Saturday, March 23, 2013

Castries Market, Rainforest Zipline, and Errand Waterfall - St. Lucia


Thursday, March 21

After spending all day Wednesday fishing without catching a single fish, we were ready to get back onto land to explore more of St. Lucia with Laura and Eric. We rented a car in Marigot Bay Marina Village and spend the morning in Castries shopping in the open markets. Castries is the capitol of St. Lucia, but it's also where the cargo and cruise ship ports and ferry terminals are located. The city is extremely busy and packed with people – locals and tourists. Most of the locals work in Castries. We had a great time walking through and shopping at the markets where most of the stalls sell the same products, so the locals are very accustomed to bargaining with the tourists on the prices of their goods.


Entering the public parking garage in Castries.  
We got a kick out of the ticket sign!

Open market

Produce market in Castries.
We bough some tamarind from this lady and made juice the next morning.


After exploring and buying way too many souvenirs, we got back in the car and headed towards the Treetops Zipline Adventure Park. The zipline park is on the East coast of St. Lucia, so we got to drive through the rainforest on one of the few major roads that goes into the interior of St. Lucia.

We stopped for lunch at a little local restaurant on the beach in the fishing village, Dennery. It was neat to walk around the beachfront area and see the local fishermen bringing in their catch and cleaning their fish.


Local fishermen in Dennery pushing their boat into the water.


  Fisherman scaling his Mahi

View of Dennery, fishing village where we ate lunch

After lunch, we had a short drive inland towards the rainforest where the Treetops Zipline Adventure Park is located. There are 12 ziplines around the park, and many of them go straight through trees. Gene's mom was a fantastic zipliner, and Eric was a pro, the staff kept calling him Speedy. Everyone had a great time.


 Anxiously awaiting their start of the zipline tour

A view of the rainforest that the ziplines run through

That's Eric speeding down the zipline

Nature trails throughout the Treetop Adventure Park

Another zipliner going through the trees

One of the staff found this tarantula around one of the ziplines and was carrying it around all day, shoving it in people's faces!


Later, we drove a little further inland into the rainforest to a trail that lead to Errand Waterfall, the second tallest waterfall in St. Lucia. It was beautiful!






Sulphur Springs & Fond Doux Plantation - St. Lucia


Tuesday, March 19


We had a full day planned for Laura and Eric when we woke up on Tuesday morning. We headed into the town of Soufriere and took a taxi to the Sulphur Springs which is the drive-in volcanic area of St. Lucia. This was the second time Gene and I had seen the springs after seeing them first with Dana and Andrea earlier in March. The Sulphur Springs was packed with cruise ship passengers. We were corralled into one of the groups where a guide was beginning the tour. This guide was much more entertaining and knowledgeable than the guide from our last visit, so we enjoyed listening to his jokes and explaining the geography and history of the area.




  Gene with his Mom, Laura, and Cousin, Eric


Later in the afternoon, we headed to the Fond Doux Holiday Plantation which is a boutique hotel and old cocoa plantation renovated with beautiful gardens filled with local fruits and vegetables that they use in their restaurant. We had arranged a tour of the plantation and lunch.

Our tour guide, Phillip, started by taking us on a short hike to a lookout with a beautiful view of Petit Piton and Soufriere Bay. After the lookout, Phillip guided us through the plantation, pointing out various local plants and fruit trees. There was one really interesting large pnk flower that he picked for us that produces nectar that is specifically eaten by hummingbirds. When we held the flower out near the hummingbirds, they approached the flower and drank the nectar while we held it up for them.

View of Soufriere Bay and Kalalau anchored in the distance


Petit Piton from the lookout at the top of the trail

Eric, Phillip, Laura, and Gene

Gene and his Mom hiking back down the mountain

The plantation Spa tucked inside the rainforest

 Cocoa Pods - where the cocoa seeds come from.  They grow out of the trunk of the tree.

Laura feeding the humming bird


Phillip climbing to pick us some pink grapefruit

Cocoa seeds drying in the wooden bin

Phillip carving some cinnamon from the bark


After a very thorough tour of the plantation complete with freshly picked fruit provided by Phillip, we headed to the restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is a beautiful open patio area amidst the vegetation of the plantation. Laura and Eric got to try a bunch of the local cuisine. Once we were all entirely full with the delicious food they prepared for us (most of it grown locally in the plantation), we met back up with our taxi driver, King, who took us back to Soufriere where we had a beer with him in one of his favorite local bars. 

Jardin Cocoa Restaurant


This humming bird was next to our table for most of our lunch

  

Gene, Eric, and King (our taxi driver)

Laura, Eric, Kat & Gene with Soufriere Bay in the background

Local bar - Piton beers are $2EC!

Beautiful sunset in Soufiere Bay behind the boat
 


Sailing, Fishing, Snorkeling, Dinghying - St. Lucia


Monday, March 18


We left the marina on Monday and headed out for a full day of sailing and fishing. Unfortunately, all we caught all day were two barracuda. 

Eric with one of his barracuda


We made our way down to Soufriere, and just as we were entering the Piton Bay, we spotted a family of dolphins including a few baby dolphins! A couple of them jumped all the way out of the water a few times as they swam beside the boat. A few of the bigger dolphins headed to the bow of our boat and swam in between the two hulls, staying with us for a couple hundred yards. 

One of the baby dolphin jumping out of the water next to us

A few of the dolphin swimming with us in between the two hulls







We entered our favorite bay in Soufriere in between the two Pitons, found our buddy Shane, and picked up our usual mooring. After Eric and Gene spent some time snorkeling around the reef, we all got in the dinghy and headed to Soufriere bay to see the Bat Cave (the skinny cave in the cliffside where the fruit bats live).

Eric snorkeling around Piton Bay

Town of Sourfriere

 Dinghy Ride

Laura and the Bat Cave

Anse Chastanet Beach