One last soak in St. Lucia

Today we left St. Lucia, but our flight wasn't until 4:15pm, so we had some time to do a last bit of exploring. After packing everything to be ready for our flight, we drove to La Tille waterfall for a quick dip. An old Rasta guy let us in, and we traipsed down the muddy stairs to the waterfall. It wasn't very hot outside, so the little splashes of water as we approached the falls felt pretty chilly, but stepping under the heavy fall of water is so refreshing! There was a pool below the falls to swim in, but it looked so murky that we decided to stick to the falls. It started to pour rain again as we hung out in the falls, but we were already wet so it didn't matter. :)

La Tille Waterfall.

Refreshing! :)

After visiting the falls, we drove back to the villa to shower and finish packing. We said goodbye to Diane, Ken, Laura and Louise and headed to the Island Breeze for one last lunch on the beach. We had some tasty chicken sandwiches, then we made one last quick trip before we had to return our rental car. We drove up toward the Vieux Fort lighthouse high on a hill for one last breathtaking view of St. Lucia, then we drove back down to begin our trip back to reality.

The view from near the lighthouse.

St. Lucia is full of resorts and is well-known as a resort destination, but I am so glad we always avoid the resorts! I feel like staying in Vieux Fort (miles away from the tourist areas) we were really immersed in the "real" St. Lucia: people honking and yelling friendly banter out their car windows, trudging up muddy dirt roads in the pouring rain in their "Sunday Best" to go to church, getting their hair cut in open air barber shop shacks, hanging out on front porches converted into mini-restaurants... I feel like we got to experience the openness, friendliness and generosity of the locals that one would never experience in an all-inclusive. The green beauty of the landscape, the refreshing ocean water and the lovely people make us excited to visit again! :)

 

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Hail Caesar!

Today we got to go on a sailing excursion on Diane and Ken's (the owners of our villa) catamaran. We drove to Laborie and parked near the dock, then Ken picked us up in his little dinghy and took us to the boat! There wasn't a lot of wind, so we spent most of the time using the motor. We sailed/motored north to Piton Bay, the bay located between the two Pitons, and also the location of Dasheen, the restaurant where Gavin and I had our anniveersary lunch. The ocean was really calm, and the ride was really relaxing. Gavin and I sat in one of the nets and felt the ocean breezes below us and above us, with the occasional little splash of water hitting us from below.

Relaxing in the net.

Gavin and I on the catamaran.

An "artsy" photo up into the mast.

Chilling in the net!

As we approached Piton Bay, it suddenly started to pour rain! The boat has shelter from the rain, so that was fine. Rainstorms here are very sudden and don't last long - the drenching rain only lasted about five minutes. While we prepared to snorkel, a guy paddled a kayak full of fruit up to us! Diane bought some pineapples and tangerines. I peeled a tangerine - it had to have been the most flavorful tangerine I had ever had! Diane sliced up the pineapple and passed it around. I had already eaten one slice when I noticed that my second slice had lots of mealybugs in the divots from the hard skin into the soft fruit, some of which were left on when Diane sliced it! I guess I may have eaten some extra protein...

Fruit seller on his kayak. :)

The Pitons in the rain.

After our fruit snack, we jumped into the water for snorkeling. There were a lot of huge rocks in the water. They were mostly covered in algae, but there were bits of coral here and there. There was quite a few fish to see, though.

Bits of sea life in Piton Bay.

Huge rocks and little fishies.

Snorkeling in Piton Bay.

Cute little bottom feeders - they had little white whiskers they could extend as they fed on the bottom, making them look a little like tiny catfish.

Gavin and I in front of the catamaran - "Lost our Marbles." We hadn't noticed the name until we got in the water. :)

After snorkeling Diane made us lunch on the boat, including a pineapple upside down cake made from the pineapple she had just bought. Then we jumped off the boat for one more quick, refreshing swim in the bay before heading back to Laborie.

The wind and currents were completely against us, so we kept the sails down all the way back and just used the motor. Suddenly a huge gale came up - driving winds and rains! All of us except poor Ken, who was driving the boat in the open air through all this, headed under cover. The water got really choppy, but there weren't huge waves. According to Ken, because the wind and the currents were heading in the same direction, this produced choppy water rather than huge waves. Gavin started to get a little motion sick, but my motion sickness patch helped me keep it at bay, otherwise I definitely would have been losing my lunch. :) The storm blew past us in about fifteen minutes, and we were rewarded with a rainbow above Laborie Bay.

Me taking a turn driving the boat. (BEFORE the storm)

"He is the monarch of the sea..." :)

Rainbow above Laborie Bay.

