Monday, June 2, 2008

St. Lucia: Stories and Sunsets

I must admit that I was pretty exited about seeing a new place in the world, and St. Lucia definitely fit the bill. We have been counting down the days for this trip since August last year. Something that is anticipated for that long sometimes will let you down when the actual experience come to pass, but this absolutely did not. It was a fantastic trip, and it is a destination that everyone should try to see.


St. Lucia, the island itself, is very mountainous and has cliffs coming down straight into the sea. There were probably 2 roads on the whole island that traversed it’s length, and it took us an hour and a half to drive the 27 miles to the resort. That trip was accomplished with a white-knuckle experience of riding in a mid 1980’s euro-style-van driven like a Ferrari through the winding mountain roads. Some of the grades were so steep that it looked like 1st gear wasn’t going to get some vehicles up them. I’ll bet the shops that work on brakes and clutches have a pretty strong year round business.

The main export, bananas, were being grown everywhere. These farms weren’t the normal thing we think of in the States. They were up and down the steep mountain slopes as well as anywhere else you could tuck a few plants. There literally was no truly flat ground to put a typical farm. The island goes from sea level to over 3,000 feet at the top at Mount Gimie (Jimmy) where all the Rastafarians live.



There were old volcanic “plugs” all over the island if you looked for them. These form when the magma that fills the volcano is a harder rock than the surrounding material that actually made up the mountain. The elements eventually erode away the softer materials and leave this wild looking spike of rock. The most photographed of these, are The Piton’s , but they were unfortunately on the other end of the island. We were hoping to get a shot of them from the airplane on the way in, and of course they were on the other side of the plane. Then our hopes were dashed again on our departure as we didn't even rate enough to have a window! Thanks Delta!


We stayed at a Sandals resort, which didn’t allow children. This was a wonderful thing for a 10 year anniversary but probably not when you were on the receiving end of caring for the kids. Brenna and I got to remember what it was like to date and to go and do things on the spur of the moment. I must thank the family that looked after the little ones during our time away. We probably won’t ever be able to thank you enough. Secretly, we know how much work 3 kids can be, and having them dropped on you rather than easing into the task is a shock.


After a long post, here is another sunset shot taken from the sea wall overlooking the beach at the resort. That is one well fed Dove...


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