St. Lucia - Day 3

Day 3 of our trip - Sunday, August 19 2012  

We started the day with our usual delicious island breakfast: cocoa tea, coffee, eggs, fresh fruit, and guava juice.   I also tried some type of fried bread which was very good.  And of course we had toast with butter and their homemade mango banana jam.  Seriously, I need to learn how to make this jam!  It can't be too hard, and it is so so good.

Starfruit tree

After breakfast we hopped on the free shuttle from the plantation to Jalousie beach.   Jalousie beach is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches on the island.  It is nestled in between the two Piton mountains.  We were told that the resort at Jalousie beach used to be a Hilton, but now it's just called Jalousie Plantation. We met a couple from DC on the shuttle, Jeff and Lara.  They have been on their honeymoon for a little over a week and are leaving in a few days.  They had already visited Jalousie beach so they were giving us pointers on where to sit and where to order drinks and food.  

As the shuttle made its way down the hilly roads, we caught glimpses of the beach and blue waters.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  The resort property is very well maintained.  Everything about this beach was amazing.  There was a small area to the side where we could use the beach chairs for free, so we dropped off our stuff and relaxed.  It was already very hot, so we got in the water right away to cool down.  

visitor area

View of the Grand Piton from Jalousie Beach

soaking up the view

Brian sunbathing

Jalousie Beach

The right side of the Petit Piton

Beach Area

Panoramic of Jalousie Beach

Brian ventured off into the resort to find a gift shop to buy some cheap sunglasses.  When he got back, he brought two Caipirinhas down from the bar to the beach.  We love Caipirinhas because they are delicious and my dad makes them all the time.  It is a Brazilian drink made out of rum, sugar and limes.  The pink Caipirinha was flavored with rosemary and hibiscus.  Both versions were very refreshing.

cheers!

enjoying a Caipirinha

perfect day

After soaking up some sun, we decided to head over to the resort's outdoor restaurant to grab some lunch.  We ordered a cheeseburger and some fish tacos.  It was pretty expensive, but the food was very good and fresh.  Also, with a location like this, you can pretty much charge whatever you want and people will pay.  It felt like paradise just relaxing on a chair, looking out onto the beach, and enjoying good food.  

Lunch menu

view from lunch

After lunch, we both headed into the resort to buy an underwater camera at the gift shop.  The resort is ridiculously nice.  Here are some pictures from us just walking around:

Inside of the resort

lounge area

view from upstairs

gorgeous view

panoramic

pool area

After walking around and taking pictures, we went back to the beach and cooled off in the water.  Jeff and Lara mentioned to us that a water taxi guy offered to take them snorkeling tomorrow for a total of $60, and if we were interested in coming, it would only be $50 a couple.  Since we enjoyed snorkeling so much on our first day, we said sure.  We headed to the bar for a margarita and a Piton beer.  The shuttle picked us up at 4 PM to take us back to Fond Doux. 

When we got back to the plantation, we headed to the bar to get some drinks to take up to the pool.  We ended up talking with Johnson, the bartender for a while.  He's a really nice, young guy.  He was telling us the sports and TV shows he likes from the US.  I had a couple glasses of their rum punch and brian tried a popular island drink, Campari and orange juice.  Campari is a bitter italian liquer and the islanders love it. 

We finally made our way up to the pool and met up with Aidin and Christiana.  The area is a unique cascading pool made up of three smaller pools and decks.  It was really fun and relaxing to spend time by the pool after a beautiful day at the beach.

upper pool deck

Brian jumping in

Spiky plant

Brian soaking up the view

cool pot/fountain by the pool

pretty yellow flowers growing by the pool

king of the world

view from the pool

After drying off from the pool we headed to our room to get ready for dinner.  We heard a knock on our cottage door, and it was one of the security guards.  He had picked some fresh coconuts for us and cut the top open so we could drink the coconut water.  What an unexpected treat!

As we were walking to dinner, we saw a big frog hopping along our path and coconuts all over the place. I love the lushness of the property.

Birthday dinner!

We started off dinner with the small garlic bread toasts that they bring to each table and a bottle of Chardonnay.  I had pumpkin soup and Brian had a salad as an appetizer.  For the main course I ordered the seafood pasta, which was penne pasta in a white sauce with big chunks of fresh fish.  Brian ordered the red snapper which was very good and fresh too.  The little kittens that live on the plantation came by meowing for food.  Since the restaurant is open to the outside, the kittens are free to come and go.  For desert we ordered two cocoa fond doux drinks and a banana flambe.

It might sound like we drank a lot today, but it was Brian's 26th birthday!  We had to celebrate.  At dinner I told Brian about his birthday gift, which was a sunset cruise.  They only do the cruises on certain days of the week, so we're going on Tuesday.  We're looking forward to another snorkel trip tomorrow!

St. Lucia - Day 1

Day 1 of our trip - August 17, 2012

 

We finally made it to St. Lucia!!

Breakfast at the airport

It's been months of planning in the making.  It's even more beautiful and tranquil here than the pictures show online.