We parked in Laborie Bay, where Diane and Ken would spend the night on their boat. We watched the cloudy, colorful sunset over the water. I also learned a new drink. Diane offered me a "Caesar," and jokingly called me a stupid American when I didn't know what it was! A Caesar is a Canadian drink that is similar to a Bloody Mary, but with clemato juice instead of tomato juice. Clemato juice is also Canadian - it is tomato juice with clam juice in it, which sounded disgusting to me, but I actually really liked the Caesar! Gavin was satisfied to have a Piton instead.

Since we didn't feel like going out for dinner and we still had some beverages at our house, we followed Ken to another tiny little restaurant which he insisted served the best chicken on the entire island. We picked up some fried chicken legs and some bakes (a West Indian fried dough) and headed back to the villa to pack and turn in. Tomorrow we say goodbye to St. Lucia.

 

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Zippidy SNOOZE da... :)

Today we headed back through Castries to Chassin, a tiny little town in the rainforest where we could try out some zip lining at Rain Forest Sky Rides. Laura and Louise, friends of Diane's who are staying in another apartment in the villa, came with us. Diane gave us more "semi" helpful directions, which included "just stop here and ask for directions." :) But it is hard to give directions here, as there are NO road signs at all! We did get there pretty easily, stopping at a big Costco-like store to ask for directions and buy a gigantic can of nuts, stopping at another intersection and calling out the window at people who were glad to point us in the right direction.

We arrived at Rain Forest Sky Rides and saw huge crowds of people; evidently a couple bus loads of cruise ship passengers had just arrived for the zip lining, too. Gavin and I were hoping to have a nice, fast, thrilling zip line, but when we saw some of the other clients (i.e. a couple that were probably in their 80s...) we guessed that it was going to be a pretty mild zip line.

All suited up!

We zipped between about 9 platforms, and there was a WIMPY "Tarazan swing" - the platforms were only about 10 feet apart. We joked that we could yell like Tarazan "Ohhh ee oh ee ohhhh, ee oh ee oh" but it was so short that we could only go "Ohhh ee" and we'd be done. :) Our group was also behind all those cruise ship passengers, so we had to wait 10-15 minutes between each platform for everyone to get through. Once we finally got through all the zips, there was NOBODY in the area - the cruise people had already all left on their busses and all the employees were sitting around looking bored! I guess we should have arrived a little later. :) Overall the zip lining was fun, but pretty relaxing rather than thrilling.

Ready to fly!

Gavin arrives at the platform.

After zip lining we drove to Marigot Bay to have a late lunch. We ate at a delightful seaside restaurant called Chateau Mygo and enjoyed the ocean breezes. We watched sailboats, catamarans and yachts and the occasional "party boat" packed with drunk tourists dancing on board.

Lunch at Chateau Mygo.

Marigot Bay.

After dinner we headed back to the apartment. Laura and Louise gave us some fresh fish to grill, so we grilled on the deck for dinner. While I was cleaning up, I suddenly noticed a HUGE moth sitting watching me on the edge of the sink! That made me yelp quite loudly (Laura and Louise heard me from upstairs!) I made Gavin catch it in a tupperware and throw it outside. :) Having a phobia of bugs is quite inconvenient in the tropics. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out in the villa, sipping rum drinks, enjoying the fresh breezes.

 

Gavin made a friend this morning... :)

 

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Gavin in Fairyland. :)

Today we did our first SCUBA diving in St. Lucia. After a nice breakfast including some of the fresh papaya we got from the farmers, we headed up to Soufriere again to meet up with Chester, the dive master at the Hummingbird Resort who was highly recommended by Diane. We and three other people went out on his small motorboat to the dive site Piton Wall, which was a large underwater wall of coral and plenty of sea life to see. I was REALLY excited that I was able to equalize both of my ears right away with no trouble, the first dive I have ever done that I haven't fought with my ears for the first 20 minutes! I guess the practicing in the airplane and driving through the mountains paid off! :)

A goofy SCUBA selfie. :)

Chester carried a spear gun to kill lionfish in the reef. On the first dive he probably killed around five of them! He used a small dead one to bait an eel to come out of its cave. We also got to see lobster hiding in holes in the reefs and a fish that was completely camoflauged by the reef until Chester got it to move. He also picked up some spiny sea creature that had tiny suction cups on it. He put it in my hand, then had me turn my hand over and it was suctioned to my hand! He also tried to get me to hold some crazy underwater giant-daddy-long-legs-looking thing, but I definitely kept my distance from that one... :)

Gavin at Piton Wall.

Me holding the spiny suction cup thing.

Chester spearing a lionfish.

