It's time to learn Geography Now!

Hey everyone, I'm your host Barby.

Well, we reached our seventh Carribean country: Grenada!

As you know, each Carribean country kind of has a little quirk that they're known for,

and now we reach "The Spice Island".

We'll explain why in a bit, but first:

Well, we're back in the Carribean, let's just jump into it.

Grenada is the southernmost Carribean archipelago nation located in what is called the Windward Islands

at the tip of the Grenadine Chain, right below St. Vincent and the Grenadines,

and less than 150 kilometres away from the tip of Venezuela,

or Trinidad and Tobago in the south.

Grenada is made up out of three main islands:

Carriacou, Petite Martinique and the largest one, Grenada.

In addition, the country owns a little over 20 smaller unhabited or barely inhabited or partially inhabited

or privately inhabited islands,

like Ronde Island, Caille Island, Large Island, Saline Island and Frigate Island and Diamond Island.

Diamond Island, ooh, I never realized how perfect those two words sound together.

Diamond Island!

Thanks, I needed a title for my new novel.

Grenada is divided into six parishes, each named after a saint,

whereas Carriacou and Petit Martinique hold a dependency status,

with the capial and largest city St. George's.

That's right: not St. George, St. George's.

What excactly they referencing in terms of his ownership for George, I have no idea,

but it's his town.

Hey, maybe that's what they're talking about: St. George's town.

This is also where the largest and only international airport, St. George's Maurice Bishop International, can be found.

Pearls Airport used to be the main airport, but then it kind of devolved into a go-kart racetrack

and Soviet aircraft graveyard where cows can elect the grace.

About 94% of the population lives along the coasts of Grenada Island

and are interconnected by the Main Road that loops all the way around the entire domain.

Otherwise, some noticable spots in Grenada might include St. George's Market Square,

Fort Frederick, the walking tunnel between the Carenage and the seaports.

The Cardenage in itself is awesome too.

The Underwater Sculpture Park, Fort George overlooking the city of St. George's,

and everywhere you find the hurricane Ivan destroyed buildings that add a sort of charm to Grenada's townlife.

Check out this channel right here, Goats on the road, they have an extensive series on Grenada

that shows the beautiful sites and most of these places are mentioned.

And with that promotion done and said, let's explain why this place is called The Spice Islands, shall we?

Now, at first glance, you would assume that the Carribean islands are pretty much the same

in physical make up, but in many cases that couldn't be further from the truth.

Now, although they were all formed by volcanic activity, not all the islands in the Carribean came out with the same features.

This is why you have specific, regional designations for the Carribean island clusters,

like the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, the Lucayan, Leeward and Windward Islands

as well as the Leeward Antilles.

This is why places like flat, boggy Barbudo looks almost nothing like volcanic, lake-boiling Dominica.

Grenada is the last and final island chain in the Grenadines, known for being rocky, tropical islands

with more volcanic activity, as their northern cousins have mostly hollocene and extinct volcanoes.

Grenada host two main volcanoes: the tallest point Mount Saint Catherine

and Kick 'em Jenny, located right in the middle of the sea.

I'm not even joking, look it up, that really is what it's called.

Now finally, let's answer that question.

If you look at a zoomed satellite map of Grenada you'll notice that unlike the other islands

Grenada isn't overtaken by large patches of geometrically cultivated crop fields.

But don't be fooled. Those open areas that look like large, lush, green forests

are actually nutmeg plantations.

Out of all the Carribean islands, thanks to the extremely rich soil, Grenada is known for being The Spice Island

because they are the world's second largest producers of nutmeg efter Indonesia.

Indonesia. A country that is like, over 2000 times the size in population

and 5000 times the size in land area.

They are also the only country that produces prime quality Mace.

In addition, they also grow quite a bit of cloves and cinnamon.

Many people who visit say that when walking through the country

you can actually smell the spice in the air constantly.

It's like walking through a scented candle

the size of an entire tropical island...

Other food crops are grown throughout the country, including breadfruit,

which is used to make the national dish Oil Down: a conglomeration of spices, salted meat and veggies and breadfruit.

Grenada is a conveniatly well-stocked island thanks to the high average annual rainfall

at over 300 centimeters.

You have these consistently flowing streams and rivers and waterfalls, such as the famous Seven Sisters Falls

and the longest river Saint John's river.

Animals like armadillos, agouties, monkeys and the national animal, the rare Grenadian dove

can be found scampering about in the interior forests.

There is a catch though.

Grenada is kind of like right in the path of hurricane territory.

The most damaging ones of hit being hurricanes Ivan and Emily back in 2004 and 2005.

Otherwise, other noticable natural spots might include Sunnyside and Hyde Pard Tropical Gardens,

Sandy Island, Grand Etang National Park, Morne Rouge Bay, Grand Anse and Lavera Beaches,

Black Bay Beach with Amerindian markings, Lake Antoine, great for birdwatching.

Oh, and you can enjoy it all with some Clark's Court rum.

