Man was it ever hard to get the girls out of bed this morning. Everyone is completely exhausted from our "vacation". I woke up to a screaming alarm clock but quickly fell back asleep. A few minutes later mom Called over from their room to make sure we were up. I'm gonna need a vacation from this vacation because I am exhausted!!
Up to breakfast for an overload of food first thing in the morning. It was a quick breakfast because we had to make it to the port in time to catch our tour. We zig-zagged through the market desperately looking for our tour guide. Luckily the other people in our group were even later the. Unfortunately because the boat ported late that day we had to skip some of the stops at the beginning of the tour. Hitting bumper to bumper traffic in Castries didn't help either. We're all getting used to driving on the left hand side of the road now, we don't flinch as much when the drivers pass or make left hand turns. My family has accused me of driving like these crazy island people, rude.
The first stop was supposed to be at a banana plantation where we were going to take a small tour of the plantation. Since we were late the driver hopped out and grabbed us our complimentary banana's for the road. He tossed them on Taylor's lap and told her to pass them around before he sped off to the next stop, he quickly told us to kept some of the extra banana's for snorkeling later in the day. I usually get very sick from banana's and was a little skeptical of eating one, but I decided to suck it up and try it. They were so creamy and delicious, probably didn't make me sick because there was no pesticides. ***Inside joke from a previous trip I had been on in Hawaii, my cousin's husband insisted I was getting sick because of the pesticides they used on mainstream bananas. Spoiler alert, the roadside banana's free from pesticides still made me violently ill when I was in Hawaii. Probably because pesticides don't affect banana internals. ***
We continued on, driving up the mountain on a winding road through the rain-forest. The driver told us some history about the island settlers and explained the reason's behind the school uniforms. I was surprised that the main reason was because there's no distinction between rich and poor children so that poor children will hopefully get the same treatment as children who aren't poor. It's also less money for parents to spend on clothes, and a means of identification of which school the children belong to in case of emergency.
As we drove through the country side we saw a group of cows tied together with a rope instead of in a fenced area. The driver told us this is so the farmers can move them from field to field by just moving the rope. We finally made it to our first stop at a lookout over the Forrest. We got out to get a drink and look at the beautiful views.
The many drinks they offered the guessed on the tour who were drinking alcohol. *Note the family's excited and happy expressions while getting family pictures done*
Just as we crawled back in our van it started down pouring!! I'm so glad we chose to do this excursion today, the weather was cloudy and rainy the entire day so riding in a van around the island was the perfect way to spend the day!
The next stop, lunch! We stopped at a community center and they fed us some amazing local foods. They were delicious!! My personal favorite was the grilled pineapple with ham, it was just like Hawaiian pizza! There was also these little seeds(I believe they were called tacori) that had a ton of flavor! One tiny bite would make your mouth flood with saliva and your entire face pucker. The picky children enjoyed the banana cake, sugar cane and coconut kisses.
**Note moms expression when eating tacori.**
Unfortunately around this building there was a lot more stray dogs, once again my heart broke for them. One had a badly injured leg that looked like it was infected, I wish I could have done more to help the poor thing. I dumped my meaty foods over the balcony for them to eat. As I solemnly walked back to our van wishing those poor dogs had a better life, I looked back towards the building and was pleasantly surprised to see the servers dumping all the excess food over the balcony for them to eat!
Off we went to a small look out where we took some more family pictures, everyone objected as per usual and so the pictures turned out as such.
Off we went on our way to the mineral pools/mudbaths. As we got closer to the volcano the smell of sulphur filled the air, it wasn't pleasant. We pulled off the road and walked down to the mud baths. The whole family was surprised when we saw the way that the mud baths worked, all of us had pictured big pools of mud that we would "bathe" in. Instead there was a natural hot spring from the volcano to soak before standing up to rub yourself with mud that had been scooped up into buckets.
For the first time since I was a little girl I saw my dad without his shirt on! We all teased him poking at his belly and mocking his perky nipples. "You're all jerks to me" he whined as he crossed his arms over his chest and hid from the camera.
It was pouring rain again so hopping back into the hot spring to wash off the mud felt amazing!
Our guide had told us that we should leave the mud on our faces because it was really good for your skin. When we got out of the hot pools we started to notice that no one else had left the mud on their faces but us.. mom is convinced that our driver was playing a trick on us naïve tourists.
We spent too much time in the hot springs so we only got a glimpse of the steaming volcano (which stunk like sulphur).
Our guide yelled at us to come back to the van or we would be late, us obedient children started back towards the van.. Mom and Dad wanted a better look at the volcano so they ran the opposite way, all the while giggling like love struck teenagers running from their parents. It was adorable.
We quickly stopped at one more look out before being taken down to the dock to catch our water taxi to Sugar Beach.
The water taxi sped across the water bouncing over the waves, we rounded the mountain and pulled up to Sugar Beach.
