The Caribbean’s Isle of Spice is known for its nutmeg. At the Gouyave Nutmeg Processing Station, you can watch staff process the spice. Tour guides explain the manual process of drying, grading and packing nutmeg. Did you know that oil from the nut adds heat to Vicks Vapo Rub®? Island restaurants serve delicious banana breads, sweet potato pies, Planter’s Punch and ice creamflavoured with grated nutmeg. Visit the Saturday morning market in the capital, St. George’s. It’s a lively place where you can buy spices as well as fruit, vegetables and handicrafts. www.puregrenada.com Bamboo rafts were originally used to transport bananas and other cargo along the Rio Grande. Actor Errol Flynn first persuaded the boatmen to bring him and his friends on torchlit trips along the river at night. (Jamaica’s Port Antonio area was a hideaway for rich-and-famous people such as Flynn, Noël Coward, Bette Davis and Ginger Rogers.) Passengers sit on padded two-passenger benches on skinny ninemetre-long bamboo rafts, steered by boatmen using long poles. They viewmountainous groves of bamboo, coconut and mango trees along the serpentine river route. The 13-kilometre journey lasts for 2 ½ hours, so there’s plenty of time to listen to singing birds and view banana trees, sugar cane, allspice, wild ginger and orchids along the riverbanks. Jamaica’s many all-inclusive resorts, hotels, inns, guesthouses, villas and apartments are also visitor magnets. You can even stay in a castle and a luxury treehouse. www.visitjamaica.com El Yunque – located 40 kilometres southeast of Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan – is the only tropical forest in the U.S. National Forest System. Lush greenery and multi-hued flowers punctuate the hiking trails. Look for dime-sized orchids, giant tree ferns and weathervane trees with leaves that turn white-side-up whenever it’s going to rain. After hiking, relax on nearby Luquillo, a postcard-perfect, palm-lined beach. In Old San Juan, don’t miss Castillo San Felipe del Morro (called El Morro for short). Stroll along the bastion of the impressive six-level citadel to view barracks, dungeons, storerooms and original cannons. Constructed between 1539 and 1790 to protect the island from attackers, the fortress sawmany battles, but was never defeated. The landmark is now a National Park Service museum. www.discoverpuertorico.com Jamaica Puerto Rico Grenada 18 | www.snowbirds.org Travel
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