Day 6: St. Lucia

We woke up to cloudy skies and a light drizzle in St. Lucia thanks to looming Tropical Storm Erica, but the view outside of our cabin from our balcony on Deck 9 was spectacular. The rolling mountains of St. Lucia are absolutely gorgeous and I would go back there again for a day or two stay in a resort before island hopping to another hot spot (um, St. Maarten!). After another breakfast of waffles and strawberries we headed off on our jeep safari excursion through St. Lucia. The streets were VERY crowded, bumpy, and tight and despite the fact that it was Wednesday it seemed nobody was at work except our tour guide staff. The downtown area where we docked looked quite poor which was sad to see, but I like to get the real story behind the places I visit.

On an overlook in St. Lucia

The crowded streets of St. Lucia

After a surprisingly bumpy jeep ride through some banana plantations where I seriously thought our child was going to make an early appearance (note to self: Jeep safari = NOT a bright idea when pregnant) we cruised up the side of one mountain and down the other en route to our destination. The scenery was beautiful (even after getting a mouth full of fruit flies in the middle of the banana fields). We got to see where all of St. Lucia's gas was brought in and stored, their water plant, the bay were one of the James Bond movies was filmed, and we even got to taste test some fresh coconut, bananas, and bread fruit. At one stop along the way we were accosted by a peddler trying to sell us some local goods. Of course our whole jeep caved in and got assorted hot sauces, a really yummy sauce called banana ketchup, and real local unsweetened cocoa in a stick form that smelled absolutely devine. A.R. and I brought home a thing of cocoa and got some sauces as a gift to some of our friends.

The bay where James Bond and Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed

Hot & windblown on the jeep safari

Our last stop was to hike a short trail to view a waterfall in the rainforest of St. Lucia. After some more bumps in the jeep and seeing the houses precariously built on the side of the mountain on stilts (one house had stilts 3 stories high!) we arrived to our hiking spot. We each got a walking stick and made our way into the cool rainforest which was such a relief in the humidity. The waterfall was pretty, but not as spectacular as I thought it would be and the rocks were so slippery we didn't go that close up. We weren't allowed to swim in the water because it actually flowed into the town's drinking water suppy but we did walk through it and take some pictures. On the jeep ride back to the port we passed through more countryside and saw all the kids walking home from school for the day in their uniforms. Most of the schools there were built by the Hess gas company which I thought was pretty cool.

Hiking through the rain forest

The waterfall, we went further back after the other people left.

Once we got back to the boat we showered and had a huge lunch before we took a nap. A.R. had caught a cold after getting chilled on our snorkeling trip in Barbados in the pouring rain, so he wasn't feeling too well and I liked taking advantage of sleep since the 1st trimester can be so exhausting. :) We had the late seating at dinner so we had some time to kill since it had started raining by the time we got back to the cruise ship. We were supposed to go to the ice show that night on the boat but slept through it, so instead we played Quest after dinner which is like a huge adult scavenger hunt. It was so much fun even though our team didn't win. We also scored tickets to the ice show (it's free) the next night so I was happy.