Wayne & Carol aboard "Take Time": Grenada Island Tour December 2006

Driving up the east side of Grenada is where we are headed for the tour. We got to see all the spices that are grown on Grenada, as well as other vegetation.

The loofah grows on vines much to everyone's surprise. It is not harvested like a sponge from the bottom of the ocean. It is in the okra family, and is eaten as a cucumber when it is green. Or when it dries and is peeled, the seeds are taken out and it is a loofah pad used for kitchen or bath needs.

The green cucumber and the dried loofah

Cocoa pods growing on the limbs of the trees, some are red, and some are yellow, but they are all the same, and are all used to make chocolate

Here are the cocoa beans in different stages of drying after the fermentation. The different stages are seen by the diffrent colors of the beans. These trays of beans are processed by moving the beans around by people standing on them, dancing to music. If it rains the trays slide under the floor and the roof slides forward over the platform, this protects the beans from getting wet.

Here is a yellow pod opened up to show the cocoa beans. They have a white covering that is sweet. This is what comes off during fermentation to reveal the dark cocoa bean

The chocolate machine, all the choclate made here is organic. They only make dark chocolate 60 to 71% and higher. And it is all solar powered, to use less energy as well as being organic.

They call hot chocolate "Cocoa Tea" either name it is still good......

They hand wrap all the candy bars, a lot of work.

The Nutmeg when ready to harvest

The Nutmeg looks like a lemon tree, and when the nutmeg is ready, it splits open to reveal the red covered seed of the nutmeg. The red is the mace, and the brown nut is the nutmeg shell.

The Brazil nuts grow in this pod like a nest hanging off trees, and you get about 70 nuts in each one

The Cotton Silkwood Tree. It survived hurricane Ivan with just a few branches pulled off.

Banana's growing (see the bloom at the bottom of the bunch)

LaSagesse Nature Center, this beach is tucked away in a small cove in St David's Harbour. This beach was voted One of the 10 best beaches in the Caribbean in Travel & Leisure Dec. 2002