February
8, 2015
The
ship docked at the pier in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, before 8 a.m.
The temperature was 25 C and the wind 5 knots, a moderate wind, and fringe of
fluffy white clouds at the horizon, otherwise sunny. There are three other
ships in port today, the Thomson Celebrity, the AIDA Luna and the Norwegian Breakaway,
which followed us into port. The runny
nose and cough are persisting. We had a quick breakfast in Oceanview Café and
then went to the terminal for today’s excursion. People could choose to take a
shuttle bus or follow the raised walkway for an 8 to 9 minute walk to the
terminal for the group tour. We walked
about 700 steps.
The
peaceful Arawaks, then, the more ferocious Caribs were the first inhabitants of
Barbados, like many other islands. When Captain John Powell arrived in 1625,
the island was uninhabited and as a result he claimed it for King James I of
England. Powell soon returned to England to put the necessary plans in place
and subsequently returned to Barbados in February of 1627 at the site which is
now known as Holetown, after the small stream by the name of "The
Hole" which provided a safe landing for ships. Barbados was claimed on
behalf of King James I of England and remained as an English territory until
Independence in 1966. The island was
given the name Los Barbados after strong similarities to the ficus trees on the
island whose aerial roots look like beards. Barbados, forms part of the Lesser
Antilles, hosts about 700 species of these native or naturalised plants, where
only 2 are native to Barbados. It is the most eastern island in the
Caribbean and part of the Westward islands group.
Our
tour started in a 36 seat bus from Bridgetown and drove through the Garrison
Historical area, established in 1789, a UNESCO designated World Heritage
Site. Points of interest that were
pointed out were the 1813 statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson (years before the
London Trafalgar Square statue was erected), the oldest Parliament Buildings in
the Western Hemisphere and The Careenage, which is still an active waterway
today . The tour continues along Bay Street and beautiful Carlisle Bay in the
Garrison Historical Area passing George Washington House, where George
Washington stayed in 1754 and the National Armory. There is a horse race track
in the centre that is still in use. We continued to the Four Square Rum Factory
and Heritage Park which is surrounded by sugar canes fields. The Four Square Factory was once a working
sugar factory in the 15th century and later a rum refinery in the 17th century.
It is a modern rum distilling factory and museum. The Cooling Tower is about one
hundred years old and was used by the sugar factory to cool the water that circulated
through the condensers of the vacuum pans. Today, this unique feature is used
to aerate the condensed steam produced by the concentration plant located just
adjacent; this process is used to reduce the pollutants that are present in the
condensed steam. The carbon dioxide created by the fermentation process is
captured, cleaned and sold to soda producing plants.
There
is Barbadian architecture and masonry used to
build the Distill House which was constructed using slave labour in 1737 and is
made entirely of coral stone. We sampled two types of white rum, one older and
smoother than the other. There was a
gift shop that had breadfruit soup.
The
next stop was Sunbury Plantation House which was once a sugar plantation, having been built
around 1660. It is two storey house with 30 inch walls, which has survived two
hurricanes and a recent fire only to be authentically restored from furniture
to dinnerware and open as a museum. We
were given rum Punch or Fruit Punch and option to sample one of three
products. We chose Christa Caribbean Rum
Crème. It is similar to Bailey’s Liqueur
but better.
En-route
to the next stop we asked about water storage for households. Homeowners store the water in a stainless
steel tank on their roofs with a solar panel to heat the water. It is gravity
fed.
Our
last stop was Medford Craft World, a woodwork studio which specializes in
handmade locally sourced Barbados mahogany wood pieces. Owner, Reggie Medford, was
there to sign any pieces purchased. He
uses the root to make interesting avant-garde sculptures and has templates for
other patterns created from trucks and braches. We were given a brief
explanation of the process of creating a sculpture. Mahogany is protected on
the island and you must get a permit to remove fallen trees and move the wood. Returning
to the ship we had walked 4,597 steps.
We were
back by 1 p.m. and went to the Ocenview Café for lunch, then walked back the
700 metres to the terminal along the walkway.
We looked around the terminal shops, but didn’t explore the town, since
it was Sunday and most restaurants and shops are closed in Barbados on Sunday.
We
read in the deck chairs in the shade on Deck 5 and watched the Norwegian Breakaway
sail away at 4, then climbed the stairs up to Deck 14 to take some photographs
of the Bridgetown harbour and surrounding area, then went back to the stateroom
for a nap. We had walked 11,481 steps for the day. Our ship was underway at 5
p.m. into a slight ripple in the sea, temperature 26, partly sunny skies with
15 knot winds. Pre-dinner dancing in the Grand Foyer had members of the
orchestra playing good dance music that was not longer than 4 minutes each. Dinner tonight is in the specialty restaurant
Tuscan Grill featuring Italian food.
There are 20 of the group of 66 with a reservation there this evening
arranged by our host on behalf of the group tour company, Carlson Wagonlit. We sat at three separate tables.
