Granada looked very green and attractive after all the desert landscapes and cacti we had been seeing just recently. It is also very hilly (mountainous) with lots of switchback roads.
The first stop on the tour was Fort Frederick where we had tremendous views.
Our second stop was at Grand Etang where there is a crater lake where there were extinct volcanoes. We walked down the path towards the rainforest where we had hoped to see monkeys. We only had 20 minutes, so not much time. Our next stop was the Antoine Rum Distillery, but we were disappointed as it was not working. We then went to the Belmont Estate for lunch. After lunch we went to Dongalston Spice Estate where they had huge tables on runners full of cocoa beans being dried. They could push them inside if necessary so that would not get rained on. We saw various spices which are also dried by the same method. We saw the opened chocolate husks with the white cocoa beans inside before they are fermented. We saw them again being fermented with a layer of banana leaves on top of the trays. We also saw mace, nutmegs, bay, cinnamon sticks (which are just the bark of the trees that had been dried). On the way back to the boat we stopped at the Coniorde Waterfall and one of the locals dived (or summersaulted) from the top.
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