Two Steps Forward, One Step Back!

With Nancy and Vernon aboard we wanted to give them the best Caribbean experience we could and after seeing the horrors of Fort De France we decided that going back to St. Lucia would be best.  We got up early, pulled anchor and headed South again across the St. Lucia channel.  The day was rainy and dreary…perfect for a crossing.  On the way across the channel Vern noticed something ahead but as the waves were between 6 and 8 feet high the “thing” came and went…then Captain John saw it too…it was a whale .  The whale disappeared as quickly as it came.

We made a day of it and sailed all the way to Soufriere and picked up a mooring in between Grand Piton and Petit Piton.  We had been eating all of our meals aboard and decided we wanted to go to The Hummingbird Restaurant.  The Piton was blocking our reception so we had a very nice yachtee help us make a reservation by “relaying” the call.  We were booked for 7pm and had a Water Taxi called “Feeling Good” all lined up to take us around the point and into town…much too far in the sea state we were experiencing for five of us to dinghy around the mountain and into town.  Well, they never showed up so Mac-N-Cheese it was.

The next morning the divers had arranged to be picked up for a dive on Emerald Reef.  Jonathon saw a Spider Crab which sounded like a beautiful yet strange creature.  Lunch and rest then off we went again for a Land Tour.  First stop was the Hot Springs at the volcano…a lot like Yellowstone with the steam and bubbling mud pools.

Next we went to the Botanical Gardens, Mineral Pools and Waterfall.  The land for the gardens was given to 3 Devaux brothers by King Louis XIV of France in 1713 for service to their country and it has been passed from generation to generation.

The waterfall was beautiful with the yellow colored rocks from all the sulpher.  Coming into the mooring field we could smell the sulpher from the volcano.

I am showing you photos of the mineral pools before and after Hurricane Tomas hit in 2010.  The mineral pools were originally built in 1784 by orders of King Louis XVI for the French Troops.

Our guide, Dixon (being an ex-car salesman and good at the sales aspect), told us we had to go see Heaven and we all agreed.  So off to Tet Paul Nature Trail.  This was such a well-done trail with guide that we HIGHLY recommend it!  We had no idea it was here…no mention of it in any tour guides.  The first plant is the “looney” fruit, we also saw pineapples and a cashew tree.

We kept climbing up and finally found the “Stairway To Heaven” with a 360 degree view of the Island of St. Lucia and a Piton view to die for.

Since we were already in town we dinghied over to The Hummingbird Restaurant which we had all to ourselves for a while but first we explored “The Bat Cave” at dusk with all the bats starting to fly around…eeeeeewwwww.  A sunset in paradise was the perfect way to say goodbye to another day!  Those of you who know Vern will have to ask him about the “blind” man at our table .