A Tour of Grenada

Our group - SV SandStar, SV Soulstice, SV Frenchie and SV Space Between

By Kathy 

To end our summer in Grenada we took a tour of the island with Cutty. We have seen a lot of the island over the last few months but we had heard that his tour was  not to be missed. The first time we heard about him was in George Town from other cruisers who had visited Grenada and then once we got here other people talked about his tours. This is not a flashy touristy operation….it is a local guy, a van, and a cell phone. He pretty much does all of his business by word of mouth and I think he keeps pretty busy. 

We started the day at 8:30 from the marina with SV Soulstice, SV Frenchie and SV Space Between. There was 14 of us in all – 8 adults and 6 kiddos. The Soulstice and Frenchie crew were friends from our time in George Town, Bahamas so it was great to see them again. 

We are ready to go!

Our plans for the day was to see the waterfalls, play with a monkey, eat some chocolate, drink some rum, and lime at the beach. You could quickly tell as the tour started out that Cutty has a love for the flora and fauna of the island. He is a pretty soft spoken guy so he had a microphone in his van to tell us all about the fruits and edibles as we drove by them. He stopped several times on the side of the road to pick leaves to smell and fruit to eat. Cutty even stopped and picked some sugar apples for me to take home after I asked him several questions about the fruit and  told him it was one of my favorites.  He showed us beautiful tropical flowers in the rainforest and told us all about the varieties of mangos (I had no idea there were so many) and all of the varieties of avocados.  We always had to guess what he was showing us before he would tell us what it was. We even had a quiz on how to tell a goat from a sheep. I knew that Grenada had a lot to offer but I really had no idea how much until you drive around with somebody who really knows the island. 

One of many stops on the side of the road. Cutty is taking some bark from a cinnamon tree so we could smell it.

Here are some highlights from our stops: 

Fort Fredrick 

This was a French built fort that sits high above St. George. I will admit we drove by it the week before and I had no idea it was there. It gave us a stunning 360 degree view of the island.  The kids had fun in an underground barrack – lots of screaming and running in the dark. 

This was a really cool fort. I can't believe we drove by it and missed it. 

Sam working on his photography skills

We are high above St. George - Photo by Sam

Photo By Sam

Heading down into the barrack.

Oh no...Jack can't get out! 

Just a great picture of Emma!

Annandale Falls 

We were very excited to visit the Annandale Falls. We have been to several around the island but had somehow missed going to this one. You pass the entrance as you approach the Grand Etang forest and the falls are surrounded by lush vegetation and some beautiful rock formations. Some of us took a quick dip in the water and Cutty helped the jumpers jump in from a rock above the pool. 

Sam jumping - He never misses a chance to jump into the water.

The rock formation next to the falls was very cool.

Dan and Barrett (SV Soulstice) 

Emma striking a pose.

Grand Etang Forest 

Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys…..that was my wish list for this stop. We had stopped here a few times when we had our rental car but never saw the monkeys in the trees. We made a quick stop on the side of the road for a small mango. Cutty just put it in the car and told us not to eat it but he didn’t say what it was for. When we reached the entrance to the lake we started down the road driving very slowing looking in the trees. We spotted a monkey and another group walking down the road had spotted him too. We had a mango and they had bananas. The monkey wanted nothing to do with bananas!! I was shocked but he loved the mango. You will see from the pictures that we got way more than just a look with this monkey. 

This was so cool!!

I have no words.....

Dan's turn...The monkey is following the mango on top of his head.

This was SOOO cool!

Grenada Chocolate Factory 

This was our third visit to a local chocolate factory and every single one was different and the chocolate in each one tastes very different. This was the smallest chocolate factory that we visited and it is amazing that they package so many bars in this tiny building in the middle of a neighborhood. The kids are well versed in chocolate factories and quickly made it to the sample table and picked out their favorites to take with them. 

It kind of makes you want to dip your finger into it! 

Everyone's favorite part - The tasting!

Sam's Willy Wonka Moment!

Enjoying our chocolate purchases. We were so hungry when we arrived!!  

Jack found this big guy outside.

River’s Rum

I wrote a whole blog post on this distillery earlier in the summer but I will say after the second tasting I was able to actually drink the sample. Cutty gave us a tip to chase it with a drink of water. Still…..this tiny amount of rum (about an ounce) was still very tough to swallow. 

Slightly skeptical if this is going to be a good idea.

It wasn't great but I drank it this time around.

Bathway Beach – LUNCH STOP!!! 

We took our tour on a Sunday so that made this stop a great experience to see all of the locals liming at the beach. It is the furthest point we can go on the island from downtown and one of our favorites. We have been here a couple of times for turtle watching and hashing. The atmosphere is just fun and relaxing. We ate fish and chips for lunch and the kids got to swim and sword fight on the beach. 

The kids needed to burn off some energy after the bus ride.

How could this possibly go wrong here??

Or here???

Emma taking a little break and reading her Twilight book.

On the drive back we drove down the runway of the old airport, stopped the pick some carambola off a tree, and made a quick stop at small fruit stand. We arrived back at the marina at 6:30PM!!!! What a fun day!