St. Lucia Day-6 Morning

Sailing into St Lucia, everyday brings something new and exciting to do!

We are docking in Castries.

This little island is so picturesque.

I love all the colors of the houses

This is totally paradise, I love all the trees, the green and of course, the beautiful blue ocean!!

Today we will explore the St Lucian coast on our way to Sourfriere, detouring through small country villages, along the outskirts of the rainforest by open air jeeps.  Can't wait!

Our ship from the jeep.

The jeep in front of us.

View of Castries

This is one of the government houses, the people here don't have much respect for their government.

The houses here are so beautiful, so different from the villages where most of the people live.

We stopped in a little village to sample the local fruit

The jeep behind us arriving, we were all standing up to ride, it is super fun, and I tried not to worry about what could happen if we crashed.

We paid $2 each to sample the fruit, it was so yummy, the star shaped one was my favorite, fresh grapefruit, mango, coconut!!

Mmmmm, the star fruit is carambola

Fresh coconut is not as sweet as the kind we buy in the store, but kind of nutty and yummy.

Love the jungle behind us

Everyone makes necklaces.

These cute little kids watching all of us, I wonder what they think?

This is the next town, we stopped for a bathroom break, and we have learned you take it.  You never now when the next one will come along.

Anita, our tour guide playing the drum.  It sounds so cool when the natives play it.

Standing up in the jeep, enjoying the ride.  The roads are narrow, and when the driver is approaching a turn he starts honking.  I'm not sure what would happen if someone was coming the other way. 

The roads are steep, the villages tucked into the valleys

This is the site of an ancient volcano, you can bath in the mud, but we took a pass. St Lucia volcanic mud is supposed to heal skin problems.

Brian wading in the muddy water, with a fist full of mud.  People had a hard time getting the mud off, they could shower in cold tap water--glad I passed.

The volcano erupted about 400 years ago.

We drove through another little town .

This island had it all, volcano, waterfalls, rain forest.

I love the bright red flowers that grow at the base of the waterfall.

Yes, we really were there--hard to believe.

These are the Pitons which rise right up from the ocean.

Oprah stays in a hotel  near the Pitons, she also owns a house on the island, but they say she prefers to stay in the fancy hotel with all the people waiting on her.  I would gladly house sit anytime for her.

It really rained right before this picture, you just stand under something and wait it out.  The ladies covered their wares with that plastic sheet and when it stopped, they go right back in busines..

These spices grow on the island, so I bought some, I wonder if they will be better tasting than the ones in the bottles at the store.

They kept telling me the vanilla is strong, to just use half of what is called for.  I have been using mexican vanilla forever, I love the stronger flavor, and they are right, half is the right amt.

This is the restaurant where we stopped to eat lunch, included on our tour.

Behind us is the view of the Pitons, this is a cool place.

2 kinds of fish, chicken, beans, rice, pasta, mangos, salad--yum

Our tour enjoying lunch, they also served a wondeful fruit drink.

The view from the restaurant.

Buying some necklaces made of coconut shells.

Back on the jeep for the 2nd half of the day!