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2/22/2015 Sunday
Castries, St Lucia
Arrive 8am Depart 3pm
Then there is a one-hour stop at Soufriere to pick up shore excursion passengers.

No plans.

20150222 Sunday Castries, St Lucia PhotoLink

Our tour was later, so we rose in a casual manner and finally set out for breakfast. Then we fiddled around in the cabin, relaxing.

When our 1pm tour was approaching we went ashore and looked through shops. The shopping area was the nicest by far of all the islands we’ve visited. D picked up a few things including a bracelet.

The tour started, again in a 20-passenger mini-bus. The trip was down the west coast from Castries.

First observation was that there are bars on the windows again, indicating some poverty and crime. Saint Lucia is a country all its own In fact today was the 35th anniversary of its Independence Day. It’s also Sunday. Everyone is out having fun, and playing.

The worst part of that is that all young men have a motorcycle. Then they race around the island. I know they’re having fun but we lived in fear one would have an accident in front of us. We did see one auto accident where the driver got too close to the edge of the road and a wheel fell into the storm drain - they didn’t look hurt.

We stopped in Marigot Bay, a small fishing village. A few vendors open, lots of people wandering around. Pretty bay.

We stopped in Anse La Raye, another little village. More vendors.

We stopped in Canaries, another little village. We stopped at several photo view sites.

We stopped in Soufriere, the largest city in this part of the island. Another lovely bay with a view of the Pitons, two mountains that are World Heritage sites (see pictures).

We went to the drive-through volcano (one of a kind). About 14,000 years ago, a small volcano collapsed into a caldera; part of the wall opened. People built a road into it so tourists can ride into the caldera and look around. They estimate the magma is 1,000 feet down. Very strong sulfur smell. Steam rising from many small vents.

We went then to a recreated 1800’s plantation. They show how things were done back then. We had bites of raw coconut and saw the processing of cocoa beans and sugar cane squeezing.

We returned to Soufriere to get the the tender to the ship. Sixty persons per tender, and it took two because the various tours coincidentally ending in Soufriere at more or less the same time.

Once everyone got back aboard, the tenders were hoisted in and we steamed off westward for Curacao.

D & I quickly changed for dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. Tonight’s event was a six-course dinner by Ming Ming Wong with wine pairings by Anton, the sommelier. It was a tremendous success. The pairings worked well and the food was outstanding. Our table partners were a couple from Tampa, originally Chicago, who have cruised on Holland America extensively, and a pathologist and his wife from Indianapolis. I’ll scan the menu when we get home and LINK to it here.

D went to the cabin. I had a drink in the piano bar and chatted with Canadians (about one-third of the passengers are from Canada).