St. Lucia - Day 5

Another early morning since we were meeting our driver for the island tour at 8am when we docked. Our room service arrived about 6:45. Smh. I'm like Regina, I just want to sleep in. Bob rarely sleeps past 7-7:30 and that's late for him. He was up and about making noise by 6. I don't need to elaborate on how I felt about that. Moving on ...

Lawrence was our driver today. Sarah set up this tour on a recommendation from a co-worker. We did an island tour with the Riddles when we were here two years ago but enjoyed it enough to do one again. Lawrence brought his own spin and stories to the day and made it interesting. He took us to some of the same places we'd seen before and some new ones. His word for the day was "Action!" Whenever we were ready to move on we needed to say "Action!" Funny how that so easily stuck with us. He told us when we were all loaded up in the van that he didn't fill the cooler yet because he liked to check with his passengers to see what they prefer. Some people are religious and would be offended if he had beer or alcohol on board. I let him know pretty quickly that we were all heathens. The next stop was the grocery store where he filled the cooler with beer and water. The prices were crazy!! Granted the exchange for the US dollar was about 2.7 at this time, but still! Wow. We like the local beer, Piton (pronounced Pee-ton, for the mountains), so that was a mighty fine thing.

On our journey across the island was informative. St. Lucia is about 26 miles long and 14 miles wide. There are 185,000 residents and 75,000 of them live in Castries, the capital. It's a beautiful, lush, green island with full of vegetation and flowers. The 45"-65" of rainfall per year probably has a lot to do with that. Lawrence ventured into some of the politics a little, talking about one of the governors or prime ministers that said if he was elected he would take care of all kinds of issues. Then he said, "He's like Obama, full of empty promises." Wow. Think about that. Nuff said. 

As we made our way through the city, Lawrence filled us in on some island history and pointed out different buildings and sites. We stopped to take photos at strategic spots, one being the ship docked at the pier.

As we wound our way over the island there were many vantage points of the Pitons (the island's breasts).

(Photo courtesy of Sarah Williams)

There are vendors (aka hustlers) everywhere. It gets a bit overwhelming after a while. I understand it's their livelihood and all, but man do they attack you. Our first stop was a little shop area to get Jim and Ricky coffee. There was a nice view off the deck and she immediately informed us that in order to take a picture we had to patronize her - her words, not mine. Lawrence told us not to buy her stuff because it was expensive. Ok. I was already drinking water and had to pee so asked about the restroom. She promptly informed me it was $2. Forget it, I'll wait. When I walked away, she said I could use it because two in our party bought coffee. Lo and behold there was a sign on the building. You can't make this stuff up (another line that was free flowing this cruise).

The next stop was to a banana tree farm, where Lawrence explained the life cycle of a banana. It takes 9 months for a banana tree to mature, bear fruit and be harvested. Since banana trees only produce once, when they harvest the bananas they cut the tree down. There is always a sapling beside the parent tree that takes its place. I love these bananas. They are soooo good! These fresh bananas make ours at home taste fake. So sad. 

Another spot we stopped at had all kinds of things for sale. Banana ketchup, banana barbecue sauce, banana rum, etc. Believe it or not all of it was really good! On one of the tables this guy had liquors for tasting. Jim put down $10 for 10 shots. The banana rum was most excellent, but the Nutz 'n Rum? .... Oh dear God in heaven. Who the hell ever thought peanut butter rum would be a good idea I have no earthly idea, but sweet Jesus it was good. It would be good on anything. It wasn't even cold and it was that good!!!! I know we aren't going to be able to find anything like that at home. So sad. 

Eventually at one of the stops we all ended up buying necklaces made from coconut shells. Bob got the guy down to 2 for $10 (a ladies' and a men's). We were told to wear them so the other hustlers would leave us alone and respect us for supporting the local economy. So we did. 

At some point we popped our first Piton. Lawrence amazed everyone by popping the tops off with a water bottle. How stinkin' cool is that? I had to video it. We continued on our journey to the volcano. One of the jokes Lawrence told (btw, this guy has a strong resemblance to Danny Glover) went like this: How many animals does a woman need in her life? After a number of guess we had to give up. The answer was ... Four. A mink in the closet, a jaguar in the garage, a tiger in bed and a jackass to pay for it all. Hahahaha

We finally made it to the volcano (we did this last time and remembered the awful sulphur smell) and took the tour and some pictures. It hasn't errupted since the early 1700's so they think we're pretty safe for the time being. The stronger the sulphur smell, the safer the volcano is. We're good because it really stunk. It smells like rotten eggs, or worse.

