 Jan 2008 00:59
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Prickly Bay, Grenada at anchor.
Nice bay but roily, just like most we've been in.
Our last anchorage was in the lagoon which is part of the town of St. Georges,
Grenada.
Our present location is only about 5 miles away but it
seems like almost another world. In the town bay, the homes are tiny,
ramshackle and piled on top of each other. In this bay, it is like Naples
Florida. Big mansions on lots of land all fronting on the bay. Not
likely owned by the locals.
Our (new) Swedish friends Juha and Taija were
in the lagoon with us and so we socialized quite often.
 We first met in the Canaries along with other Swedish
friends. Seems like we have more Swedish friends and any other
nationality. Two days ago we rented a jeep type wagon and toured the
island. Driving is on the left like all of England and it took some
getting used to. What made it doubly difficult was the atrocious condition
of all the roads here plus crazy maniac mini bus drivers. The roads are
less than two cars wide everywhere and these bus drivers go at least 60 miles an
hour and force anyone in their way off the road. They pass going up hills,
around curves, even when the road is to narrow for two cars to be side by
side. Juha didn't want to drive so I was the one. We drove almost
the entire day over country that is mostly mountains and rain forests but
probably only covered 120 miles. Near the end of the day, my turn came up
to get forced off the road, sideswiping a fence that was exactly on the
edge of the road and scratched up the entire left side of the car. Luckily
the rental company only charged us about $100 USD for the repair. In the US it
would have been $1,000 for sure. You can bet I will never drive a car on
these islands ever again. The drivers are animals, the roads are only fit
for goats and frankly there is very little to see that is even worthwhile.
We could have taken a tour which sounded pretty good from the ad's, but I am
glad we didn't despite the accident. It would have been much worse sitting
on a hot mini bus for hours to see a waterfall about 20 feet tall.
 Pretty, but no big deal. Getting here
through the rain forest was much better.
We did see a moonshine operation making rum. Here of
course it is legal but the technique is no different than back woods hooch.
Aging.... never give it a thought. Out of the still and into bottles which
have been used and probably from the dump. Seventy two percent alcohol
which is 144 proof. One swig and you can light newspaper with your
breath.
 Crushing sugar cane to make rum. (Wonder how many toes get
into the mash as well)
 This stuff, ( the juice from the sugar cane) gets
boiled down in the still and the vapor is pure alcohol. Just one of the many
careful steps in the making of fine backyard rum.
After another hour of pure torture driving these
miserable excuses for roads and getting lost several times because they
have not quite mastered the science of accurate map making or signs, we happened
(literally) upon an estate that grows and processes cocoa beans for
export.
For once, we had a really good guy giving us the tour and
explaining local fruits. Not much of a connection, but worthwhile.
All fruits here are green. It doesn't make any difference what the variety
is. It is green. So, having someone tell you the difference between
an orange, lemon, grapefruit, papaya, mango, breadfruit, lime (two different
kinds, both green), avocado, soursop, passion fruit, guava and tomato is really
important. They are all sort of round and have skin, but only limes taste
good in rum punch.
 This is the ripe cocoa pod (it was green for a long time
first) with slimy white seeds which after drying are processed into
chocolate.
 In order to save money on the entrance fee, (so I could
pay for my share of the car damage) I agreed to work mixing the drying cocoa
beans.
Someone has to do this every twenty minutes during
sunlight hours. You literally walk shuffling your feet which turns the
beans. You must shuffle your feet cause if you step on these beans it
hurts like............ It is kind of like feet plowing. Notice the
concentration. After about twenty minutes I finally mastered the
job. Since it rains here about every 5 hours, you might wonder how these
beans ever get dry. These are big trays which slide under the roof of
the shed and then are pulled out when the sun returns. It must
be backbreaking work because they are very heavy and on old small rusty
iron casters. I was promised that job after 6 months doing
this.
Finally on the lighter side, a bit of road side
humor. I sorely needed a laugh after almost eight hours of
driving.
  Don't ask me what it's all about. Probably some
voodoo ting mon.
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