The St Lucia Log: Part Two
TUESDAY
You’d think after all these mornings of waking up early that we wouldn’t be rushed for an 8:15 start to the day, but we still squeaked into The Palms for the breakfast buffet with a whole 15 minutes to eat and get down to the beach to pick up our flippers and such.
We were met by our guide Marcuson and Captain Michael, who piloted our little boat for the day. It seated about 12-16 of us, but it was pretty snuggly. No worries! The first leg our journey took us past a couple of small villages (one of which has one of the island’s two geocaches near it), and Mick Jagger’s house. Coincidentally, Mick’s neighbour is currently selling their oceanfront property (though I should qualify, oceanfront doesn’t mean beachfront - there’s a good 80+ metre dive off Mick’s balcony if you want to hit the water).
We were dropped off at a small beach and loaded into a taxi, which took us to a waterfall. Haven’t stood under a waterfall before… it kinda hurt! Hee…
Then they took us to what’s billed as the Caribbean’s only drive-in volcano. La Soufriere is a caldera, and boy did it reek of sulfur. Whoooo ee, it was eggy.
Still, it was neat to see the bubbling, seething mud/water. Probably the most amusing part for me about this part was our guide’s explanation that the stairs up to the viewing areas were made by a drunk man, so the lack of even spacing, or even height, wasn’t her fault. I snapped a bunch of pics of the stairs out of sheer amusement. They looked kinda neat with moss and whatnot - I’m a fan of moss on stone outcroppings and the like.
Next, after weaving our way through a small crowd of locals trying to convince us that their prices on hematite necklaces were the best on the island, we were dropped off at the start of a dirt path that led past a senior citizen’s home, and down to a covered pavilion (I use the term loosely) where we were served a “home cooked” meal of chicken, tuna, mashed potato, and a selection of local veggies, including breadfruit. There’s something I hadn’t eaten in years!
The next leg of our journey took us into a secluded bay where we got to go snorkeling. Except for the salt water that occasionally crept into my snorkel, resulting in some coughing and spluttering, it was a wonderful experience.
We got to see a myriad of fish that I can’t identify because I’m not a fish expert, but they were very colourful, including these cool little guys that had black and yellow stripes like a bumblebee. I mentally cursed a sea urchin that was lurking near one vibrantly yellow piece of coral, saw what I’m told was a white-mouth moray eel in a large chunk of brain coral, and spent a good while following a small group of cuttlefish, who were really quite beautiful with their colouration and markings. There’s a lot more to them than the white pointy pieces you can buy in pet stores for your parakeet. They also seemed to be swimming in formation, which ties right into that whole thing I rambled on about yesterday regarding synchronized dance teams.
The trip back to the resort was pretty rough - the winds picked up, and with them the waves, so our boat was bouncing through them. I’m pretty sure we caught some decent air a couple of times. Still, I didn’t spill any of my complimentary beverages, so no huge complaints from me.
Back to the resort mid afternoon, shower to rinse off the salt, goof around for the afternoon until dinnertime at Morgan’s Pier, the restaurant where we’ll be having dinner after tomorrow’s wedding. Red Snapper. Very tasty. Not much else to tell about the evening after that - we listened to the resort band play for a little, and then meandered back to our quarters to wind down for the day.
… of course, I can’t wind down until I beat Jumping Jack Flash in Elite Beat Agents….
Sundry Tuesday pics:
St Lucia's "Batcave" - can't really see 'em in the pic, but there were bats chittering and going nuts.
A weather-beaten sign on the beach where we had lunch.
One of the many little black birds who tried to steal morsels of our lunch.
A cave hidden near the beach where we had lunch. According to our guides, it was used by local drug addicts, more's the pity.
Chris and Trish, our partners in crime.
Generic pic of St Lucian coastline ;)
There were a lot of cows we saw seemingly ownerless meandering about, but according to one taxi driver, all the pets on the island, including cows, somehow knew to come home about 4:30pm each day.
A disused section of the Steps of the Drunk Man at the Soufriere caldera.
