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! :)

 

Posted with Blogsy