(Photo courtesy of Sarah Williams)

On the way out there was a cashew tree with a sign on it. I had to ask about it. Did you know the cashew tree produces fruit similar to a pepper? One cashew nut is in that piece of fruit. One tree produces only about 20 pounds of cashews a year. Oh and the fruit is poisonous unless you roast it first. Interesting huh?

Our last stop was the Toraille Waterfall. The last time we came here, Bob and I actually got in the pool and under the falls. That stuff is cold!!! We just watched from above today. There are tons of vendors selling their wares at every stop. Exhausting. One lady at this place gave us respect for supporting the local economy though, so that was good. 

Some of the flowers here are so beautiful!

We decided to skip lunch and head straight back to the ship. We didn't realize what a good decision that would turn out to be. While winding our way around the island we kept stopping for this and that. On the way back we didn't stop for anything. Keep in mind how small the island is. The Pitons are on the other side from where the ship is docked, but still. These roads are West Virginia/England roads all over again. They are small, crooked and winding as hell. It took almost 1-1/2 hours to get back to the ship. All the relaxing, loosening up at the sauna, getting my massage, etc is so gone. I'm tight as a rubber band again from holding on winding through those mountain roads. We all would've lost our lunch if we had put food in our stomachs before heading back. Finally, finally we turned a corner and saw home. If we'd had the umph we'd have cheered! LOL Seriously though, Lawrence was great and we had a wonderful time seeing the island. He was a perfect host. It was a good day to have an island tour and stay out of the sun since most of us still looked fresh off the grill. 

We got through security, dropped our stuff off in our cabins and headed up to the cafe for lunch. Most of us got salads to tide us over until dinner because it was so late by then (pushing 3:00). After two early mornings we were reading to come back to the cabin and nap. It felt good to have time to chill out. DE and Sarah tried to go gamble but forgot the casino isn't open when we're docked. Bummer. About 4:30 Regina twisted my arm and talked me into having a glass of wine with her, so I gave her our wine bottle opener to open one of her bottles (we all bought some at the duty free shop before boarding in San Juan). A few minutes later she handed it back saying it was broken! Whaaaaat? We just used it yesterday! Sure enough, the top just broke off of the corkscrew. I ended up calling German to see if he had a pair of pliers to get it out. He took it with him and was gone for a little while. Eventually we did get it back corked and ready to pour. Thank you German!

Sunset on balcony (Photo courtesy of Sarah Williams)

We had planned to go down to Blu for dinner around 7:30 tonight but Regina noticed the cafe was having a German Feast from 5:30-9:00 and wanted to check it out. We had looked at Blu's menu and weren't overly excited about it so that worked for all of us. It was really good! I can't name all the different foods they had, nor pronounce them, but the meatballs were my favorite. As usual, with full bellies and alcohol flowing the conversation got rowdy. 

We've had one-liners flying around all week. The ones that keep coming up are:

"You like that?" (Kirk Cousins)

"Can't make this stuff up!"

We now have a new one. "Wanda believes the Internet." I turned to investigate. What the hell does this even mean? They were discussing the luggage hold in San Juan. DE asked why I thought the restaurant would hold our luggage while we explore the city. So Kathy told him because I read it on the Internet and believe it. Oh now I'm offended. I read it on cruisecritic.com, not "the Internet." Needless to say, there were birds flying left and right. I introduced them to the difference in the Hallmark vs. the American Greetings sign. "You like that?" LOL

DE was excited to hear that St. John had an underwater state park for snorkeling, which turned into snerkling at some point during the evening. When asked how his GoPro video came out he told us about a guy in front of him at the turtles in Barbados. (It WAS a zoo at that spot just to see two turtles.) Anyway, this guy zoomed in front of him, kicking him in the face and DE looks up to see his man jewels swimming around in front of him. Guess his trunks were too big. Smh. I asked him if he was going to edit that part out. Hahaha Lord have mercy we were crying. 

From there we decided to go downstairs and donate to the local Celebrity cause - the casino. Kathy won big! Used $10 and walked out with $63. DE came out with another $300. The rest of us just donated. LOL. 

St. John tomorrow!! Can't wait!!