Some of the locals like it, some don't, but hanging with them will be the best, no matter what you drink.

Here's some more on them:

Grenadians. That's wht you call them. Like Canadians.

Not "Grenadans" - Grenadians. Got it? Good.

Grenada might seem like a typical Carribean country but if you go back to the 70's,

things got a little weird.

First of all, Grenada has about 113 thousand people

and about twice as many ethnic Grenadians live abroad outside of Grenada

meaning that there are more Grenadians outside of Grenada than in it.

Over 80% of the population comes from black, African descent, about 10% are mixed, 4% are Indian,

like from India, and the rest are other groups including whites and indigenous Carribean peoples.

They also use the east Caribbean dollar, they use the type G British-style outlet

and they drive on the left side of the road.

Now, you might say "Hm, that's interesting, why is there a noticable Indian population?"

Well, as you'll soon find out in a future video coming up,

basically the British kind of brought them over in colonial times, as indentured servants and well,

they kind of just, made their home.

Made? You know, they kind of had to!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.

Essentially, the British didn't, like, go, until 1974...

I mean, kind of, there's still kind of like a Commonwealth.

... when Grenada joined the sovreign spotlight.

For about five years, thing were kind of weakly transitioning, and then this came in

and kind of flipped the script entirely.

Maurice Bishop ousted the prime minister in 1979 and this guy was a total marxist

and immideatly made ties to other sommunist block countries like Cuba, Nicaragua,

as well as The Soviet Union and East Germany,

back when those things were things.

Nonetheless, Maurice made it very clear that Grenada would not be a Soviet block state,

just an interactive cooperator.

Long story short: his own cabinet started to hate him,

they killed him, and just as things were about the get buckwild,

The Organization Of East Carribean States and 600 US medical students made an appeal to an US intervention

and in 1983 paratroopers and batallions and even deltaforce came in, and it was like:

Hey!

Stop it.

Fine.

And then, Margaret Thatcher was like:

Hey!

That's not cool.

But, eeeh, I guess they got the job done.

And then the UN was like:

Hey, we unanimously disapprove.

But then a year later, they were like:

Eeeh, I guess they're back together again and peaceful... Whatever, fine.

'MERICUH!

Sometimes destructive intervention leads you to freedom!

Keyword: sometimes.

I'm just reporting what happened in the 80's.

Anyway!

Because of the short, blipping communism, Grenadian culture has always had a slight, historical controversy

controversy-undertone that other Carribean states quite don't have.

I mean, all the Carribean states do have some kind of controversy,

but not like partying with East Germany officials-controversy.

Noneofhteless, they love reggae, saca and calypso music.

You know, how as a kid your parents kind of forces you into taking piano lessons?

Well, in Grenada, in many parts, it's still drum classes.

Again!

Grenadians are also known for being the inventors of Jab Jab music and culture, which sometimes involves

overing yourself in tar and oil with masks and chains, it's confusing.

The funny thing is, historically, Grenada was subject to both the British and French colonial powers,

until, eventually, the British kind of gained control.

Although English is kind of the official language, to this day, the French influence lingures ever so slightly

in things like many people have French surnames or Grenada having two different types of patwa dialects:

one derrived from English and the other from French.

Also, you can tell faith-wise.

Nearly half of the Grenadians are either Catholic or Protestant,

harkening back to the respective denominations of their former colonizers.

Also, it explains why they celebrate French-inspired Carnival,

which is celebrated in August, not February,

but Brittish-influenced cricket is the most popular sport.

Otherwise, some other notable Grenadians would probably include people like:

Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamiltion,

Calypso artist singer Francisco, or the "Mighty Sparrow",

Jennifer Hosten was the first black woman to win the Miss World-competition in 1970,

Alleyne Francique,

Kiriani James,

Hollis Mapp,

Eric Gairy,

Daniel William

and Keith Mitchell.

It's interesting to see how Grenada has progressed into the country that it is today in such a short amount of time.

Of course, they had a few others involved in the process.

Now, you can probably tell that Grenada has gone through quite a few revolutionazing transitions

in its past half century of history.

First of all, the UK has always close ties to Grenada even after they let go.

Grenada is still classified as a Commonwealth, so ever so often the Queen sends her regards

and relief aid when necessary.

Prince Harry also kind of visited to check up on them recently.

No surprise, the US and China have been jumping on trade development and investment for decades,

and the US houses a significant population of citizens of Grenadian descent.

When it comes to their best friends though, most of the Grenadians I talked to have said two countries:

Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago.

Cuba is kind of the remnant of the former communist years that still maintained close ties.

The country offers scholarships and excellent medical benfits, specifically to Grenadians,

whereas Trinidad and Tobago is kind of like the big brother, just down south.

Many Grenadians have family in Trinidad and likewise Trinidadians in Grenada,

and they've had a healthy, yet slightly competitive friendship for centuries.

In conclusion, Grenada is like a split French/English- influenced island that smells really good,

dabbling communism at one point, and dances to calypso.

Stay tuned - Guatemala is coming up next.