The Spice Island's horseshoe harbour — Carenage waterfront, Fort George and nutmeg drying in the sun
St George's is the capital of Grenada, the 'Spice Island' — a small volcanic island in the Windward Caribbean that produces more nutmeg per square kilometre than any country on earth (second only to Indonesia in total production), plus mace, cinnamon, cloves, and cocoa. The capital wraps around a horseshoe-shaped inner harbour (the Carenage) with Georgian colonial buildings painted in red and yellow climbing the surrounding hills — widely considered the most beautiful harbour scene in the Eastern Caribbean. The fish market on the quayside, the Saturday market on the hillside at Market Square,…
Grenada was originally inhabited by the Carib people, who resisted French colonisation until a final stand at Le Morne des Sauteurs ('Leapers' Hill') where the last Caribs allegedly jumped to their deaths rather than surrender in 1651. The French established a plantation economy of enslaved African labour, ceded the island to Britain in 1763, and it changed hands several more times before permanently becoming British in 1783. Grenada became independent in 1974 under Eric Gairy; the 1979 coup brought Maurice Bishop's New Jewel Movement to power in a non-violent revolution; Bishop was executed…