Spice Tour

Wednesday We took a tour of a spice plantation. Originally, most of the land was owned by the sultans, but after unrest in the late 1960s, land was returned to the local people. The spice plantation we visited is owned by 7-9 families, they work the land, do the tour and maintain a small selection of spices for sale. It was fascinating to see the variety of spices and fruit grown in a small space. With no equipment - no tractors or trucks. All the land is worked by hand and simple tools. There is no formal planting (as in rows of corn or tomato plants). Rather ever bit of land it used and nothing goes to waste. We saw ginger, vanilla, pepper, star fruit, turmeric, coconut, rice, coffee, orange, avocado, the lipstick tree, cloves to name a few. At the end of the tour, a young boy, about 12, climbed to the top of a coconut palm tree (at least 75 feet). He shimmied his way up, the only tool he used was a loop of coconut leaves, woven into a rope like structure to hold his feet together. Up he went, singing and entertaining us as we watched! He cut off three coconuts that fell at our feet.. A few minutes later, they were cut open for us and we drank. From the leaves, we each left with a hat/crown as well as a tie and two necklaces that featured a diminutive frog. A fine lesson in eating local!!