Ernie, father of the groom, and owner of a wicked sense of humour.
What's that? What's she making? Could it be??
.. it... it ... it is!
A grasshopper!!!! Mmmm minty...
Gdaysheila and Julius, our coconut-fetcher.
Another shot of Julius' smiling face.
Julius went to the trouble of getting us one, so I felt obligated to drink the coconut milk. Heh.
The effervescent Kendra, one of the younger members of our troupe.
Didn't see a lot of wildlife, but did see a few lizards.
See? There's another one.
Small scaly beast #3
I have... absolutely no idea what notched the tree like this.
Who the smeg paints a random rock orange??
Little yellow flower
Red flower!
Red knobby flower!
Vaguely suggestive red flower!
Umm... it's some leaves and water.
Slightly more interesting leaves.
Gdaysheila looking hip.
Who said Caribbean beaches were sandy?
See? A distinct lack of sand.
The Pitons in the distance, the two mountains after which the local beer was named.
Yay for rock faces!
Oooh, rocky!
Rocky bits!
Um... trees and rocky bits!
Apparently I like rocks.
Seriously, you'll see more over the next few days.
Row, row, row your boat...
Somehow rust just seems to create an interesting juxtaposition with the lush greenery.
Even the spiders look funky here.
A lot of the cabs had things like this on them... considering the roads on St Lucia, I'm not surprised ;)
Our guide at the Soufriere caldera, whose accent caused more than a few chuckles when she explained that St Lucia has many sandy black beaches...
Tracy and Wade, our other partners in crime.
Seething mud in the caldera.
More caldera mud, apparently hot enough to cause third degree burns in a matter of seconds.
A bunch of our peeps swimming under the waterfall.
More waterfall peeps!
The waterfall pool had little steps and locks all the way down. Kinda cool.
More waterfally goodness.
One constant at the island was foot-deep guttering.
Blue enough for ya?
And ending the alphabetical image listing, the inimitable Wendy.
Now, off to edit pics taken on Wednesday!
You’d think after all these mornings of waking up early that we wouldn’t be rushed for an 8:15 start to the day, but we still squeaked into The Palms for the breakfast buffet with a whole 15 minutes to eat and get down to the beach to pick up our flippers and such.
We were met by our guide Marcuson and Captain Michael, who piloted our little boat for the day. It seated about 12-16 of us, but it was pretty snuggly. No worries! The first leg our journey took us past a couple of small villages (one of which has one of the island’s two geocaches near it), and Mick Jagger’s house. Coincidentally, Mick’s neighbour is currently selling their oceanfront property (though I should qualify, oceanfront doesn’t mean beachfront - there’s a good 80+ metre dive off Mick’s balcony if you want to hit the water).
We were dropped off at a small beach and loaded into a taxi, which took us to a waterfall. Haven’t stood under a waterfall before… it kinda hurt! Hee…
Then they took us to what’s billed as the Caribbean’s only drive-in volcano. La Soufriere is a caldera, and boy did it reek of sulfur. Whoooo ee, it was eggy.
Still, it was neat to see the bubbling, seething mud/water. Probably the most amusing part for me about this part was our guide’s explanation that the stairs up to the viewing areas were made by a drunk man, so the lack of even spacing, or even height, wasn’t her fault. I snapped a bunch of pics of the stairs out of sheer amusement. They looked kinda neat with moss and whatnot - I’m a fan of moss on stone outcroppings and the like.
Next, after weaving our way through a small crowd of locals trying to convince us that their prices on hematite necklaces were the best on the island, we were dropped off at the start of a dirt path that led past a senior citizen’s home, and down to a covered pavilion (I use the term loosely) where we were served a “home cooked” meal of chicken, tuna, mashed potato, and a selection of local veggies, including breadfruit. There’s something I hadn’t eaten in years!
The next leg of our journey took us into a secluded bay where we got to go snorkeling. Except for the salt water that occasionally crept into my snorkel, resulting in some coughing and spluttering, it was a wonderful experience.
