We went to the Grenada Chocolate Museum and saw how chocolate was made and the history of chocolate.

There is a bean called the Cacao bean which is the source of both Cacao and Coca supplies. Cacao refers to the uncooked form of chocolate. When the cacao beans are roasted, they are then called Cocoa beans. There are three types of beans: Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. 

Forastero means foreigner in Spanish. It tastes like a mild chocolate flavor unsupported by any secondary flavors. It is a fast growing tree with a high yield. It is very resistant to disease.  It is the most commonly grown bean significantly hardier and of higher yield than Criollo.

Criollo’s origin is the Amazon. It is primarily cultivated in West Africa, Ivory Coast, and Ghana. Criollo means native in Spanish. It has a complex taste which can include flavors of caramel, nuts, vanilla and tobacco.  It is resistant towards disease. It is the rarest and most expensive cocoa on the market. It represents 5% of all the cocoa beans grown in the world. Its origin is Mexico. It is primarily cultivated in Central America.

The Trinitario bean is a natural hybrid of Criollo and Forastero. It is considered a fine flavor bean with notes ranging from spicy to earthy to highly acidic. It has fragile trees with low yield. It produces good grade cocoa with premium flavor. Its origin is the accidental cross fertilization of Criollo and Forastero trees in Trinidad  around 1730. It is primarily cultivated in Grenada, Venezuela, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, Indonesia, Papua, New Guinea and other Caribbean and Latin American countries.

The Cacao trees only grow within 20 degrees of the equator.

We also explored the shop and drank Chocolate drinks from the bakery. Mom and Dad had Chocolate Tea and I had Hot Chocolate which is more of a morning drink they way they make it. It was fun to explore the history of Chocolate and how it is made and about how Grenada plays a big role in making Chocolate.   

Recently, I gave my dogs, Caper and Chance nicknames: Chatterbox and Lucky.

Caper has a lot to say. Caper talks a lot like a Chatterbox would, especially when he is sitting down, when it is time to eat and when he wants pets. He usually sounds grumpy. He makes a grumpy noise that sounds like a groan. He talks to us about a lot of things. He is also very expressive. When we come home he has a big smile on his face.

I named Chance Lucky because of how many mishaps he has had. Lucky is a good name for him because even though he has had a lot of surgeries and injuries he has been lucky and survived them all. Now he’s back to his normal Chance self doing crazy things like playing with Caper, playing ball at the beach, chasing Caper around the boat, and of course howling and singing when we are away until we come home.

We hauled our boat out on Tuesday October 27th at Clarkes Court Marina in Grenada.

Mom and Dad took the boat to be lifted out of the water. The boat got lifted out of the water by a lifting machine and then moved with a towing machine. The machine had straps on it that went under the boat to pick it up. 

I watched the dogs, Caper and Chance, on the shore.

While our boat went on the hard (which means on land), we rented a house and stayed there for a week.

It was different being in a house after being on the boat for a year. What was different about being at the house is that we had air conditioning in our bedrooms all night long and all the time. We also had unlimited water. We had a great view from our house. We got to see boats and dinghies go by in the bay below us. We also had a pool, which we tried to swim in everyday, but instead we had a lot of rain and wind.

We didn’t stay at the house very long. We left on Wednesday, November 4. They put the boat back in the water and we started preparing for sailing up to the USVI. Hopefully we are going up to North Carolina for Thanksgiving.