Grenada - A real Caribbean hideaway
Feature by Veronica Blake
THE first thing that strikes you as you arrive in Grenada is the overwhelming smell of clove, mace and cinnamon, for this is the Spice island of legend, awaft with cocoa, cinamon, cloves, saffron mace and ginger.
The second is that while Grenada floats in the blue Caribbean like a small square of rumpled green baize, it also seems to be adrift somewhere about the early 1950s. Unlike it neigbour’s, Barbados and Antigua, it has not caught up with the fast pace of mass tourism, and it also has more mountainous tropical rainforests in which spice plants can thrive.
Part of the Windward Islands, Grenada is a real Caribbean hideaway. Far less develped than it’s neighbours, it retains a genuine charm reminiscent of Ireland in the 50’s, with rlling green hills, colonial homes and a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.
Grenada is referred to as the Spice Island. There are more spices here per square foot than in any other place in the world. You will often catch a scent of vanilla or cinammon lingering in the warm air.
Perhaps it’s to do with the slow pace of life or the lush tropical rainforests and abudence of spice but people look incredibly young here.
It’s hard to believe that Julia Moor, manager of the Gem Beach Resort, left Ealing 30 years ago. She looks no older than 25. Julia’s mother decided to opt out of the rat race and return home to her native Grenada in the early 70’s, where she bought a property on Morne Rouge, the island’s lovliest beach, a half-mile long crescent of silver white sand sheltered by lush green palm trees.
A wise move, as today it’s one of Grenada’s most popular hotels. The family set about refurbishing it into the comfortable, welcoming home from home for the many British visitors who return year after year escaping the chilly English winters.
The sunset views from the balcony are breathtaking, Julia is the picture of contentment and has no plans to return to the UK. “Grenada is my home, I love it here,” she says.
On the plane, I sat next to a family returning for the funeral of their 104-year-old grandmother. She was as lively and energetic as a woman of 50 and this is not unusual they told me.
“She worked right up to her 100th birthday, as do many Grenadians.”
It must be to do with the stunning nature, the lack of industrialisation, clean air, and the fertility of the soil. Nutmeg was the spice of life for Grenada until 2004 when hurricane Ivan hit the island head on, levelling buildings, tearing off roofs, and leaving 60,000 people homeless. It also destroyed the nutmeg orchards.
Grenadians could do nothing but wait for the nutmeg trees to regrow, and will not return to pre-Ivan levels until 2012. So tourism is vital to the economy.
Grenada has not been as active as Barbados in marketing, which is to its advantage. The great thing it has going for it is that the world passed it by 40 years ago. It’s remained unspoilt.
Parts of the island are unchanged since the Arawak indians settled there hundreds of years ago. It’s far more natural and lush than it’s neighbours, which diversified into tourism in the 20th Century.
In 1825, Henry Coleridge described Grenada as “perhaps the most beautiful of the Antillies”. Novelist Alec Waugh who wrote Island In The Sun claimed it was “the one small island that provides everything a pre-conceived picture of the tropics has led a visitor to expect”.
Grenada’s lush vegetation and coral life has great appeal to ecologists and geologists. A young Irish couple, both geology students, were in their element visiting the rainforests and videoing the wildlife, the mimosa plants in the lush vegetation in the mountains, and the larger-than-life turtles.
I did a little exploring with the help of Henry, who has been guiding tours through the rainforests for over 20 years, and has been awarded tour guide of the year on many occasions.
Henry knows every nook and cranny of the lush mountains and rainforests off the beaten track away form the tourist trail.
We headed for the interior of the island with it’s plunging fertile valleys and dramatic volcanic peaks. Little has changed in 200 years, when Henry Nelson Coleridge described the views as follows: “In every direction, the eye wanders over richly cultivated valleys with streams running through them, orchards of citrus fruit, houses with gardens, negro huts embowered with plantain leaves, mountains and hills romantically mixed and variegated with verdant coppices of shrubs and trees.
“The view from Government House is the Bay of Naples on one side and a pet’s Arcadia on the other.”