We picked an empty beach chair next to a local vendor who was holding a machete cutting up coconuts for the people. After dropping off our towels and backpacks we all went straight into the water. The kids and Dad went out snorkeling while Mom and I stayed by the beach to watch our stuff. The local's warned us not to step on the sand in the ocean because there was sea urchins everywhere. We floated in the waves trying not to touch the sand, and panicing whenever the waves pushed us down towards the sand. On the beach a couple were arguing over something and it sparked a conversation about people who get grumpy on vacation. Mom and I talked about how we don't like when people are grouchy and complain while their on vacation, it's just wrong. They can be in a beautiful tropical place that they probably will never be in again and yet they can't stop complaining!! Personally I think they should suck it up and appreciate where they are. T came back to switch snorkels because hers was leaking and she kept sucking in Sea water so I took her snorkel and went out to swim with M and J. Mom swam out with a few bananas and was immediately swarmed by angel fish. We also saw a tiny little eel hiding under a rock, M and I kept trying to dive down to get a better look but the salt water would immediately float us back to the surface. While Dad was on the beach watching our things it once again started down pouring, all of our towels and backpacks were completely soaked. We all swam back to shore to ring out our towels and head back to our van.
When we got off of our water taxi there were some young boys waiting at the entrance to the dock, they had some fish and grasshoppers made out of banana leaves and insisted that my sisters and I take some. I tried to tell them no because we didn't have any money to pay for them but the young boys insisted that they made them for us and they wanted us to have them. His name was Alan and he had the most interesting light brown eyes, as I was walking away he called out to me "I'll miss you Ashley". When I was back in the van the boys walked up to Mom and Dad and asked them to pay for the souvenirs that they had given to us.
Next stop was a fresh water-waterfall. I was super excited to go rinse off in some fresh water, the salty ocean water always makes my skin feel sticky. Mom, T and I were the only ones brave enough to go under the water fall, the other half of the family were too lame.
The fresh water was freezing compared to the warm ocean, but it was refreshing, after you got past the temperature shock!
Back into the van we went, back across the winding roads to the community center. This time there was a birthday party going on inside so we ate our lunch in the parking lot. They gave us fresh bread with cheese, it was sooooo delicious.
Our fellow van mates grabbed a few more drinks for the ride home and we were off. Back through the winding roads and island traffic of Castries to the boat. Once again our friendly tour guide was completely silent on the way home, no more hospitality for us I guess! We shopped through a few stores and I picked up a T shirt with "St. Lucia" on it. I immediately regretted not getting a T shirt at all of our other destinations as PJ T-shirts are my favorite memento's from my past. Mom and I strolled around looking for souvenirs for her seminary class while M and T soaked up the free wifi! They must not have heard us when we said "wait here and we will be right back" because when we came back shopping they were gone. After looking around for them for a while we decided to head back to the boat since it was getting close to the "all aboard" call! As we walked back to the boat we joked about being prepared to leave them behind since they had both been pretty grouchy most of the day. When we got to the boat T was waiting for us at the "scan in" line so it worked out just fine.
I went up to the hot tub while Mom looked around for M who had gone to the top deck to see if she could see us in the market. While I was in the hot tub they started a "line dancing" lesson, it was so much fun to watch. I'm extremely shy when it comes to crowds so I danced along in the hot tub instead, Mom walked up and she started dancing beside the hot tub. We both had a ton of fun giggling at this old man who was really into it and was shaking his hips as much as he could. A woman in the hot tub beside me kept whining about how no one had soul while they were dancing. She turned to me and said "I don't even line dance, watch how much better I am at this", with that she popped out of the hot tub to show them how it was done. She was probably the worst one out there and just shook her boobs around when she didn't know the steps. It was pretty comical, Mom and I could barely contain our giggles as we compared her attitude to certain people we know who are like that!
When the line dancing was over Mom and I joined the rest of the family down in our rooms to get dressed up for supper. While us girls were getting ready Dad and J went up to play mini golf. I was ready first so I decided to go up and play with them so the girls could have more room to get ready. I didn't end up finding them so I just strolled along the top deck in the windy ocean air. I walked along contemplating what my life would be like this year. Would I stay single for the year? Would I travel as much as possible? What gave me purpose and inspiration? Things like that.
I made my way back down to the room, stopping on every floor in the "milk run" elevator. Off to supper we went, the nightly challenge -- No more being cranky and rude when we are in a beautiful place.
After supper we all decided to go upstairs for ice cream instead of eating dessert from the main restaurant, after all we all adore the strawberry ice cream! We sat outside in our favorite lunch spot and enjoyed the warm ocean air. After dessert we went upstairs to play basketball as a family, but unfortunately the court was taken. Dad and the kids started playing shuffleboard while Mom and I sat in the sun-chairs "boo-ing & woo-ing" when they would shoot the puck. When they got bored of that we went upstairs to play mini golf. Playing mini golf with 6 people per hole takes some coordination that's for sure!! We all got different colored balls and decided on a pecking order. We all "kindly" mocked each other's golfing skills, and pretended to be our Grandma M; sticking out but out and moving our knees back and forth before finally taking the shot. We got through 5 holes before we had to go down for the show! We didn't really know what the performance was tonight but we knew it had to do with Mo-town. Mom was convinced it was going to be the actors and actresses from the previous shows, so she was excited to watch them butcher the soul music. Instead we got to watch a group called "spectrum" preform, they were amazing; mom absolutely loved the show. After the show Mom and I went down to watch the people dancing to the 70's music. This Chinese lady who loves to dance kept trying to pull me onto the floor, so I grabbed a hold of Mom and dragged her along with me. We went to leave after the first song but each song after was one we liked so we stayed to dance. M came and joined us for a while, but a camera guy kept bumping into us and filming all the couples around us so we decided to head back to our room. Tomorrow we would finally get to sleep in--ish since we didn't have anything particular planned for the next day
We laid in bed laughing at the panorama picture of Taylor before slowly drifting off to sleep with the waves rocking us to sleep!
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