Yoga ~ Travel ~ Joy: Getting friendly with the local wildlife.

Today was our fifth wedding anniversary! We got up and made ourselves a nice breakfast of eggs and fried plantains while we waited for the car rental company to get in touch. Our gorgeous deck overlooking the southern tip of the islands affords us views of both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

The amazing view from our deck!

Breakfast on the deck.

The owner's friendly but skittish cat.

Our awesome deck!

Our favorite place to sit on the deck.

Ken called us about two hours after we got up and said that our rental company still didn't have a car for us, but they knew someone else who could give us a rental car by 11am, so we took them up on it to be guaranteed a car for the day! Ken and Diane brought us some fresh grapefruit and bananas from local farmers, and then they gave us a ride to the rental car company. We thought we were all set for the car, but then the rental company informed us that we needed to buy a local permit to drive, and took us to the police station to do so, but they told us the permit station was somewhere else and was closed on Sundays. Eesh, we have never had so much hassle getting a rental car! We decided to drive the day "illegally" and get the permit tomorrow. :)

We decided to to take Diane and Ken's recommendation for a romantic lunch. We drove about an hour to the Ladera resort between Gros Piton and Petit Piton, the two landmark mountains on St. Lucia. We had lunch on their terrace restaurant Dasheen, which had goregous views of the ocean between the two mountains, as well as lovely flowers in front of the terrace that were attracting humminbirds! Squirt guns were provided on each table in case other local birds got too close. We had an okay, expensive buffet meal, but the view was worth the visit!

Happy Anniversary to us at Dasheen!

Dasheen's beautiful deck.

A view of Petit Piton from the deck.

A hummingbird on the flowers beside the deck.

After lunch we decided to go snorkel at Anse Chastenet, a resort and beach that is said to have the best off shore snorkeling on St. Lucia, near the town of Soufriere. We stopped in Soufriere for gas, then went through town and tried to find Anse Chastenet. Google Maps was not very helpful - all the roads marked ended before reach Anse Chastenet, so of course we got completely lost. On one of our detours, a drunk local stumbled up to our car and slurred that he was the local tourguide for this area. We showed him a map and asked how to get to Anse Chastenet, and he stabbed at the map and said "You are HERE!!" He was pointing at a map of Castries - an hour away...

Soufriere, in the shadow of the Pitons.

A view of the Pitons from our "detour."

After backtracking to Soufriere again, we found the right road to Anse Chastenet - an absolutely HORRIBLE road that had once been paved but was so ridden with potholes upon potholes that it may as well have been a dirt road. Most parts of the road didn't have room for two cars to go past each other, so we had to back up to let another car squeeze by a couple times. We finally arrived at Anse Chastenet, a volcanic sand beach whose sand was a combination of gold and black sand. We were informed by resort attendants that we were not allowed to sit on any of the dozens of empty beach chairs since we were not staying at the resort, so we headed to the end of the beach and clamied a spot on a little rock ledge.

Anse Chasenet beach.

Gotta have a yoga on the beach picture. :)

The snorkeling was a bit murky, but there was a bit of coral and a few fish to see. I was excited (and dismayed at the same time) to see three lionfish! I had never seen one before in all the diving and snorkeling I have done. I guess the lionfish cleanup (since they destroy so much Caribbean marine life and have no natural predators here) hasn't made it to St. Lucia yet.

Bright yellow sponges in Anse Chasenet. Trying out Gavin's anniversary present - a GoPro camera! :)

Gavin snorkels under the dock.

Gavin snorkeling.

After quickly changing our clothes in Anse Chastenet's "for guests only" bathrooms, we sat at their oceanside bar. While Gavin dropped our wet clothes off at the car, I ordered us a drink made from a "local aphrodesiac" that was actually really tasty (though the effects were not noticeable. :) ) Then we drove the hour or so back to Vieux Fort and had dinner at one of the only restaurants on Sandy Beach: Island Breeze. In typical Caribbean fashion, both my first and second choices on the menu were not available (no fish or shrimp today), but the basic chicken sandwich I ordered was fine. While sitting and enjoying the ocean breezes, a local kitty jumped up onto the chair beside me, crawled into my lap for a bit, then onto the ledge beside our table. He seemed to be interested in the cherry decorating my drink, which made for some cute, albeit dark pictures. (the red light beside our table was the only light!) Then we headed back to the villa to turn in after our busy, happy anniversary day!