After the first dive we took the boat back to the beach for a surface interval. On the way he cut up a delicious fresh grapefruit for us. When we reached the beach, he offered us some fried fish as a snack - it was seriously the best food we have had yet on the island! It was battered with spices, hot pepper and flour and was deep fried - REALLY yummy!

Enjoying some fresh grapefruit! Immediately after this pic, I peeled off the top of my wetsuit and almost didn't catch that my bikini top was coming off with it...

Our second dive was Fairyland. Fairyland was a drift dive - the current softly pushed us along the side of a long wall of coral and sea life. Once again we killed a bunch of lionfish. This time Chester speared some larger ones, so he cut off all the spines underwater and put them in his pocket to carry to the surface to cook! If we would have stayed around after the dive, we would have been able to taste some fried lionfish! But we had to leave right away since we had an appointment for our first kitesurfing lessons!

Gavin in Fairyland! :)

Giant bowls!

Me among several residents of Fairyland.

We went back to Sandy Beach for the lessons. We met up with our instructor, and he first showed us how to fly the kite itself. Gavin and I both crashed the thing many times, and it wasn't really all that windy out, so it was hard even for the instructor to get it back in the air! After a couple hours, I finally had stopped crashing the kite, or letting it pick me up in the air and drag me across the beach. :) I was able to do the figure 8s of turning the kite. Then we dried to do body drags in the water. I couldn't quite get the hang of it and ended up with several nosefulls of water as well as several times crashing the kite. :) Our instructor finally had me hang on to the harness behind him and get dragged along. It was surprising the speed we could get even with the low wind - it was enough to almost pull off my bikini bottom; I had to squeeze my thighs together really tightly to keep from losing it... :) I didn't get to do any more drags, because the wind died down too low, but I got a good start. Too bad it will probably be another year before I get to do it again. :)

I desperately try to keep the kite out of the water...

Having some success now. :)

Water up the nose, sand up the ... other places. :)

After the kitesurfing lessons we relaxed and had rum punch at the Island Breeze and waited for the sunset. Then after our busy day, we headed back to the villa for a relaxing night of leftovers, Piton and reading in the fresh mountain breezes.

 

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Yoga pose FAIL!!!

Gavin likes to complain that we never "relax" on vacations, so I begrudgingly compromised that we could relax in the villa until lunch, the go do or see something after lunch. We were just finishing our breakfast when Diane upset the plan by inviting us to go on a walk through the local farmers' plantations. (Thank you, Diane! :) ) We walked up the road a bit, then turned onto a little path through the jungle which soon opened up onto a road where Diane knew a local farmer. The farmer had a grapefruit tree in his driveway, and he climbed up into the tree and tossed down a several pounds of grapefruit for us! He then brought us half of an enormous squash and several fresh papayas! We walked down the road a bit more, then turned into another path through a banana farm. All the bunches of bananas were covered with blue plastic bags to keep the birds away. In the middle of this farm was a guava tree. The ripe guavas were too high to reach, so Gavin hoisted me up to reach them. Diane insisted that the farmer wouldn't mind us taking the fruit, though I was nervous about getting caught and chased away by a farmer with a cutlass... :) Fresh guava is incomparably summery sweet and fresh, though I couldn't stand the big, hard seeds! They are too numerous to take out, too hard to chew, to small to spit. You just have to half chew the fruit and swallow all of the seeds whole. The fresh-off-the-tree one was worth the effort, but I'd never seek it out otherwise. :) We walked farther in and picked some star fruit off another tree, got to see the start of pineapple on a pineapple plant and the start of a pomegranite on a pomegranite tree. I also got hoisted to get some more pink grapefruit from another tree. We also saw beautiful bird of paradise varieties in full bloom, wandered through another farmer's chicken coop and met some of the local fishermen who were actually not fishing, but were selling coconuts on the side of the road.

A farmer picks us some delicious grapefruit!

Grapefruit here doesn't look like what we get in the grocery stores in the US.

View from our hike.

A colorful little Caribbean house on our hike.

Bird of Paradise yoga pose in front of Bird of Paradise plants. :)

On the banana plantation.

Gavin by the chicken coops.

After the hike, Gavin and I headed to Laborie to look for some arts/crafts for our house. We arrived at Laborie's arts and crafts section, and there were no shops open! We asked the woman working in the cafe if they were open today, and she said normally the stores are all open; she wasn't sure why they were all closed. (opening and closing times all seem to me plus or minus three hours here... :) ) While we were talking to her, one store opened, and we bought a little mini painting on handmade banana leaf paper. Then we headed to Choissel to check out the art gallery there. We bought a couple little nick nacks - the paintings were really expensive.

