St. Lucia
St. Lucia (first pronounciation is “St. Lu–sha”; second is “St. Lu–se–a”) was our last port of call before we would return to Barbados the next day. We were invited by Capt. Roche is be out on the deck early in the morning for some close cruising past the island. We were treated to a spectacular view of the Pitons: the Grand Piton of 2620 feet and the Petit Piton of 2460 feet. They are one of the scenic natural highlights of the Caribbean.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
According to the close cruising flyer that we were given, I believe that this is Soufriere, St. Lucia’s second largest town.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Marigot Bay. This is where the movie “Dr. Doolittle” was filmed.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Coming into Castries, the capital of St. Lucia and where we would dock. St. Lucia is an independent nation under the British Commonwealth of 238 square miles, with English as the official language and French patois also being spoken.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Our pilot boat directing us into the harbor.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Two huge cruise liners were already docked at Castries.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
We cruised past the Empress of the Sea. We all waved. They didn’t and we couldn’t figure out why––a case of cruise ship snobbery?
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
The Empress of the Seas.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
The other cruise ship. We didn’t see its name.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
We were to dock here.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
We got a small group together in anticipation of hiring a taxi to take us sightseeing (I had signed up for a helicopter tour of St. Lucia, but it was canceled. The other day tour was a horseback riding tour, including riding the horses in the sea––it ran). However, we were surprised to find organized tour operators in the cruise building, probably here because of the two large cruise ships. We decided to go on an Heritage Tour of the island. The easyCruise tour members were the couple were San Antonio, the young man from England, and myself who were on our adventure to the rain forest yesterday and a young couple who I had met at the restaurant where I ate lunch yesterday. Two older men from Poland who had just joined our ship in Martinique also came with us and an older couple who were sailing on the Empress of the Seas. The breakdown of three of the younger crowd and seven of the older crowd becomes interesting later. Our tour guide/driver’s name was Matthew and we drove off through Castries in a bright red van. This is one the Georgian buildings that we saw in Castries. We also passed a huge Friday market that we hoped to visit when we returned.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Victorian house seen going up our first hill. St. Lucia is very hilly and we went up and down these hills one after another.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Our first viewpoint: the harbor at Castries. Our Big Orange Boat couldn’t really be THAT small!
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
A closer–up view.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
At each viewpoint, there would be souvenir sellers.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
More souvenir sellers. Here, there vendors were determined to make a sale, which, of course, made us determined not to buy from them. We didn’t.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
On our way.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Going into a valley. The workers on the side of the road were clearing weeds.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
In the photo, you can make out the meat hanging ready for a barbecue. We saw a number of such barbecue stands along the road. Travelers on the roads stop off at them to eat as they would a regular restaurant.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Another viewpoint.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
And the souvenir sellers, also pushy, but I did buy a doll from them as a present. I found out later that the prices asked for these dolls were 1/3 of those asked in Castries.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Roadside Coca Cola stand.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
We stopped here for another view. This souvenir vendor was so low key that you had to walk to her stand if you wanted to view her merchandise.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
The view of Marigot Bay, where the movie “Dr. Doolittle” was filmed, the bay that we saw from the water side earlier this day.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Banana sellers––I bought a big bunch of them to share. Note the blue bags put over some of the bananas in the photo. Our driver had told us that the bags were there to keep the snakes away from the bananas. He said the snakes were so bad in St. Lucia that the taxi drivers had to check out their vans for snakes every morning. Well, at least I believed him. Then he laughed as he thought it was so funny that he was believed. It was all a lead–in for him to tell us about a man in the hills who had his own pet boa constrictor. (The blue bags are over the bananas to keep them from the direct sun.)
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Another roadside barbecue.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Coming into a small fishing village. The sign on the building reads, “Welcome to the Highway Restaurant.”
