Limin limin
Trip Start
Nov 14, 2010
1
2
Trip End
Feb 06, 2011
Grenada, Grenada
Friday, January 28, 2011
So again i found myself a hungover passenger ( due to my last night on the boat and a heady intake of beers, cocktails, champagne, vodka then rum) on a high velocity fairground ride taking the locals transport to get myself to the north, past multicoloured houses, rastas leaning out of stilted wooden shacks, roadside eaterys chargrilling chicken surrounded by eager stray dogs, past lush dense foliage, through the high altitude rainforest, past immaculatly dressed schoolchildren, past a funeral with the hearse playing reggae music and everyone drinking carib beers at the impromtu bar that had been set up for it, past ruins of old buildings being reclaimed by the foliage, past smiling locals drinking in the shade,and all of this for less than a beer costs back home.
The taxi dropped me off at the bottom of the hill and pointed the way for me to go, i had come to visit the Belmont estate and so up the hill past lazy dogs and goats destined for filling a roti ( a kind of caribbean burrito) i went.
The bittersweet smell is the first sign that i was there, the Belmont estate is a big cocoa grower and maker, giant wooden trays were laying out in the afternoon sun filled with the dried cocoa pods, women were walking through the big trays "walking the cocoa" as its imagintivley called, walking through barefoot shuffling their feet to turn the cocoa beans to ensure they dry equally before they get further processed and made into cocoa powder or turned into some exquisite chocolate. The whole estate covers a vast lush area, coconut and cocoa trees as far as you can see with tropical plants in every opening, vegetables of all kinds shapes and colours, a big herb garden sending off its aromas, horses roaming through the grounds and a herd of goats whose destiny is not that of the roti but were used for their milk which they made goats cheese from, so with all these ingredients abounding, the restaurant on the high ground of the estate was sure to be a winner.
A fantastic buffet with the majority having been grown on the estate soon met the inside of my stomach, beautifuly spicy and tender curried beef, chargrilled chicken in sticky sauce, creole fish, rice and beans, extremely tasty vegetables that tasted like they had been pulled out of the ground that morning ( they actually had been when i asked them), the tastiest tomatos i have had on the island, and of course the obligratory hot sauce, all washed down with a fresh ginger beer, with that good food and the view that stretched across the tops of rainforest till your gaze met the sea i was content.
The ride back was none less dramatic than the one to get here and now i am sitting with the sea in front of me, a steel drum playing behind me and a pina colada next to me, a good way to spend the last day in Grenada, a island which is called the spice island for more reasons than just its nutmeg, so many flavours and experiences, from the waterfalls to the rainforests, from the beaches to the bars and most importantly the heart and soul of the local people who make their home your home for the brief moment in life you get to call it that.
