Tour of Grenada

We took a taxi into St Georges, the capital of Grenada to do some shopping and sightseeing.

Nicely done waterfront includes many placards explaining the history of Grenada

Some impressions of St Georges.

We also booked a tour of the island by taxi for the next day which was very enjoyable. Grenada is an island that has it more together than many other independent islands. It has a relatively stable democracy (since the US invasion in 1982) and seems to have a broad middle class that is educated, can afford to go out and lives in nice houses. And the local chocolate is excellent!

Wild monkeys at Grand Etang Lake

The old airport which was used for the US invasion in 1983

River Antoine Rum Distillery – the driveway

Here is where the sugar cane goes into the press

Sugar cane – this is what it looks like!

Here is where the sugar cane is pressed to extract the sugar sirup

The distillery also distills sugar cane provided by others – and they get back the gallons of distillate shown on this board

Here is the actual distillation process

Here the rum gets put into bottles – very much by hand. They have two grades: 75% alcohol for locals and 72.5% alcohol for export to the US. To get from 75 to 72.5%, just add water!

The Admiral preferred the 72.5% rum – the bottle (on the left) is just plain prettier! I asked whether it is safe to consume this rum undiluted. The answer was absolutely! Since it is made without any additives, it might knock you out but when you wake up, you’ll be fine! We didn’t give the theory a try!

At the Belmont Estate chocolate factory – here is a selection of tropical fruit

Cocoa pod pulled apart revealing the beans

Cocoa beans before and after initial fermentation

On the drying board – only women get to turn the beans with their feet on these boards where they are typically 10 cm high. These boards are on rails and can be pushed below the building if it starts to rain