Gouyave
Today we decided to take a trip to Gouyave in the morning to break up the day. We stopped at the marina and had meat pies and a chocolate croissant at the little bakery on the road leading in, then went to our morning spot to relax a bit. We took a bus into St. Georges and once at the terminal we boarded another for Gouyave.
We had only been here for Fish Friday in the past and haven’t had a chance to see the town in the daylight. The driver let us off in front of the nutmeg processing plant where we took a tour of the facilities.



Nutmeg drying on racks and bagged up ready for processing

All the work here is done by hand, except for the cracking of the shells for which there is a small machine. The nutmegs are dried on large racks then placed into bags, from there they go into the shell cracking machine and slide down a set of chutes to have the shell fragments removed from the nuts by hand. The nutmegs are sorted by condition and size before being bagged and labeled for shipment around the world. I asked the guide if she had heard of using nutmeg to treat stroke victims, a bush remedy we first heard about on St. Lucia; she had and gave us a couple of the deformed nutmegs they use for this purpose, they are flat on one side and resemble chestnuts; supposedly you place them, still in the shell, under the tongue in the corner by the cheek and just let it soak there. The tour was interesting and lasted about 15 minutes, finishing up in their gift shop where you can purchase various nutmeg products from jam to ointment for sore joints.



The quite streets of Gouyave

After leaving the plant we took a slow walk down the quiet street; this is a true fishing village and there were a few shops selling fishing tackle, the type you would use for long line fishing. We made our way over to the beach where there were fishermen working on their nets and numerous boats up on the shore. We sat around for a while enjoying the view and the sun, people passed by occasionally and would say hello but no one bothered us.



Fishermen mending their nets

After the beach we stopped at a local bar for a beer before catching a bus back to St. Georges. We made a quick stop at the hotel then headed for Grand Anse to get the last hours of sun on the beach. I was feeling a little hungry so I walked to the Spiceland Mall and had a sandwich and fries before starting on the evening rum enjoyment. We had brought a jar of Kim’s homemade salsa with us and the guys all had a taste, it was a little too spicy for some of them but Larry seemed to enjoy it. It wasn’t long before the combination of a small lunch and a large portion of strong rum got the better of me and we grabbed a bus back to the hotel for the night.



Enjoying some rum and salsa with Lei Lei, Larry and Bob