I also realized that the week was more than half over and I had yet to eat a slice of pizza! So…Bob and I ordered a pizza for breakfast that morning and ate outdoors by the aft pool. In my mind was a memory from our first cruise when I overheard a little kid say “you mean I can have pizza…for breakfast?!” Today I was that kid!! I had pizza…for breakfast…just because I could!
Today’s plan…meet up for a tour with Cosol 15 minutes after the ship docks. With cabins on deck 1, it was a breeze getting off the ship at each port. The gangplank was located on deck 0 in the front of the ship so it was simply down one flight of stairs and we were there. Coming back in the afternoon was even better. By then we were tired, and usually pretty “yucky” from swimming…and our beach bags were getting heavier by the minute. While everyone else had to wait to get an elevator, we just walked back up that one flight of stairs and we were “home”.
Cosol himself was waiting as we got off the ship and was dividing people up into groups with their respective drivers. Our group, plus 5 others, was assigned to Ben for our island tour.
St. Lucia is a VERY hilly (mountainous?) island with twisty, turny roads. They drive on the wrong side (left) of the road so at every curve you were sure you were going to run into someone coming the opposite direction. BUT…everywhere you looked was amazing beauty.
One of our first stops was at a banana plantation. (The bags are to keep bugs off the bananas as they grow.)
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| This is a flower from a banana plant. See the little baby bananas starting to grow? |
We got to sample fresh bananas….
…and also banana ketchup…which didn’t really taste like bananas…or ketchup. But…it was good so I bought a small bottle. The lady told me the bottle usually sells for $5 but since we were on a Cosol tour we could buy it for $4. Most every place we stopped had the ketchup for sale but Ben told us we could get the best price by going to a grocery store…but I’ll get to that part later.
The island reminded me a lot of Roatan…although there was obviously wealth in some parts…you could tell many of the people lived in poverty.
We drove by a small, fishing village nestled in the valley…
…and saw some fishermen getting their nets ready.
Ben would stop at the scenic overlook areas for us to take photos…
…and at most of these stops were small souvenir stands trying to attract tourists.
There was even a guy who (for a fee) would let you pose with his snake.
At one scenic overlook where we stopped for photos, Bob and I wandered down the road a bit. This guy walked by us swinging a machete and talking non-stop…to himself.
I marveled at the lush and colorful plants….
And debated about possibly getting my hair done! 
There were bathrooms available at some of the stops…but there was a charge...
…and the lines were long.
The caravan of Cosol groups all converged at one place where tables were set up with many, many different kinds of local foods for us to taste.
This blue van followed us from stop to stop and was filled with all sorts of complimentary drinks…pop, beer, rum punch, etc.
For Bob, one of the highlights of the trip was a stop at a botanical garden.
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| Watching the hummingbirds in the flowers. |
And it was here that we got our first glimpse of the magnificent pitons.
Here is a photo of Cosol’s drivers waiting while we toured the gardens. Our van was one of the last to leave because Bob was so enthralled with taking photos of the beautiful flowers!
As our toured continued, we stopped at another road-side stand…
And this was the view behind the venders...the city of Soufriere down in the valley below.
This was the view that I had been anticipating for months...and it was far more beautiful that what I had even imagined.
The water was very hot from the volcano.
And for the second time that day, we saw another machete-yielding guy walking down the road.
As we continued our drive around the island, we saw the hotel (that sort of looks like a parking garage from a distance...) where the TV show "The Bachelor" was filmed...and got a look at what every-day life looked like in St. Lucia.
Ben dropped us off at a dock where we boarded a water taxi…a VERY FAST water taxi…that took us around the pitons to Jalousie Beach.
I was content to just swim around until some man said “do you realize there is a snake right under you?” That's all it took…no more swimming for me.
Bob was dealing with a major sunburn from the previous day so he spent the time exploring along the shoreline at the base of the piton. Had we been there much longer and I'm sure he would have been climbing to the peak.
But...we only had about 45 minutes at the beach so it wasn’t long before we had get back on the boat for the trip back.
Cosol was waiting back at the dock with a jug of spiced rum for everyone to taste. This stuff was good...but STRONG!
Can you tell we were having a good time?
The last stop of our day in St. Lucia was at a bakery to pick up freshly baked bread and goat cheese. The bread was still warm and very good...but filling.
While we sat in the van eating the bread, we watched the little kids coming home from school.
Before getting back onboard the ship, we went into a grocery store located about a block away from the dock so we could purchase some more banana ketchup. The smaller bottle we bought at the banana plantation had cost $4 but the store had larger bottles for $3 each. The store accepted US dollars, but were very picky. If the bills had any marks or tears they would not take them. Also...after telling us the bottles were $3 (US) I still got back some coins in change after paying $9 for 3 bottles. The Caribbean coins make a nice souvenir as well!
That night was the second formal night on our cruise. We chose to do the assigned dining at 6:00 each night and had to pass by this giant fish to enter the second floor of the Pacific Dining room where our table was located.
