Wow, I have had about 3 1/2 hours sleep and can't seem to get Pat to wake up! We had to cancel our massages for the day [which have become a part of our lives]. So I sat on the balcony and watched the pool being cleaned and the birds flying in the sky -it is so peaceful and relaxing here - not as good as a massage, but very nice! I finally got Pat up just in time, the breakfast arrived as he was crawling out of bed. We sat at the table inside of our room because we were not in the mood to share our food with the birds.
The coffee is strong and good, I am sure it will help me stay away during our tour. Pat and I got ourselves together and walked to the gazebo to wait for our tour bus. The air-conditioned bus arrived a little before 8 AM with one other couple aboard. We then made our way to 4 other hotels to pick up other passengers. It was nice to see the other hotels and compare them with the Le Sport. We definitely made the right decision to stay at the Le Sport, not only for it's beauty, but also it's location is far better than any of the hotels we saw.
The tour guide and driver did not say a word as the passengers were being picked up. We were starting to wonder if this was going to be a silent tour. The other passengers - 13 of us, all introduced ourselves and we started out on our adventure. Our tour guide and driver introduced themselves and began explaining what we would see and experience on our trip.
We drove up and down the hilly "highway" which is really a narrow road that just fits 2 cars going in opposite directions. The driver was excellent and thank goodness we have handles on the back of the seats in front of us because we had many "near misses" during our trip and I had a death grip on that handle for many miles. If the driver made a wrong move, it is straight down the mountainside for all of us!
We went through Castries, which is the capital of St. Lucia. It was not modern and houses seemed to be piled on top of one another going up the hillside. We would see a one-room shack and a little above that and another shack or a home on stilts throughout our bus tour. Many of the homes seemed to be on stilts and we asked the tour guide why were homes built this way. She told us that the people borrow the money to build their homes and can only afford one floor, so they build the house on stilts so they can add the lower floor later when they get more money. There were also a lot of abandon houses all through the island, and apparently this was because the people ran out of money and could not finish building at all.
Our first stop was the drive-in volcano. The tour guide said we would start with the smelly part of the tour and then continue on to the Botanical Gardens and the Diamond Waterfall. We drove up to the entrance of the volcano and a volcano guide got on our bus. He told us that the sulfur smell would make us younger! He said he was actually 45 [not!] and since he has worked in the volcano for years he was now only 20. We all wanted to jump out of the bus and get young, this caused a lot of laughter and plans for what we would do now that we would be years younger.
We got off the bus when we arrived at the bubbling black stuff with smoke drifting from below - the smell of rotten eggs was everywhere. Gee, I could make some eggs and let them spoil, inhaling them and get young at home! The guide told us about the volcano, and said that if there is volcanic activity anywhere in the world that this volcano reacts to that, the bubbling gets higher and the smell gets stronger. We all walked over a narrow bridge and looked down at the smoke and bubbles below. The temperature in St. Lucia is hot anyway, but this was like a sauna that smelled bad!
Now that we were all much younger, we quickly walked to our van and rode back to let off the volcano guide at the guard area. The "guard" areas at the hotels and here at the volcano have a piece of wood connected to weight and someone manually lifts it so you can drive through - it is something like a see-saw. Coming for an automated world, this seemed such a non-efficient way of controlling traffic.
Our next stop is the Botanical Gardens & Waterfall - they even have the "fountain of youth"! Maybe if I stay here I will become 10 year old soon. The gardens are beautiful and have many unusual plants. We walked on a garden path with beautiful flowers and trees everywhere. We arrived at the waterfall, which was magnificent and this is just where Pat's video camera died! The humidity is very heavy and was playing havoc with our cameras, but I at least got some still shots. We stopped at a little refreshment stand and got some much-needed drinks before getting back on the bus for our next stop and then lunch.
We stopped at many lookout rest stops along the way. One thing that really annoyed me was all of the venders that "attacked" us when we arrived at each stop. They would press their faces against the bus windows, holding the items they wished to sell. When we would get off the bus, we were followed everywhere and could not get a moment's peace. These people have no industry and little income, but if they would let us visit their tables after taking pictures or just allowing us to look at the landscape - they would have sold something for sure!
Banana plantations were everywhere on this island. Blue plastic bags hung over the actual bananas so they would not ripen too fast. England is the biggest importer of St. Lucia bananas and has requested that the bananas are 7 inches long and a certain diameter, or they would not accept the bananas. Why 7 inches and how you can consistently grow 7-inch bananas is something I will never understand! However, there were a lot of giggles on the bus about this 7-inch request!
We arrived at a restaurant for our buffet lunch [included in our tour cost] and we received a complimentary drink. The food was okay, but nothing like what we are use to at the Le Sport! Pat had pork chops that he didn't like at all, and I had some food that I didn't know what it was … but I ate it. A couple from England bought Pat a beer and as we sat eating lunch it rained like crazy. So far in St. Lucia it rained one night at around 1 AM for about 20 minutes and again 1 day for 3 minutes. Today's rain lasted about 15 minutes and that was all the rain we would see during this trip.