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Along the beach and the back of souvenir stands.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
More of the beach and the souvenir stands.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Horse on the beach.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
House and chickens on the beach, fishing nets drying.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Man carrying logs and also a machete.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
More fishing nets drying.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Row of houses before the row of souvenir shops.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Row of souvenir shops.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Inland street.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Catholic church at the end of the street.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Another street.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Pretty house.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Onward to our next viewpoint. I don’t know if this is near where the “incident” happened, but it did happen along part of the road similar to this. We had the windows open in the van, I had the photographer’s seat upfront so I was on the left side of the van, and the van, of course, was driving on the left side of the road (British system). Remember that story Matthew told us about the pet boa constrictor. There was a reason he told us about it. Matthew slowed down to where a group of people were standing on the side of the road. One of the men was holding the boa constrictor––I caught sight of it out of the corner of my eye––it was about two feet from my open window. I screamed and bent down on the seat away from the window. Matthew was very surprised about my reaction and drove on. He told us that all the tour operators stop here so that the tour groups can get out to pet the boa constrictor––paying a dollar or so to do this. I asked the rest of my group if anyone wanted to pet the snake, but no one did. I found out later that boa constrictors are native to the island of St. Lucia.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Next viewpoint––of the town of Canaries. No souvenir sellers here though a man did come up to the driver’s side of the van offering a turtle for sale.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
View of Canaries from the other side.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Beautiful view of the Pitons.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Horse on the roadside with view of one of the Pitons.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
View of the town Of Soufriere, the second largest town in St. Lucia.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Driving into Soufriere.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Soufriere. The sign says: Notice. No Selling of Fish. Matthew told us that when there is fish for sale in Soufriere, a siren is sounded to alert the buyers.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
This photo shows the second “incident” of the day––we were involved in an accident––we were going about 5 miles an hour and so was the other van. Matthew thought that the other van would wait for him to pull in his side mirror so the other van could get by us. The other van didn’t and scraped our van with his side mirror. Matthew was livid––the only damage was to his van. He did some ranting and raving––”the other guy was too old to drive,” “the other guy needs glasses,” “the other guy was rude,” etc., etc. No police were called, and after Matthew realized that we all agreed that it wasn’t his fault, he calmed down and we continued onward.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
We stopped at Diamond Falls. The pool water here is medicinal––the waterfall which fills the pool comes down from a volcanic crater (which we visited next), where it is heated. The water contains mainly sulfur.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Some of our tour group enjoying themselves in the pool.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
A photo of our guide, Matthew, taken at the Falls.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Our next stop was at the volcano where the water of Diamond Falls is heated. This ancient volcano is extinct, but it left a caldera, which is a volcanic depression caused by the collapse of the volcano’s dome. We picked up a guide and then actually drove into the volcano––this is a drive–in volcano. View of the caldera. At one time, people were allowed to walk around the steaming pools, but no longer after the ground caved in while one of the guides was leading a tour here.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Rain water collects in the openings and then is heated. You can see the water bubbling up in this photo.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
And also in this photo.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
One of the streams of heated water from the volcanco, which then would form a waterfall below.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Walking back from through the caldera––it was a drive–in, walk–back–out volcano.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Driving back through Soufriere.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
Another view of Soufriere and the Pitons.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
We ate a late lunch here. We finished close to 3:30 p.m. Neal, the young man from England, and I were getting worried. We had both signed up for a sunset party cruise on a catamaran, with 4:15 p.m. given as the meeting time for it. We had told Heritage Tours that we would need to be back by this time and we were assured that we would be back about 3 p.m. We also told Matthew numerous times what time we needed to be back. He now claimed that he didn’t know this and that it takes about 1 1/2 hours to get back to Castries from where we now were with normal driving, but that he would try to get us back in time. Boy, did we have a ride back. We took all those hills and hairpin curves at top speed. We told Matthew that he was a good enough driver to enter a Grand Prix race––he was very pleased. I really thought that one of our group––that is, one of the other six older people––would be yelling at Matthew to slow down. They didn’t––they were having too exciting of an adventure. But we did have a bit of a harrowing experience on a straightaway when Matthew really sped up. There was a group of school children on the road, but they knew enough to get off the road when a car is coming. I thought that Matthew should now slow it down and forget about getting us back in time, but he said that he had seen the children and all was okay. We made it to the ship at 4:30 p.m. And, of course, our tour left late––about 4:50 p.m. I didn’t take any photos on our way back to Castries after lunch––we were going too fast!
St. Lucia
St. Lucia
When I signed up for the “Sunset Party Cruise,” I thought I would be going with a large number of the young, party people on our ship. However, only six other people than I signed up for the catamaran cruise: Neal, the young man from England; Colin, the young man from Scotland; and the group of four from Barbados, who took the rain forest tour with me yesterday. I only put this photo on to show the route that one of the crew members led us on to get to the catamaran. We had to go behind this fence and walk a way over a littered, uneven dirt trail.
St. Lucia
Sunset Party Cruise
Getting on the catamaran.
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset Party Cruise
Cruising on the catamaran. I had not been on a catamaran before and I was enjoying it––very very smooth sailing.
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset Party Cruise
Colin and Neal took the best seats––on the top of the catamaran.
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset Party Cruise
The three women from Barbados eating the finger food dinner that we were served. Anything you wanted to drink, as much as you wanted to drink, and all drinks were free. I opted for Diet Coke.
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset on the Caribbean.
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset Party Cruise
Sailboat on the horizon during sunset.
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset Party Cruise
Neal and one of the women from Barbados started the dancing off. And both of them could really dance! The lighting on the dance floor wasn’t good enough for me to have taken some memorable movie clips.
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset Party Cruise
The dancing became a bit wilder. Another one of the women from Barbados dancing with Neal and another one dancing behind him. They were all great dancers.
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset Party Cruise
And more dancing. The man and the woman on the left of the photo are married.
Sunset Party Cruise
Sunset Party Cruise
The cruise lasted for about two hours and we got off the catamaran to go back to our ship. All the other passengers were being met by vans––no one met us. So we easyCruise people walked back to our ship as a group––on the littered, uneven dirt trail and past a dog that we hoped would not bother us. Luckily, one of the women from Barbados had the forethought to bring along a flashlight so we could see part of our way––no lights on the trail. But, of course, we were the previous day’s rain forest adventurers and we could handle this. End of another, full of surprises, Caribbean day.
