The St. Lucia excursion continues. We finish swimming and resume the catamaran tour around the island.
All the other excursions were recommended by the ship's excursion staff. This particular one was recommended by one of Jan's friends, so we insisted on it. Her friend didn't realize that certain parts of the excursion required a lot of walking and stairs.
The island vegetation was lush and tropical.
Inns, restaurants, and bars populated most of the coves.
The fishing area might be one of the reasons the catamaran did not pull into the beach.
The beach sand was clean and free of rocks and litter.
The equatorial sun was very intense. We slathered on sun block repeatedly.
We finished the swim and continued the catamaran tour.
Jan, looks at the next village we passed.
Clouds over St. Lucia, but not over the water.
Jan and I get our photo taken by Stacy. On the southwest coast of St. Lucia are two stunning peaks, rising 2000 feet above sea level, named Gros Piton and Petit Piton, which of course translate to Big Mountain and Little Mountain. They appear in the background.
The island was probably sighted by Columbus in 1502. Resistance from the Carib inhabitants defeated several attempts at colonization by the English in the early 17th century, although France succeeded in establishing a settlement in the mid-1600s. The island changed hands several times between the two powers until the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1814), when it passed definitively to Great Britain. St. Lucia joined the West Indies Federation (1958-1962), gaining self-government in 1967 and full independence in 1979. Castries is the capital.
Gros Piton and Petit Piton are quite cone-shaped. Naturally the local brewery calls its beer "Piton."
The outcropping just north of the Pitons.
I suppose I could retire and live in the house in the center for the rest of my life.
Gros Piton from the northwest.
And Petit Piton from the same direction.
Soufrière, near the Pitons, is where we will dock.
The population is largely of African descent and Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion. English is the official language, but a French patois (French words, African grammar) is also widely spoken. The economy is largely based on agriculture (bananas and other tropical products are exported) and tourism. Saint Lucia has diversified its industrial base and possesses an oil refinery and transshipment facilities.
The sea part of the "Land & Sea" tour is complete and we switch to minibuses for the tour of the Fond Doux estate (formerly a working plantation) and some of the villages. My attempt to photograph banana trees on the plantation is frustrated by the speed.
The banana trees grow right up to the road which makes photography harder.
Yellow clusters are barely evident in these banana trees.
This arty picture includes unrecognizable bunches of bananas.
Great abstract art is what results from attempting to photograph roadside trees at 50 mph.
Finally we arrived at the Fond Doux estate, a working plantation surrounded by an array of fruit trees, flowers, flowering shrubs, and cocoa trees.
The walking trail through samples of the various crops was too rugged for Jan and her walker, so she takes a short cut to the inn to wait for us. The tropical growth is so dense that no sunlight reaches the ground.
Tropical orchids grow in profusion.
Finally I get a good picture of a banana tree. Unfortunately it doesn't have any bananas.
Coffee plants abound.
These plants were in flower.
Base of a fern tree. Fortunately, most of the plants on the trail were labelled, and I adopted the practice of photographing the sign and then the plant.
The fern trees grow quite tall.
And finally I get a good picture of a banana tree in fruit.
Another tree. Later I was able to get pictures of trees growing bananas for consumption. Unlike these demonstration trees, the banana bunch (one bunch per tree) is covered in a blue plastic bag to prevent insect damage.
Roses were grown along the trail.
Coconuts also are grown on St. Lucia.
A pawpaw tree.
A and pawpaw fruit.
Our guide tells us about the pawpaw, sometimes pronunced papaya.
This pawpaw tree had lots of fruit. Camera tip: Besides monitoring battery level and always carrying a spare set of batteries, watch the capacity of the memory card. That "infinite" card will eventually fill up and leave you hanging, as it did me.
And I didn't have Jan's camera with me. Another camera tip: Carry a second camera.
After viewing the plantation trail, we returned to the inn area and saw a demonstration on the several steps involved in processing cocoa beans. I rejoined Jan for a great Caribbean buffet. We then rode minibusses to the Sulphur Springs at Soufrière. All the Caribbean islands were formed by volcanic action, but St. Lucia is the only one where there's still evidence of activity. Like Yellowstone Park, there are pools of sulfurous, boiling water in an area covered by fragile, thin crusts. The tour guides tell stories of a guide who ventured too close trying to entice tips and was severely burned. To view the pools, you must go down and up flights of stairs. Stacy was very helpful to Jan, while I carried the walker.
The sulphur springs at Soufrière, picture from the St. Lucia Tourist Board.
The sulphur springs at Soufrière, photo from John Gage's sailing web site.
After touring the Sulphur Springs, we boarded bigger buses for a tour of several villages. We stopped in one, which had a street market, and Jan tried on island garb. Stacy helped us once more, as Jan became weak and couldn't hold lunch down.
When we re-boarded the bus, Stacy gave Jan her cold water bottle to replace the warm ones we had. I later spoke to her supervisor and recommended her for promotion.
When we returned to the cabin, Jan fell exhausted into her bunk. While she napped, I connected the camera to the TV and set up a screen show of our pictures, deleting old photos to recover memory card space.
A turtle greeted us when returned from dinner after Jan's nap.
Jan was as slow-moving and exhausted as this turtle. Most nights, after dinner, we went to a show at the ship's Moulin Rouge lounge. The balcony seating was accessible to Jan's rollator, and we could order ginger ale drinks. On this night, we heard the music of Steve Washington and a show, Greased Lightning by the cruise line's production company.
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