After our little detours from the plan, we finally got back to the villa and hung out on the deck reading and relaxing for a bit. Ken and Diane brought us some fresh young coconuts, and the gardener Martin chopped open the top for us to enjoy some coconut water.

After a couple hours we headed over to Sandy Beach to enjoy the ocean. We played in the ocean a bit while watching a kite surfer glide back and forth in the water, and every once in a while show off with a jump in the air. :) There were hardly any tourists on this beach, just a few locals blaring music on their stereos or playing catch on the beach. The sand was perfect, soft and light brown, and where the tide didn't reach was shaded with beautiful seagrape trees and green with lush, leafy plants on the ground. I tried out another yoga-on-the-beach photo, which ended up being a massive FAIL.

FAIL! Too close to the tide coming in = a CRAPLOAD of sand stuck in my hair... Not to mention an awkward looking headstand. :) I was itching sand out of my hair all night, I coined the term "Sandruff." :)

Sandy Beach.

We had a quiet evening in. We made spaghetti in the villa, shared a bit with kitty friend (She actually doesn't have a name! Diane hasn't named her!), had a Piton on the deck and went to bed early. Overall a lazy and relaxing day.

Gavin watches a kiteboarder on Sandy Beach.

 

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Detour: seriously, don't even consider driving this road...

I started my morning with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice from the grapefruits Diane gave us yesterday - really tasty! We ate our breakfast on the deck, then went back to the police station to take care of the local license so we could "legally" drive in St. Lucia. The officer told us to go to the next building down and they would take care of it. So we parked in front of a large shopping mall and went to the Transport Board on the second floor. They took a quick glance at Gavin's driver's license, then gave us a form to take to yet ANOTHER building to pay the fee, then we had to come BACK to the Transport Board to get the actual license! What a pain!

After all the messing with the license we headed to the north side of the island. We aimed for Castries, which is "cruise ship central" on the island. On the way, we noticed a sign diverting us from the road; it looked like part of the road was a little washed out.

A little cement missing. Doesn't look too bad...

A little washed out: understatement of the year:

The detour took us around beside the washed out portion - not only the cement, but the dirt a good 20 feet below it got washed out!!!

 

Castries was packed with people, both tourists and locals. Driving through the city, it didn't really look all that interesting - lots of cruise ship-oriented stores, a casino, malls, etc. The central market looked like it could be fun, but there was literally no place we could find to park, so we continued through the city north to Rodney Bay, the main tourist beachy area of St. Lucia.

We had lunch at a Spinnakers, a decent beach restaurant with some of the slowest service we have ever had! (any time we get slow service in the Caribbean we say they are on "island time." :) ) Gavin had a Caribbean "pepper pot" which was good, but not peppery at all (they probably tone it down a lot for the tourists) and I had some pretty good mahi mahi.

Rodney Bay.

 

Gavin enjoys a Piton at Spinnakers.

Tourist lazing-around grounds.

Rodney Bay was your typical tourist beach - umbrellas and chairs for rent, locals wandering through the chairs selling everything from fruit to drinks to crafts, lots of pasty white tourists lounging around. :) The sand was lovely and soft. We didn't swim, as I had forgotten my swimwear - shame on me! The most exciting thing we saw on the beach was a motorboat pulling a family along in what looked like a giant inflatable sofa.

After Rodney Bay, we continued north to Pigeon Island National Park. Pigeon Island isn't actually an island anymore, it is a penninsula jutting out from the north end of Rodney Bay. It has the ruins of an old fort, cannons, army barracks, etc. I tricked Gavin into climbing Signal Hill (after he insisted he wasn't going to climb it. :) ), and we got an amazing view of the bay and the ocean!

Panorama of the view from Signal Hill.

 

Ruins of army barracks on Pigeon Island.

An interesting tree on Pigeon Island.

Rodney Bay viewed from above.

Gavin at the top of Signal Hill.

View of St. Lucia from the top of Signal Hill.

 

On the way down from Signal Hill.

After climbing back down Signal Hill, we headed back through Castries and headed back to Vieux Fort for the night. I got my first chance to drive in St. Lucia - driving is on the left here, and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. Gavin was hanging tightly to the "Oh shit!" bar and giving a lot of "advice" for the first several minutes, but once we got comfortably on the highway, he fell asleep. :)

Back in Vieux Fort we returned to the Island Breeze restaurant on Sandy Beach for dinner. They were STILL out of shrimp, but I got to have fish tonight. Our kitty friend from last night curled up on the chair next to Gavin and snoozed there for probably a half hour. After dinner we headed back to the villa, exhausted from all the driving, and slept with the island breezes drifting in through our window.

 

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