We had
a waiter just waiting on our table and explaining the menu items. It was a four course dinner consisting of
Appetizer, Soup or Salad, Pasta or Meat Entrées finishing with desserts. We chose as Appetizer Calamari, followed by Tuscan
Onion Soup or Italian Salad. The main course was 10 oz Filet mignon, 15 oz New
York Steak, 8 oz Red Snapper (fish) and some others. The vegetables and
potatoes were side orders. For dessert,
if you had room for even a spoonful was Tiramisu, sorbets and some other
choices. I had several coughing spells
during dinner, so Pat advised a remedy of hot water and honey with brandy. So right after dinner, I got one and went to
bed. Larry went to the casino.
February
7, 2015
The
ship docked at the pier in St. George’s, Grenada, about 7:30 a.m. The temperature
was 24 C and the wind 7 knots, a moderate wind, and some clouds with a 40%
chance of rain. My cough is causing a sore throat and hopefully it will be over
in a few days. We had a quick breakfast in Oceanview Café and then went to the
Theater to get our stickers for today’s excursion. Grenada is the Spice Island of
the Caribbean, part of the Windward Islands group. You can see Fort Georges from the ship. At one
time it guarded the harbour and was held by both France and Britain in the 16th
through 19th centuries. During political unrest in 1984 the
Americans were asked for help and invaded the island in October of that year.
In 2004, 90% of the island was devastated by hurricane.
Today
is Independence Day and a holiday for most workers, so not many shops other
than the ones at the terminal are open.
After
leaving the capital of St. Georges, we drove in our 20 person mini-bus to the
Dougalston Spice Estate, south of Gouyave. This historic plantation still grows
& processes spices the old-fashioned way. We saw cocoa, nutmeg, mace,
cloves, cinnamon, all spice leaves and bay leaves in their natural state and
shown the processed product. We saw lots of cacao beans laid out on huge racks
to dry in the sun. The rack could be rolled under the buildings if it rained. You
can buy 6 different spices (about 50 g of each) for about $5 US for all six
spices.
The next stop was right in the town
of Gouyave at the Nutmeg Processing Station which is one of the largest nutmeg
processing factories on the island. Farmers drop off the whole nutmeg which is
dried for 6 to 8 weeks then cracked and the nutmeg is separated from the mace
membrane, then the workers grade the nutmeg nuts (heavier 80 per bag or lighter
100 per bag) which again are dried for another 6 to 8 weeks and then packaged.
The mace is dried for a while before it is packaged. The shells become
fertilizer. This is all done by hand, not much has changed in 200 years. There
is a stencil room where to destinations are stenciled on the sacks to places
all over the world. At the end of your tour, the gift shop had packaged spices,
clothing and some locally made souvenirs.
Outside there were also vendors on the street selling individual spices,
combinations of spices, pure vanilla extract and other extracts.
We stopped at Leaper’s Hill for a
lovely view of the ocean. It was by St.
Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, which was adorned in Independence Day colours.
There was a banana tree on the property, which still had its flower
attached. The dark red pointed flower,
almost as long as an average ripe banana, hangs half a metre or more below the
forming banana bunches. I had never paid
attention to the flower.
The next stop was River Antoine Rum
Distillery in St. Patrick which is a privately owned distillery operating since
1785. Not much has changed in the oldest
functioning water-propelled distillery in the Caribbean. It was originally a sugar cane
plantation. We sampled 75% proof and 69%
proof rum on the way to lunch at the restaurant for a Creole buffet
featuring delicious local dishes which included a combination of breadfruit and
banana. Breadfruit was used as a food
source for slaves in the 17th to 19th centuries. The ship “Bounty” was transporting breadfruit
when the crew mutinied.
After lunch we drove to the Grand
Etang National Park & Forest Reserve continuing along Grenada’s narrow,
bumpy, twisting roads going up and down as the terrain dictated. Larger buses could not make the climbs or the
turns or be able to pass any vehicles.
Driving is on the left side of the road. There are many different trees
and bushes including a tall mahogany, huge gommier trees, star fruit tree,
avocado tree, cacao tree, breadnut tree and breadfruit tree as well as the
Sapdilla tree from which gum was first made. The bus stopped many times for our
guide to point out trees included the green cloves in clusters on one tree. We stopped to view Lake Etang which is a
volcanic crater and then drove to the park entrance to catch a view of the Mona
monkey that were introduced from Brazil many centuries ago.
Our final stop was the gardens and
trail to the Annadale Waterfall where local boys were jumping from a cliff for
$1 US. I took a picture of a tiny 8 or
9 cm green lizard on a sign.
We were
back by 4 p.m. and went to the ice cream kiosk, then took a short nap. The ship
was underway at 5 p.m. into seas with a gentle 1 meter swell, temperature 26
and partly sunny skies. We danced a few dances to the Blue Velvet Jazz trio
before going to dinner.
Appetizer
was Crab cakes followed by Broccoli Soup or Pear Salad. The main course, we
both chose, was Chicken Saltimbocca and had Olive Oil Cremeaux for dessert, it
was a custard.
My cold
is not going away so I went to bed early and Larry watched the magician before
bed. We only managed 8,657 steps for the day.
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