Despite our late night last night, we were up early, and, after breakfast in the buffet, packed our things for a partial boat day, partial land tour day and partial beach day (if you get the idea that we had a lot of variety today, you're right!).
Before 10:30am, our group of 20 people were boarding the cruiser Trivial Pursuit, right at Pointe Seraphine, and making our way out of Castries harbor on St. Lucia. Although we'd had some brief rainshowers earlier in the morning, we had mostly sunny skies for our one hour cruise down to the town of Soufriere, which means sulphur air in French at the base of St. Lucia's gorgeous Pitons.
After we arrived at the dock in Soufriere, we boarded a small bus for a 1000-foot climb up to Sulphur Springs park, where the Caribbean's only drive-in volcano is located. Yes, that's right...drive-in volcano. No, you don't actually drive into the volcano, but you do drive right up to it, though you smell it even before you see it. With various clouds of steam and a boiling pond, it may not be as impressive as Yellowstone or Rotorua in New Zealand (it isn't, not nearly), but it's still pretty impressive. I know it hasn't erupted since 1766, but I can't imagine living nearby with the knowledge that it's there, and so close. And so smelly.
Leaving the volcano, we made our way by bus to a waterfall (and I can't recall its name, but I'll fill it in when I find out). Martha actually entered the pool at its base, and I was so car sick just from the little bit of road travel we'd done that I jumped in and swam over to stand right under the waterfall. I hadn't done this since Fiji and Tahiti, and it was so fun (and the cold water sure cleared my queasiness).
We returned to Soufriere and re-boarded Trivial Pursuit, making our way out of Soufriere Bay and around the corner to the north to beautiful Anse Chastenet Beach, where we had an hour to lie on the black sand beach and snorkel in the adjacent marine reserve. This is the second best snorkeling on these two itineraries, second only to Bonaire. The reef looked quite healthy with huge sea fans swaying in the current. Martha even snorkeled with me...good for her!
Around 2:30pm, we re-boarded Trivial Pursuit for the ride north up St. Lucia's western coast. We cruised into beautiful Marigot Bay, where the first Dr. Doolittle movie with Rex Harrison was filmed, just for a photo op. From there it was just a short cruise back into Castries harbor where the Emerald Princess was waiting for us at Pointe Seraphine.
We returned to our cabins to quickly get cleaned up, and Martha and I walked back off the Emerald Princess to do a quick shop at Pointe Seraphine, then we rushed to dinner at 5:30pm. We wanted to go to the 7:15pm performance of production show I Got the Music, and Martha likes to sit in an area of the theater that is very popular, so it's necessary to arrive early. Seeing the production shows from a different area of the Princess Theater changes them a bit for G and I, and we like it.
As I type this, G and Martha are still out, and I imagine they're either listening to Sol Provider in Explorers Lounge or Kory Simon, the pianoman in Crooners. Or else they're having dessert (which we missed to get to the show) in the dining room. I know they're enjoying it, but I was behind on blog posts and needed to get caught up with them and with sleep. We have another busy day planned tomorrow on Barbados.
Photo 1: G and I and the beautiful Pitons of St. Lucia
Photo 2: St. Lucia's drive-in volcano
Photos 3 and 4: tropical flowers on the way to the waterfall