We got to see a myriad of fish that I can’t identify because I’m not a fish expert, but they were very colourful, including these cool little guys that had black and yellow stripes like a bumblebee. I mentally cursed a sea urchin that was lurking near one vibrantly yellow piece of coral, saw what I’m told was a white-mouth moray eel in a large chunk of brain coral, and spent a good while following a small group of cuttlefish, who were really quite beautiful with their colouration and markings. There’s a lot more to them than the white pointy pieces you can buy in pet stores for your parakeet. They also seemed to be swimming in formation, which ties right into that whole thing I rambled on about yesterday regarding synchronized dance teams.
The trip back to the resort was pretty rough - the winds picked up, and with them the waves, so our boat was bouncing through them. I’m pretty sure we caught some decent air a couple of times. Still, I didn’t spill any of my complimentary beverages, so no huge complaints from me.
Back to the resort mid afternoon, shower to rinse off the salt, goof around for the afternoon until dinnertime at Morgan’s Pier, the restaurant where we’ll be having dinner after tomorrow’s wedding. Red Snapper. Very tasty. Not much else to tell about the evening after that - we listened to the resort band play for a little, and then meandered back to our quarters to wind down for the day.
… of course, I can’t wind down until I beat Jumping Jack Flash in Elite Beat Agents….
Sundry Tuesday pics:
St Lucia's "Batcave" - can't really see 'em in the pic, but there were bats chittering and going nuts.
A weather-beaten sign on the beach where we had lunch.
One of the many little black birds who tried to steal morsels of our lunch.
A cave hidden near the beach where we had lunch. According to our guides, it was used by local drug addicts, more's the pity.
Chris and Trish, our partners in crime.
Generic pic of St Lucian coastline ;)
There were a lot of cows we saw seemingly ownerless meandering about, but according to one taxi driver, all the pets on the island, including cows, somehow knew to come home about 4:30pm each day.
A disused section of the Steps of the Drunk Man at the Soufriere caldera.
Ernie, father of the groom, and owner of a wicked sense of humour.
What's that? What's she making? Could it be??
.. it... it ... it is!
A grasshopper!!!! Mmmm minty...
Gdaysheila and Julius, our coconut-fetcher.
Another shot of Julius' smiling face.
Julius went to the trouble of getting us one, so I felt obligated to drink the coconut milk. Heh.
The effervescent Kendra, one of the younger members of our troupe.
Didn't see a lot of wildlife, but did see a few lizards.
See? There's another one.
Small scaly beast #3
I have... absolutely no idea what notched the tree like this.
Who the smeg paints a random rock orange??
Little yellow flower
Red flower!
Red knobby flower!
Vaguely suggestive red flower!
Umm... it's some leaves and water.
Slightly more interesting leaves.
Gdaysheila looking hip.
Who said Caribbean beaches were sandy?
See? A distinct lack of sand.
The Pitons in the distance, the two mountains after which the local beer was named.
Yay for rock faces!
Oooh, rocky!
Rocky bits!
Um... trees and rocky bits!
Apparently I like rocks.
Seriously, you'll see more over the next few days.
Row, row, row your boat...
Somehow rust just seems to create an interesting juxtaposition with the lush greenery.
Even the spiders look funky here.
A lot of the cabs had things like this on them... considering the roads on St Lucia, I'm not surprised ;)
Our guide at the Soufriere caldera, whose accent caused more than a few chuckles when she explained that St Lucia has many sandy black beaches...
Tracy and Wade, our other partners in crime.
Seething mud in the caldera.
More caldera mud, apparently hot enough to cause third degree burns in a matter of seconds.
A bunch of our peeps swimming under the waterfall.
More waterfall peeps!
The waterfall pool had little steps and locks all the way down. Kinda cool.
More waterfally goodness.
One constant at the island was foot-deep guttering.
Blue enough for ya?
And ending the alphabetical image listing, the inimitable Wendy.
Now, off to edit pics taken on Wednesday!