We got into New York late last night - around 1:45 AM, and we needed to leave my parents' house at 5:45 AM to catch our flight.  I only slept about two hours.  My dad was nice enough to drive us to the airport.  Once we got there, it didn't take us long at all to check our bags and go through security.  When we got to the JetBlue terminal, we had about an hour until our flight boarded.  We decided to start our vacation off right and treated ourselves to a nice sit down restaurant to have a proper breakfast of eggs, toast, and breakfast potatoes.

JetBlue app showing the flight status

When we finished up with breakfast, we headed over to our gate.  We noticed there was a mix of tourists and St. Lucian natives.  I assumed that it would be mostly tourists, but about half of the people there were originally from St. Lucia!  We boarded the plane. The pilot was really nice and made some jokes.  Have I mentioned that I love JetBlue?  Our flight was about four and a half hours.  I started out watching TV, but nothing good was on.  Once we took off, I read on my kindle for a little bit, but my fatigue took over and I dozed off for about an hour.  Once I woke up, I saw that we were close to Puerto Rico, so I started to get excited and didn't want to go back to sleep.  After a little while longer, we started our descent.  The Pitons became visible.  We've become somewhat familiar with them since we've looked at pictures online for so long.  We were getting close!

The Pitons coming into view

The island is very mountainous, which you can easily see up in the air, especially if you're lucky enough to have a window seat.  And have a boyfriend willing to take a middle seat.  The landing was very smooth.  In total, we were in the air for about four hours - not bad but I was ready to get off.  We deboarded the plane and made our way through customs, which was a pretty painless process.  Our checked bags came out right away, and we went outside to find the driver that our hotel had arranged to pick us up. There were lots of locals trying to push their taxi service, but we just told them we already had a ride and they left us alone.

When we met up with our driver, he led us to his car which had the steering wheel on the right side of the car.  A dog nonchalantly crossed the road as we started the drive.  As we continued down the road, we saw a lot of horses, a couple goats, and a cow or two.  The roads were a tad windey but not congested with tons of cars.  We passed by the local towns and houses and bars.  I mentioned that it smelled like someone was grilling or barbequing, and our driver mentioned that since it was Friday, everyone gets paid and usually goes home and barbeques.  As we drove through the island, I couldn't help but notice how gorgeous the island was.

Windey roads

Cow and duck

so excited to finally be in St. Lucia!

Once we arrived at Fond Doux Holiday Plantation, the driver took our bags and took us to the main office.  Katrina, the front desk/reception lady took us to the bar for us to get our welcome drinks. I had a rum punch and Brian tried the local Piton beer.  My rum punch was so delicious! It has a hint of coconut and cinnamon.  As we enjoyed our drinks we soaked up the surroundings.  The open-air bar and restaurant was quaint, rustic, and beautiful.  Birds were even flying through the restaurant.  There were lots of exotic flowers and fruits decorating the restaurant.  We immediately knew that we chose the right place to visit.  We truly felt like we were in the middle of the rainforest.

Our welcome drinks

When we were finished with our drinks, Katrina took us to our cottage.  While we were passing the other cottages on our way to "Cinnamon Cottage," we couldn't believe the lushness and tranquility of the property.  The pictures really do not do it justice.

walkway

exterior of the cinnamon cottage

Our porch

When we arrived at our cottage it already felt familiar since I've been looking at pictures online for months now.

inside of the cinnamon cottage

view from the bed

Although there was no air conditioning, the weather was nice and cool with a breeze, so it wasn't an issue.  The border where the wall meets the ceiling is a mesh screen, so you can clearly hear all the wonderful nature sounds of birds chirping and cows mooing and who knows what else but it all sounded lovely together.  The staff had picked some fresh mangoes and bananas and set them aside for us.

bathroom

Cocoa pods

Bananas growing right outside our cottage

We were so tired from traveling on such little sleep that we relaxed for a bit and took a nap before heading to dinner. It was nice that the the property was well lit on our walk to the restaurant.  The evening sounds of frogs, crickets, and birds were so amazing.

Lights at night

When we were seated for dinner, we asked the waitress for drink recommendations.  She said the "Cocoa Fond Doux" was very good and popular.  It's made with amaretto, cocoa, coconut cream, milk and grenadine.  Brian ordered the "Grasshopper" which had creme de menthe, creme de cacao, and cream.  Both were blended frozen drinks and were really tasty.  The Cocoa Fond Doux tasted like red velvet, and the grasshopper tasted like mint chocolate chip.  I ordered cod fritters as an appetizer, and Brian tried the salad.  The fritters were good and came with a creamy curry flavored sauce with lettuce and other veggies on the side.  For the main course, I ordered the seafood kebab and Brian got chicken pasta.  The seafood kebab was really good--it had a few different types of fish and shrimp, onions and peppers.  For dessert we ordered chocolate cake with cinnamon ice cream.

Everything about our first day in St. Lucia exceeded our expectations.  We can't wait for what the rest of the week has in store!