A Grand Day in St Lucia

As we left the port of Bridgetown, Barbados yesterday evening we had the first of the sail away parties.

In this pic.,taken from one of the highest parts of the ship, the party looked a real spectacle as we sailed away in the dark.

This morning we awoke in the port of Castries, St Lucia and, by 9:30 we were winging our way north to Rodney Beach in a taxi that had seen better days.

We had a good long walk through a very packed “touristy” Rodney Beach to get to this quieter part ……….

……… where we all had a swim in the fabulously warm water.  This is James and Michele in their posing mode!

Although we had a brief (but welcome) rain shower first thing in the morning the sun soon became scorching so we were glad to take some respite and down a couple of rum punches in the shade. 

At Rodney Bay Doug negotiated with Stan the taxi driver to take us on a two hour trip round some of the island. There were some terrific views from high up in the mountains ……….

…….. and we stopped occasionally to take advantage of some of the local niceties. This time it was scrumptious cakes baked by this lovely man who had been building his house for the last fourteen years.  It looked as though he had another fourteen years to go!

From the “cake man’s” house we had a great view of the Castries and the harbour – with “Ventura” dwarfing everything around her.

Another stop and we all had the treat of a drink of fresh coconut milk.

With the coconut milk and the cakes that made up our lunch for the day.

Our last stop was at the idyllic setting of Marigot Bay which was used in the Dr Doolittle film.

Now, as we prepare for dinner this evening on board “Ventura” as she sails towards Antigua, we look back at a very enjoyable and exciting day on St. Lucia