We left the restaurant as the rain was stopping and we could see thick steam coming off the roads as we continued our tour. We were headed to the southern tip of the island and then would travel the western coast and back up to the northern tip where Le sport is located. We passed by rain forests, mountain peaks and little towns, stopping all along the way. The guide describing what we were seeing, her knowledge and sense of humor made our tour so very enjoyable. We applauded our driver Alex many times during the day - he got us in places no bus or even car should be able to maneuver through.
We visited fishing villages and the most beautiful beach/water that I have ever seen. It was so blue and green, with lighthouse on mountaintop and rock formations on either side. We could not figure out why there were no hotels in this area - it would be a perfect place! We passed the US military "head quarters" which was a bunch of tents, no building and no trees! I bet these serviceman & women were very hot indeed!
The roads going up the West Coast were not in good condition. There were potholes that could swallow you, never to be seen again! The roads were narrow and sometimes straight up or down with no shoulders on the roadside. We saw more rain forests and banana plantations, more houses on stilts. We saw mansions on the high mountains and scenery that would take your breath away.
We were currently at another restaurant having another complimentary drink and I asked Pat to talk to the driver and tour guide to see if there were any shopping opportunities before we got back to our hotel. To our dismay, there were no more scheduled stops! Pat asked if we could take a few minutes to shop and get some presents for our friends back home. When we got back on the bus, all of us voted on whether we could take a 10-minute shopping stop. All agreed to this unscheduled stop, and our driver took off like a bat out of hell! The driver hit speeds so high, I had to asked if there was a speed limit and was told no - you could drive as fast or slow as you want to!
We had to make a quick stop while speeding down a "highway" because a cow decided to walk from one side of the road to the other - Pat got that on video. But again, Alex our driver had things under control and we didn't hit the cow or anything else!
We arrived at a really neat place called Bagshaws in La Toc Bay - we all saw a sign saying 40% off and the women on the bus squealed with delight - the men groaned!
At Bagshaws they hand-dye, print and silk-screen their products right on the premises. I had 10-minutes to do power shopping for my gifts. I must have looked like a crazy woman to the shop keepers because for the first 2 minutes they just stood there with their mouths open and a look of horror on their faces. One brave clerk came over and asked if she could help me - her mistake! For the next 7 minutes we ran around the store with me throwing things in her arms and her trying to find the sizes I wanted for the tee shirts. I got to the register with 1 minute to spare and everyone in the store applauded my shopping frenzy!
The items had to be calculated in East Caribbean Dollar and then converted US Dollars [EC rate is 2.6 to the US Dollar]. The clerk was very efficient and I was completely shopped out and checked out in 11 minutes! I turned around, feeling like I had been in a marathon race, only to find the other tour members and tour guide still shopping! The men were lounging against a railing watching their spouses spending money - all because I needed to go shopping. However, everyone was most pleased with his or her purchases and we got back on the bus to go "home". I am glad that I have running experience, because if I didn't - I would not have succeeded in my power shopping for sure!
The bus is now filled with people and packages and Alex is putting his foot to the floor to get us back in record time! We stopped, dropping off all of the other people on the tour and I thanked each one as they got off the bus for stopping to shop with me. We arrived at Le Sport around 6 PM and were so glad to be back to relax before dinner. You did guess it - we stopped by the bar for our drinks of the day before returning to our room … Today is Rum Cooler Day!
After relaxing we called Gerry & Nadine for dinner, they said they were running late, so we went to the dinning room for our last dinner at Le Sport. The waiters were joking with us about filing our wineglasses and would sneak up when we weren't looking and pour more wine. Our new friends joined us for dinner and again the food was out of this world! We ate so much that the "to die for desserts" didn't seem as important to us, but we did "force" ourselves to indulge and seemed to have no trouble downing the sumptuous desserts placed on the table.
Tonight was St. Lucia's Street party and Le Sport had buses scheduled to pick up any hotel guest wishing to go to Castries for the party. We were just too tired and full of food to leave the Le Sport. We went back to the bar for some drinks and decided to walk back to the Piano Bar, which is enclosed and air-conditioned. I ended up on a sofa with Nadine, Pat and Gerry sat at the bar … we talked for hours and when we looked at our watches it was 1:30 AM! We did not swim tonight, we were all so very tired and tomorrow Pat and I had a long trip home - if we had only known it would take us 14 hours to arrive back in Philadelphia!
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The tour guide and driver did not say a word as the passengers were being picked up. We were starting to wonder if this was going to be a silent tour. The other passengers - 13 of us, all introduced ourselves and we started out on our adventure. Our tour guide and driver introduced themselves and began explaining what we would see and experience on our trip.