Every brightly painted creole house has its own mini rainforest of spice and fruit trees. “You only have to plant a stick in the ground and the next day it’s a tree,” said Henry, as we walked past mango, bannana, breadfruit and orange trees laden with fruit.
Honeymoon Falls, aptly named because of it’s beauty, but no honeymoon in terms of the three hour trek (!) is well worth it when you get there and can marvel at the crystal waterfalls crashing down the hillside. Seven Falls and Concord are also worth a visit, but be sure to wear sensible boots, not flip flops, which will send you sliding down the slippery slopes.
The Belvedere Road zizags through mountains and valleys with breathtaking views. We stopped off in a tiny village to buy fruits and tropical flowers and local farmers invited us to have a glass of delicious Sorrel Punch made freshly that morning.
After a strenuous hike, you’ll have worked up an appetite – and Henry knows the best local restaurants. We stopped in Grenville, Grenada’s second city, where Oil Down was the speciality of the day. This national dish of Grenada is a delicious stew of meat and vegetables boiled down in a pot with coconut milk, usually served with Calaloo, a spinach like green.
Fish stew, curried lambi (conch) and rotis, plantain yams and callaloo soup are also chalked up on the board listing the daily specials.
Because of Gem Beach Resort’s immense popularity it was booked by a group of English schoolchildren for a week, so I moved to Blue Horizons just down the road. Set in a tropical garden, the setting has created an aviary for many varieties of native birds and really is an Ornothological paradise. You are serenaded by birdsong from morning until night and sunset is the best time for birdwatching the different species.
Blue Horizon cottages offer the comforts of home in a tropical setting, and is a short walk to Grand Anse, one of the island’s most beautiful beaches. The hotel’s restaurant, La Belle Creole, has won rave reviews and you’re in for a treat when you dine there.
The menu features local specialities such as Pumpkin ginger soup, Lobster and seafood crepe, and lime merange pie.
Carriacouo is well worth a visit, just a little over a two-hour choppy ferry ride, or 20 minutes by mini plane. You really are transported to Paradise – 13 square miles created by centuries-old volcano activity, with wooded hills, coral reefs and powder white beaches and sparkling ocean.
Not only beautiful but very friendly, Carriacou is a yachter’s haven and diver’s paradise. I was there for the annual Perang Festival when local musicians using percussion instruments have the audience in fits of laughter at the scandalous lyrics revealing the shenanigans of local politicians and events throughout the year.
Unless, you’re familiar with the local patois you will be intrigued as to what the intriguing lyrics are revealing as the stadium erupts in laughter.
Local bands compete for cash prizes with a challenge trophy. Traditional dances such as Quadrille are also celebrated. And Father Christmas always puts in an appearance at the finale.
Careriacou has the laid back pace and natural beauty of rural Scotland or Ireland in the 50’s. And if you wonder why there are so many ginger-haired, freckle-faced locals in Windward, a delightfully laidback fishing port, it’s because they are descendants of the Scottish boatbuilders who settled there in the 19th Century.
The Scottish names and boatbuilding skills have been passed down through the generations. Many locally built boats from small fishing sloops to large trading schooners are seen in the Carriacou waters. Boat building is still carried out in the traditional way on the beaches but fewer have been built in recent years.
I stayed in Hope’s Guest House, right on Paradise Beach, which has stunning ocean views. I can recommend it, the family are welcoming and for $25 a night you will have one the best view in the Caribbean.
There was a time when the Caribbean was considered out of reach for the average traveller. We see pictures of Micheal Winner, Posh Spice, Blair and family on yet another freebie, or Simon Cowell lounging on sun beds on private beaches in over developed Barbados – and, to be fair, who would want to be in their company anyway? The national carriers who fly there offer prohibitively expensive rip off prices.
However, with airlines such as XL now offering affordable round trips for £199 there is no excuse not to experience Grenada – which remains one of the loveliest and best kept secrets in the Caribbean.
To find out more, call Henry’s Safari Tours on 473 444 5351.