Sanders' Salutation: Day 5: Castries, St. Lucia

We had no plans when we walked off the ship on Wednesday in St. Lucia. We figured we'd go out to the front of where security was and see what we could find. Our goal was to find a place to go swimming, and to see some of the country. We got of pictures taken and we were off.

We joined an older couple from the ship on a tour and visit to a Castries home and rain forest.

The roads in Castries are the most frightening to ride on. They drive on the left, but the roads are narrow, not taken well care of and the first road out of town what narrow, windy and steep the whole way up.

I saw a few of these ladies carrying their load on their heads. I thought it was fun to see. Maybe I need to learn how to do this with my groceries so I have my hands free for all the kids.

As we climbed up the hill side, we could see as far as we wanted. It was so beautiful and a bit magical.

At this lookout there are a lot of people selling souvenirs in a farmers market style. Just to get to the lookout we had to go through the "market". I almost didn't like St. Lucia because the people here selling won't take no for an answer. It was a beautiful view, but the most annoying stop on our how cruise because of the sellers. Shawn got stopped by a man who was selling necklaces and his line was, "I have something for you"... and he then doesn't tell him the cost until after Shawn was adorned with necklaces all over his arms. I know why they do what they do, but I'm a lot less likely to buy from a pushy salesman than anyone else.

This is the home of the Queen of St. Lucia. It was the nicest home we saw, but there were others that were big and beautiful also.

These big green balls are called breadfruit. They make cups, bowls, rattles and things of that nature from them. They are not eatable though, so we saw a lot of different things for sale on all the Islands made from the breadfruit.

Cute little homes like this one were dotted all over. I love the architecture mixture on the islands.

We saw a few wild growing pineapple plants here and there...and now that I knew what to look for I saw them all over.

The road tour of St. Lucia paused as we stopped at a old time Castries Kitchen and rain forest preserve. I really wish I could remember the name of the place we stopped, but it has totally escaped my mind.

We got our walking sticks and went on a small (short) hike to the bird area of the rain forest where we learned to call the birds. We weren't very successful as no birds came flying our way. We then hiked back up to the old style kitchen. All I have to say is I'm grateful for all the modern amenities we enjoy that makes cooking for our families enjoyable. This is a picture of the kitchen hut.

We saw some lizards as we walked through the herbal part of the rain forest. It was so fun seeing natural things like coco bean pods, vanilla bean pods and cinnamon growing in their natural environment .

Bananas

The Cocoa tree

Cocoa pods are the yellow pods in the upper trees. These are still growing and not ready to use.

Cocoa

Cinnamon

Vanilla Pods

Can you find the butterfly?

Grapefruit, mango's, and apples we tried. I don't remember the name of these apples, but they were not the juicy apples we are use to here.

After we were done at the rain forest tour, our tour guide drove us to Rodney bay where we rented jet ski's for an hour. That was so much fun. I've never been on a jet ski and it took some getting use to it and the currents of the bay to feel I was in control of this fun toy.

We found a little cove where we saw some little kids playing in the water and an old man fishing. Shawn decided it was a good place to jump in and cool off. It would have been a wonderful cove to play at for a while.