St Georges, Grenada - the spice island

21 Novemebr 2023

Being volcanic in origin Grenada is very hilly and completely unlike Barbados where we were yesterday. It is now becoming very hot with a temperature of 30 degrees which doesn't drop much at night. We set off from the capital St George in a small minibus up steep hills with many hairpin bends and rough roads.

As we climbed we could look down and see how even our own and the Tui which are small cruise ships dwarf the town buildings.

We were heading for the Tower Estate where collections of tropical plants such as heliconia, bromeliads, and crotons filled the gardens surrounding the big house. The house was built in 1913 for the Slinger family Although most of our time was in the gardens the house itself was full of photographs, prints, and uniforms of the family history. One of the granddaughters of the Slinger family was there to show us around. As we walked around the garden we were given leaves from the various plants to smell and very quickly our senses were overloaded with the often strong natural smells.

From the house, we took a short journey to the De La Grenade Industies a leading food processing company in Grenada, which manufactures products such as nutmeg jam, jelly, syrups and liquuor using a 200 year old recipe. Looking down through the glass into the workshop was difficult because of the condensation on the glass and the high humidity in the workshop.

We then returned to the ship and I had dinner with friends. Tomorrow we arrive in Dominica.

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