We went through Castries, which is the capital of St. Lucia. It was not modern and houses seemed to be piled on top of one another going up the hillside. We would see a one-room shack and a little above that and another shack or a home on stilts throughout our bus tour. Many of the homes seemed to be on stilts and we asked the tour guide why were homes built this way. She told us that the people borrow the money to build their homes and can only afford one floor, so they build the house on stilts so they can add the lower floor later when they get more money. There were also a lot of abandon houses all through the island, and apparently this was because the people ran out of money and could not finish building at all.
Our first stop was the drive-in volcano. The tour guide said we would start with the smelly part of the tour and then continue on to the Botanical Gardens and the Diamond Waterfall. We drove up to the entrance of the volcano and a volcano guide got on our bus. He told us that the sulfur smell would make us younger! He said he was actually 45 [not!] and since he has worked in the volcano for years he was now only 20. We all wanted to jump out of the bus and get young, this caused a lot of laughter and plans for what we would do now that we would be years younger.
We got off the bus when we arrived at the bubbling black stuff with smoke drifting from below - the smell of rotten eggs was everywhere. Gee, I could make some eggs and let them spoil, inhaling them and get young at home! The guide told us about the volcano, and said that if there is volcanic activity anywhere in the world that this volcano reacts to that, the bubbling gets higher and the smell gets stronger. We all walked over a narrow bridge and looked down at the smoke and bubbles below. The temperature in St. Lucia is hot anyway, but this was like a sauna that smelled bad!
Now that we were all much younger, we quickly walked to our van and rode back to let off the volcano guide at the guard area. The "guard" areas at the hotels and here at the volcano have a piece of wood connected to weight and someone manually lifts it so you can drive through - it is something like a see-saw. Coming for an automated world, this seemed such a non-efficient way of controlling traffic.
Our next stop is the Botanical Gardens & Waterfall - they even have the "fountain of youth"! Maybe if I stay here I will become 10 year old soon. The gardens are beautiful and have many unusual plants. We walked on a garden path with beautiful flowers and trees everywhere. 
We arrived at the waterfall, which was magnificent and this is just where Pat's video camera died! The humidity is very heavy and was playing havoc with our cameras, but I at least got some still shots. We stopped at a little refreshment stand and got some much-needed drinks before getting back on the bus for our next stop and then lunch.
We stopped at many lookout rest stops along the way. One thing that really annoyed me was all of the venders that "attacked" us when we arrived at each stop. They would press their faces against the bus windows, holding the items they wished to sell. When we would get off the bus, we were followed everywhere and could not get a moment's peace. These people have no industry and little income, but if they would let us visit their tables after taking pictures or just allowing us to look at the landscape - they would have sold something for sure!
Banana plantations were everywhere on this island. Blue plastic bags hung over the actual bananas so they would not ripen too fast. England is the biggest importer of St. Lucia bananas and has requested that the bananas are 7 inches long and a certain diameter, or they would not accept the bananas. Why 7 inches and how you can consistently grow 7-inch bananas is something I will never understand! However, there were a lot of giggles on the bus about this 7-inch request!
We left the restaurant as the rain was stopping and we could see thick steam coming off the roads as we continued our tour. We were headed to the southern tip of the island and then would travel the western coast and back up to the northern tip where Le sport is located. We passed by rain forests, mountain peaks and little towns, stopping all along the way. The guide describing what we were seeing, her knowledge and sense of humor made our tour so very enjoyable. We applauded our driver Alex many times during the day - he got us in places no bus or even car should be able to maneuver through.
We visited fishing villages and the most beautiful beach/water that I have ever seen. It was so blue and green, with lighthouse on mountaintop and rock formations on either side. We could not figure out why there were no hotels in this area - it would be a perfect place! We passed the US military "head quarters" which was a bunch of tents, no building and no trees! I bet these serviceman & women were very hot indeed!
We were currently at another restaurant having another complimentary drink and I asked Pat to talk to the driver and tour guide to see if there were any shopping opportunities before we got back to our hotel. To our dismay, there were no more scheduled stops! Pat asked if we could take a few minutes to shop and get some presents for our friends back home. When we got back on the bus, all of us voted on whether we could take a 10-minute shopping stop. All agreed to this unscheduled stop, and our driver took off like a bat out of hell! The driver hit speeds so high, I had to asked if there was a speed limit and was told no - you could drive as fast or slow as you want to!
After relaxing we called Gerry & Nadine for dinner, they said they were running late, so we went to the dinning room for our last dinner at Le Sport. The waiters were joking with us about filing our wineglasses and would sneak up when we weren't looking and pour more wine. Our new friends joined us for dinner and again the food was out of this world! We ate so much that the "to die for desserts" didn't seem as important to us, but we did "force" ourselves to indulge and seemed to have no trouble downing the sumptuous desserts placed on the table.
Take me to St. Lucia Part 5
Take back to St. Lucia Part 3
Return to St. Lucia- From the Beginning
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