St. Lucia - Day 2

Day 2 of our trip - Saturday, August 18 2012 

Another day in paradise!  We woke up on the second day of our trip and headed to breakfast.  I took some pictures along the way.

Pathway on the property

Fruits growing throughout the property

interesting flower

I like to call this one the strawberry shortcake flower

Our plan was to take it easy and relax by the pool today.  Breakfast was good, it was buffet style and there were a few other couples already there when we got there.  We tried their local cherry juice, which tasted like a combination of oranges and mangos, toast with butter and their homemade mango banana jam, coffee, and eggs.

After breakfast, Brian and I were hanging out by the front office where they have Wi-Fi.  We were checking out e-mails as I overheard a guest wanting to do a sail and snorkel trip but she needed a minimum of four people.  When she saw us outside the office, she asked if we’d be interested in doing the sail and snorkel with her and her boyfriend, it was only $60 a person.  They introduced themselves, Christiana and Aidin from Southern California.  We said sure!  They seem really nice.  The office was able to set up the trip for today.  Brian and I were both excited to meet other people here.  They are staying at the hotel until Thursday, so maybe we will do other excursions with them!

The four of us met the taxi driver around noon and we headed into town.  Our driver, Marcus, was really nice and stopped the car to point out the beautiful views along the way.

view of one of the pitons

As we drove closer to the port of Soufriere, you could tell it was a poor area.  We met up with one of the guys who would be taking us out on the boat, Shae, who led us to a small shop to pick up the snorkel gear.  Once we got our masks and fins, he took us to the boat.  It was so nice and big and all ours for the entire day!   

The views as we were pulling away from the island were absolutely gorgeous.  Shae offered us drinks and we all enjoyed the local piton beer as we sailed our way north of the island.  

Town of Soufriere

The captain of the boat was an older man named Andrew.  After about 45 minutes of sailing, we arrived at the area we would be snorkeling, called Anse Cochon.

view of the petit piton

Brian and Aidin enjoying the ride

about to jump in!

As soon as we anchored the boat, we could see bright yellow fish in the water right away!  We all jumped off the back of the boat and into the water.  It felt nice and refreshing.  I’ve never really snorkeled before so this was a cool experience.  We spotted an eel, a turtle, sea urchins, coral, and lots of colorful fish.  It was so peaceful and relaxing being in the water among all the sea life.  A few local vendors approached us while we were snorkeling on their kayaks trying to sell us mangoes and shells and other island items.  Christiana was pretty good at fending them off.  We snorkeled for about an hour or so, and then got back on the boat.  Aidin bought four mangoes from one of the Kayak salesman and gave Brian and me two of them.  We bit into the fresh and juicy mangoes while we were still dripping wet from the ocean.  I felt like such a true islander at that moment!

The four of us moved to the front of the boat on the way back to enjoy the views and take pictures.  Christiana and Aidin were telling us about their long trip from California to St. Lucia and their long trip and layovers planned for the trip back home.  In total, it took them nearly 24 hours to get to the island.  That made Brian and me very appreciative of our direct flight!

a cave where there is a large population of bats

St. Lucia flag

When our boat docked, there were three or four young boys helping us step off the boat.  They immediately started asking for money.  We told them that we were sorry, and that we had none, but they made us feel pretty uncomfortable.  They wouldn’t leave us alone.  When we got off the dock, we spotted our taxi driver – good timing.  Marcus took us to a local supermarket so we could buy snacks, wine, and beer. 

When we got back to the plantation and settled back into our room, we realized Brian’s back was completely sunburned from snorkeling. Oops.  We’ll have to remember to put more sunblock on next time.

We showered and got ready for dinner.  By the time we walked over to the main restaurant on the property, we were starving.  The waitress brought warm garlic bread to our table.  To start, I ordered a salad and Brian got the black eyed pea soup (really good) and we ordered a bottle of wine.  For the main course I got the Red Snapper which came with a fruit salsa and rice.  Brian had a sirloin steak with mashed potatoes.  For desert we ordered cocoa fondues -the frozen cocktail that we tried on the first night and tasted like red velvet, and a crepe flambe.

Well, the sun completely tired us out for today, but we still have lots of things we want to do this week:  the plantation tour, climb the Gros Piton, maybe zipline, go to Jalousie beach, relax by the pool, and the surprise I have planned for Brian’s birthday on Tuesday.  I’m excited that his birthday is tomorrow!  It’ll be a nice relaxing day.

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!  

Island Life - A Quick Recap of Our Trip to St. Lucia

Anse Chastanet beach in Soufriere, St. Lucia

I can’t believe the vacation we’ve been planning and looking forward to for months has come and gone!  It was such an adventure and unforgettable experience.  Brian and I are so happy that we got to do so many things and that the vacation was everything and more that we hoped for.  I kept a journal of everything we did each day, so when I get a chance to type it all out, I’ll do a post for each day we were in our tropical paradise.

Relaxing before heading to the beach on Brian's birthday

Just a little background info/highlights: We stayed at a working Cocoa plantation called Fond Doux Holiday Plantation in Soufriere, St. Lucia. There are 10 cottages on the property, so we were able to make friends easily, as we saw familiar faces each day.  We were there for one week, and although it is considered rainy season, it only rained one day, while tropical storm Isaac was rolling through.  I thoroughly enjoyed the “island life”, so much so that I even forgot my flip flips on three different occasions, feeling no need to have shoes and or any belongings.  I took over 1700 pictures.  I know, a bit overboard for seven days but there was so much to see!  So many new tropical flowers, plants, birds, fruit, people, and experiences that I had to capture.

Town of Soufriere, St. Lucia

After a week of being on vacation and feeling stress-free and well-rested, it’s hard to get back into the normal routine of waking up early and going to work.  But I also have a new appreciation for how fortunate I am, and how people in other parts of the world live on so much less, but are still perfectly content.  It made me realize that I don’t always need to have something new or expensive – I should appreciate what I already have.  Soufriere is not the main tourist town on the island, so we got to see a lot of how the people actually live.  Although we were a bit sheltered staying at the plantation, every time we left the property we saw how different their lives are from the typical American.  Worn out clothes and shoes, older cell phones, older cars, small houses, etc. were the norm.  As we walked around with our Iphones and camera, I quickly realized how fortunate we were. 

The main things I took away from our trip to St. Lucia were the beauty of the island, the slower pace, or "island time", a few good friends, and the wonderful quality time that Brian and I got to spend together.  I can't wait to share more in the upcoming posts!  Stay tuned.

Cheers!