Today July 7th, 2009, we took off with Leo our tour guide and six other boaters for another adventure on the island of Granada. We were headed for the Six Sister Falls today. Along the way Leo picked up another local, Damien who was to help him with our trip. We then stopped at the market in downtown St. Georges for vegetables for our island lunch, their national dish called “Oil-Down”. It consists of vegetables and meats boiled down and reduced to a thick stew. Coconut milk is added to give it a distinctive flavor. Ours contained desert bananas, breadfruit (like a potato), okras, onions, garlic, carrots, christophene (pear shaped, either green or white and delicate in flavor and grows on a vine), tania & dasheen (root vegetables), callaloo (an elephant-ear shaped green leaf of dasheen which is like spinach) fish, chicken and many other vegetables I couldn’t keep track of. When we got there we unloaded the van with all the goodies and proceeded on our hike through the rain forest. We trekked along a precipitous trail skirting the walls of a place called the “Valley of Decision”, a lush & panoramic canyon of green. We descended into the valley, clamoring over boulders, walking through groaning stands of bamboo, toward a staircase of seven falls nestled in the bosom of an emerald cathedral. The hike took about 1 ½ hours and at the bottom we came upon the Margaret Waterfalls. Leo and Damien started getting together the fixings for a fire which on top was placed a huge kettle for our “oil down” stew. On the bottom the cut up chicken was placed and layered with vegetables, roots, hot sauce and all kinds of seasonings that they had brought from home. On the top they added salt fish, coconut water and filled it to the brim with water and put a lid on it. It was now ready to brew for a couple of hours. We all made our way down to the pool at the bottom of the falls and took a swim to cool off. Now everyone was ready to start on another hike up to the other waterfalls. We left one person behind to hold down the camp and with Leo in the lead we all preceded up a steep muddy hill with Carol being second to last ahead of Damien the other guide. Carol kept sliding back down with nothing to hold onto so she could pull herself up and decided to wait back down at the camp. It was quite a disappointment but she didn’t want to break any bones. John continued with the group and was climbing like a monkey up this steep hill. When he got to the top there were several falls and the water was running real fast and they had to slide down the river with John just about being washed away. A fellow boater grabbed him just before he was washed over the side and all the time was carrying Carol’s camera. They were passing the camera from one to the other over their heads to keep it out of the water. Going down the river it was filled with rocks and big boulders and very deep in spots and hard to stand up in places. When they got down to the place above the falls where Carol was, two people in our group jumped down the falls, 50’- 60’. The rest of the group continued down the steep mountain clinging on roots and one time John lost his footing and hung on a tree with one hand, otherwise he would have slid down really uncontrollable and would have definitely hurt himself. I think he thought he was Tarzan. When he got down to where Carol was, he was mud from head to toe and had to go swimming in the pool by the waterfall nearby. Everyone was hot and tired and the beer in our cooler tasted really good. After we ate our stew, (which John later said he didn’t like), a group of us including Carol hiked up to another fall called Honeymoon Falls with Damien the other guide. John stayed behind because he said he had enough with the last falls. Damian helped Carol along as did the other hikers. This was an easier climb for Carol because she had some trees and roots to help pull her up. When we got to the waterfall at the top we swam in the pool and what a blast we had. The water was very cool but after our sweaty climb it felt good. After we got back down to our camp we all left for the 1 ½ hour hike back to the bus and this time it was all uphill and hard going. John & I being more mature than the others, had to stop several times to rest and catch our breath. The group thought John was some sort of superman to tackle those falls at his age and they all gave him kudos. What a trip!! John says once is enough of that trip and that it will last him a lifetime.
We have been busy going here and there and not time to really do any maintenance work on the boat. John is starting to get a little cranky and says we need to stay home and work on the boat but two days later we went on another trip with some other boaters and our first stop was the Balthazar River where we went river rafting. It is a first for either of us. We had to wear life jackets and helmets and it was fun riding down the river in the tubes hitting these rocks and bouncing off others. At least this wasn’t too dangerous. After river tubing we went to the Organic Chocolate Factory. They make a high-octane bar that is 71 percent cocoa. They had us melt it slowly in our mouths for an intensely rich, creamy, chocolate flavor, unlike any other commercial brand that any of us had ever tasted. Afterwards we went to the Belmont Estate, a typical and very picturesque country farm, where the cocoa beans grow. We did a tour and watched how the cocoa was extracted from the big fruits using the sun and also got to do a people-powered dance shuffle on the beans. They also showed us how the Grenada Chocolate Factory takes these beans and uses solar-powered, handmade, and vintage machinery. Some beans are squeezed into cocoa butter and some are blended into smooth, rich cocoa mixture. These two ingredients are combined with sugar to become your perfect chocolate bar and I must say they were delicious. While there we got to taste both types of chocolate, one 68% cocoa and the other 71% cocoa. Leo our guide and driver all day negotiated mountain top hair pin turns and all day you felt you were on a roller coaster. He claims he was only going 30-35mph but it sure seemed like 60mph. We were in the very back of the bus that seated 12 and when he went around the turns we were still going the other way. Sometimes it got a little hairy but we made it back to St Georges Lagoon still all in one piece. He would make a good NASCAR driver for sure!
A few nights later a sailboat with two dogs was getting pretty close to us and John thought he would be smart and put out our motion sensor in the cockpit and this motion sensor sounds like a real dog barking when anything gets close to it. Naturally the boat got close to us during the night and it started barking and then the two dogs on the other boat started barking. This in turn started all the dogs around to start barking. Carol went up into the cockpit and pulled the plug and just sat there waiting to fend off if the boat came near enough to hit us. So much for sleep in the harbor that night for anyone and lo and behold at first light the boater with the dogs said “I guess I am a little close and will move my boat”. I thanked him and after he moved went back downstairs for a few more zzz’s. All our friends laughed their heads off when I told them that story.
Our final tour in Granada was to see the Leatherback Turtles lay eggs. Even being from Florida we had never experienced this thrill. We left at 1800 for the NE side of the island. Along the way we picked up a native lady who was a turtle volunteer who was to be our guide for the night. We were told we couldn’t use regular flashlights only the ones with the red bulbs. We could not use any flash camera’s whatsoever. When we got there we walked north along the beach until we came upon some research people who were watching a Leatherback turtle lay eggs. She was huge; approximately 7’ long and probably weighed 1 ton. She was in the process of digging her hole to lay her eggs in. We all watched from the rear so the turtle couldn’t see us, which would stop her from laying eggs and go back into the ocean and drop her eggs there. The research people counted the eggs as she was laying them and she had 86 yolk eggs and 16 non yolk eggs (which are used to fertilize the yolk eggs). As we were watching another turtle came up behind us and went a little further from us and proceeded to do the same thing. The research people keep track with stakes where all the turtles lay their eggs and also tag them. As we were leaving and walking back down the beach we saw another turtle getting ready to lay her eggs and then saw a little further away about 28 little turtles hatching and making their way down to the ocean. What a site to see that was. The little turtles were about 4” long and the guide said only 1 in 1,000 survive. The female turtles after laying eggs go back out to the ocean for about 2 weeks and then comeback in and lay more eggs. They told us they do this about 3-4 times during the season. All in all the turtles travel about 10,000 miles a year.

Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.