Oildown in the Jungle

It’s not what you may be imagining. Oildown happens to be the national dish of Grenada. Last Friday John and I went on one of best adventures since we got to Grenada and our lunch that day was an Oildown deep in the jungle by the river. Let me tell you what happened. A few days before a friend of ours was organizing a “tour” of the island for when his girlfriend flew in. We signed up immediately. Though I have gone on a personal guided tour, and we both created our own tour with the buses, a chance to romp around the island with a group of friends our age just sounded too good to pass up on. At around ten that morning Ian and his girlfriend Lauren came by our boat to pick us up. Ian has been living in the Caribbean for a while with his family and had met Lauren at a sailing regatta in St. Maarten a few months back. We went to another boat and picked up Alex, our ever cheerful and fun “local” cruiser friend and Ian’s little brother Jim. At the docks we met up with a lovely English couple who have been here about the same time as us on their boat fixing it up to head up north, Eddy and Meredith. With Andrew and Sheldon as our “official” driver/guide (these guys are a regular over at Hog Island) this ragtag group were ready to head out. Though we were expecting a van Sheldon showed up with his five seater truck. Thus with an even ten people split between the front and the cab we headed off towards a river off of Grenville.

We stopped over at several stores to stock up on drinks and some basic foods such as chicken wings, garlic, flour, and some plastic plates. The bulk of the ingredients were to come from the land. What Alex had meant by this we found out soon after we left the town of Grenville. Every ten minuets or so he would call out from the back of the cab to stop the truck and we would all load out to watch him go into thickets off the road and come back with one herb or another! At one stop we walked a bit into the jungle and with a long pole picked off some breadfruit, at another spot we picked callaloo (a sort of spinach) from a farmer’s patch. Luckily Alex seemed to know almost every third person on the road and where everything grew. Soon our big cooking pot was full of natural ingredients. The truck came to a stop in someone’s abandoned driveway on a top of a hill and Alex yelled out “it’s just down the hill some to the river!” Everyone grabbed our assorted luggage we had acquired since we began, John with the big cooking pot loaded down, some spear fishing guns for the river, a giant cooler weighed down and everyone’s backpacks. We started trekking down the jungle. It was a good 30min. hike down with no obvious trail. It was beautiful. There were wild cocoa trees, oranges, palm trees, and hundreds of other fauna that I could only appreciate. When we finally reached the river from our high noon hike anyplace would have been great, luckily this place was already amazing and the giant trees created a shaded riverside in which to set up camp. John and I jumped into the river expecting it to be chilly but found that it was surprisingly warm. After a month of living on the ocean taking a dip in warm spring water was as close to a bath as we’ve gotten. I regretted not bringing shampoo!! With everyone cooled off and a cold drink in hand Ian and Alex built a fire and began cooking the Oildown. For the official explanation into Grenada cooking check out their site. We sat around on the big rocks and limed (Caribbean slang for party of hanging out) for a while till the food was ready. This turned out to be one of the best dishes we had had in Grenada. Chicken and dumplings, spices and herbs, combined with some rum and good company was a recipe for a great time.

After a long lunch, some swimming, and a bout of spearfishing by Alex and Ian (where Alex managed to spear a good sized one on his first go) we started packing up and getting ready for the hike up. Though we were slightly dreading the hike it turned out that having eaten our food and finished our drinks made for a much quicker accent. I was in charge of holding the spear guns over my shoulder and felt somewhat like a soldier hiking up the jungle! Though John wasn’t as thrilled as he was behind me and he had to keep ducking in order not to get speared unwittingly by me.

Once back in the truck Sheldon was feeling up to finishing the “tour” properly and insisted that we go home via making a circle around the Island. This was met with enthusiastic approval and off we went for the 2^nd act of the day. The first stop was just south of Sauteurs to one of my favorite spots in Grenada, the Bathway Beach. A long pristine beach with nothing around and a little bar shack right in the middle. The flag for the current was red so swimming was off, but the local security guard sitting at the bar invited us to join him and insisted that we all partake in a shot of everclear looking rum. I sniffed it, at 100ish proof the odor alone was enough to make you feel woozy. The next stop on our tour took us down the west side past Guoyave to a small fishing village where we stopped at Ian’s friends local woodworking shop/general store/bar/when the lights are dim dancing hall(?) and visited his friends. In fact since we left the Bathways we basically stopped every 20 minuets to some friends place or another until we finally hit St. George and got something to eat.

Grenadians love to sing, and most of the way back we had a mini concert with Alex leading the chorus in the back of the cab and a competing chorus in the front led by Andrew. At one point we passed through a village called “Happy Hill” where we all began singing, “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands” and all the villagers sitting on their porches would clap. In a series of fun and new adventures we’ve had so far, this day definitely ranks up high in our month we’ve spent here. Thanks everyone for a great day and hope to see you all again one day soon!