Skipping Stones

St. Lucia

St. Lucia is one of our favorite islands of the trip (that, and St. Maarten). We loved our tour! It was almost 7hrs. long, but we saw a lot of the island, and our tour guide was fun. A lot of the roads on St. Lucia are VERY steep (photos don't really do justice, but I tried). I did a lot of praying on that tour! At the end, we stopped at a restaurant high up in the mountains and had a creole lunch, complete with free rum punch.

St. Lucia is like the epitome of a lush, tropical island. Our tour guide was constantly pointing out to us avocado trees, mango trees, banana trees, nutmeg trees, almond trees, etc. You felt as if you could survive a long time if you had been shipwrecked there ages ago. When we first arrived, it was rainy, but the rain never lasted longer than 10-15 minutes before stopping and then the sun would burst through the clouds. God even gave us a rainbow to complete it all. :)

Really steep roads!!

Dave and I, at a scenic overlook at the beginning of our tour of St. Lucia.

A view of the port city, Castries, from the overlook.

Baby bananas.

The bananas had bags on them to help protect them from pests. The holes in the bags and the blue color are to help them from ripening too fast. Did you know only one large bunch of bananas grows on each tree?

Our driver Samuel, and the weaver.

The man weaving and selling bananas.

A fish the man wove for me. :)

A woman washing clothes by the creekside.

Nutmeg trees were all over the place.

Gorgeous!

A steel drum band, for our listening pleasure. :)

A whole lotta bamboo!

Rats.

The waterfall at Diamond Botanical Gardens.

I cannot remember what this flower is, but it is lovely nonetheless. :)

A beautiful hummingbird in the gardens.

More St. Lucia

One of the places we stopped at was the La Soufriere Volcano. Once upon a time, they allowed people to actually go down that steaming, hissing, bubbling area and walk around. A tour guide a few years back stopped that, though, by stomping on the ground (why, I don't know...), and the ground crumbled under him, dropping him into the boiling mud and water down below. Thankfully, he did not die from that, but, alas, that is why we aren't allowed to go down there! The tour guide showed us a pipe where water was coming out, and it looked like someone was drawing a bath. The steam was pouring out of it! The only negative about this was that it smelled strongly of sulpher/rotten eggs. The tour guides told us if it ever stopped sending out steam, then that is the time to leave the island because it is going to blow!

The Pitons, symbol of St. Lucia.

View from the restaurant we had lunch at on St. Lucia.

Marigot Bay, St. Lucia.

St. Maarten

This was one of our favorite islands on the whole trip. It was just neat and pretty and, hey, you can can't beat hitting up two countries in one stop! The island of Sint Maarten-St. Martin is the smallest area of land which two countries own a part of. The French side is a bit bigger than the Dutch, but who's counting? The Dutch side uses the Netherlands Antilles Guilder and the French side uses the Euro, but they take U.S. Dollars, too, of course. The whole place was beautiful and we had wonderful weather while there.

We took a "See and Sea Tour", where we boarded a bus and took about an hour tour around the island. Then, we drove to the French side and got on a semi-submersible boat for a tour of the sea. The only complaint was we didn't have enough time on the island!

One of the more interesting things we tried on the island was the guavaberry liqueur. Yum!

The duty-free shopping area in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, where we came ashore first.

A coconut palm.

Our ship is on the right and looks smaller, but it is just moored back a bit farther.

Workers were always doing repairs on our ship. These are some of the bravest guys, I think. They were bobbing about on a metal raft with these huge poles with paint rollers on them, painting the side of the ship!

This sign is all that separates the Dutch and the French sides of Sint Maarten-St. Martin.

An old sugar cane plantation house on the French side.

An old church on the French side.

A pasture on the French side.

The area where the boat was moored.

Dave, me, and our friends above deck as the boat started out.

We went on a semi-submersible boat out to a little coral reef to see what marine life was out there. You sat above water for about 10 minutes, then they told you to walk down a set of stairs, and sit on benches with glass surrounding you. You could then see out on all sides. It was pretty interesting, but I wouldn't recommend it if you get seasick! I don't normally get seasick, but that sure tested me. I was happy to get out!

Diver feeding the fish for a "photo op".

Diver with a sea urchin. The striped fish there are called "Sergeant Majors"-how cute!

Our cruise ship.

Formal Night

We had a couple of formal nights on the cruise. It was fun to get all dressed up! The particular cruise line we went on, Celebrity, did not allow shorts, t-shirts, tank tops, flip-flops, etc in the evening at all, which was a nice touch. You had a few people who did not follow the rules, but, overall, everyone spiffed up for the evenings and it was very glamourous.

Fancy!

Our table.

A larger view of the main restaurant.

Everyone at our table.

Our waiter, Ottoneil, from Guatemala, with our Baked Alaska.

Not the best photo, but it shows the glitz in the casino. It literally hurt my eyes everytime we walked through there (and we had to to get to our restaurant!) I told Dave it is like "Ocean's Eleven". :)

Waiting for The Naturals to sing.

Dave and Alex with "Brad Pitt". :)

The Naturals

While on the cruise, we had the pleasure of listening to an a capella group called The Naturals. I love a capella singing anway, but these guys actually interacted with the audience and made it very fun. We ended up going almost every night, which got us noticed by the group. Our friend Alex was expecially noticed, as he almost always showed up with a huge bottle of water. One of the singers, Michael, singled him out and from then on worked Alex and his water into their songs. It was very hilarious! It would be great if these guys came out with a cd some day...