We ventured into the land of the unknown today, of course with a tour guide. Wouldnt want 8 new volunteers wandering the island with no sense of direction, that could be interesting...
We had a wonderful tour guide named Michael, who is actually our cross cultural trainer too. He is a flamboyant gentlemen who works at the ministry, and knows the history of the island like the back of his hand. We started by going to Fort Frederick, one of the biggest forts on the island, where the Grenadians fought the French and British. It was such a beautiful concrete/stone structure that has sustained many hurricanes, and war of course.
We then moved on to Fort George, in the capital of St.George. Its in the prime of the city, set atop a mountain that overlooks the gorgeous Caranage. There were still the huge canons, hidden tunnels and even a basketball court. Back in the times they built the fort, they didnt know the word reinforcement like we do in modern day building. They instead "reinforced" by making the walls around 10 feet wide around the entire fort. Its sold concrete with stone rocks and such. Now THATS reinforcement, probably why it hasnt been damaged since being built in the 1800's.
Here is where the rest of the pictures will have to be uploaded later, as my camera decided it was not necessary to take pics, and died.
After both forts we decided to head out of town to the small village of Gouyave (pronounced Guh-wah-v). Its known for being a fishing village that never sleeps, and its so true. People line the streets constantly, and there is always a party going on. Thank GOD im not in this village, i have way to addictive of a personality for the village. haha. On the way there we stopped at our tour guides sisters shop. She is an artist, and her entire shop is filled with beautiful art, and some locally made jelly, candy, candles, shirts, etc. I wanted to spend WAY to much money there, so we moved on to lunch. Most of the non vegatarian volunteers had been dying some something that even resembles American food, and we found it in the form of a fried chicken sandwich!
Next we continued up the west side of the island coast to the village of Sauters. This village is more rural, but has some amazing history. Once the military realized it had made a mistake in trying to win the war at hand back in the 1800's, they decided to jump to their deaths rather then surrender to the French. This point is called Leapers Hill, and fits its name well. You first walk through a graveyrd to reach the point where they jumped, and its literally a cliff that resembles the scene in Little Rascals where Alfalfa has to make a choice to be with the boys or girls, and he falls off the cliff in his dream, only to wet his bed. You all know exactly what scene im talking about.
This is the point in the trip when i realized just how beautiful the island is because the southern part of the island is very dry and brown, whereas the northern parts where we were just resembled a postcard. Lush greenery everywhere, beautiful mountains and stunning beaches. We trailed down a path outside Sauters to a beach called Levera. It was so peaceful, not many people there and the outlook is just beautiful. After Michael tried to save some ignorance Englishmen from drowning, and watching Amanda's shoes float off into the sea, we were satisfied with getting to see the beach, and we moved on to our trip back home.
Highlight of the trip...we got to tour the rum distillery called Two Rivers. This centuries old distillery uses real sugar cane to make their rum in a 17th century mill. The machine was HUGE and old looking, and everything was practically done by hand. They moved the cane through the mill, into fermentation and then onto bottling. It was the coolest process i have ever seen, and so awesome to get to see it done just like the old days.
On the journey back to the capital we traveled from sea level up to 1910 feet, and then decended back down into St.George. We got to stop quickly to see an area where there are African monkeys, and spotted where our next hiking trip will take place.
Side note: funny story... On the bus ride home we were all a little tired and ready to be done, but somehow we got on the topic of mongoose's. Now im not sure what i thought this animal was, but my fellow volunteers got in a halarious discussion about what it was. I assumed it was some rodent when my friend Amanda burst out, "i swore it was a bird," as our tour guide bust out in laughter and informed us it was a squirrel looking thing, right as we passed one dead on the road. hahaha.
So...we finally arrived in St.George 8 hours after starting, but feeling like we got a great history lesson. It was nice to see other parts of the island that isnt easily accesable to us poor volunteers. This island is so beautiful.
OHHHH.....i need to make a little statement not regarding Grenada:
CONGRATS WEBB CITY LADY CARDS BASKETBALL on a state championship today!!!! Great work girls, you deserved it!!!!
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