Day 6 ~ St. Lucia, West Indies

Warning! This is a long post... so many awesome pictures! I did my best to show highlights... but still ended up with quite a few!!!!

Today was the most jam packed of them all. A long hike through the Rainforest, driving through the villages of Ansla Ray, Cannerie and Soufriere, swimming and bathing in Sulfur Springs and Mineral baths, Botanical Gardens and Plantations!

Ansla Ray ~ a small fishing village.

Overlooking our port in Castries, St. Lucia.

The ride was on very windy hair pin roads!

Some of the village folk in Ansla Ray.

What cuties!

A Kodak moment in front of The Pitons. The Pitons are twin volcanic peaks that were formed millions of years ago and rise to over 2000 feet.

Here we are beginning our hike through the Rainforest to get to The Diamond Botanical Gardens and sulfur springs in Soufriere. Notice that our guide, Victor is barefoot. He trecked the 5 mile hike without shoes!

Bananas

Anna and I in the Rainforest.

Gotta' love the Keens. They are the best shoes to wear when hiking and then going in water.

Tommy and I were the caboose of the hikers. Gilbert lead the way...

The first destination of our hike was The Sulfur Springs Waterfall. It is off the beaten path and on the Gros Piton. We basked in the warm water and let the waterfalls massage us! The sulfur smell was unmistakable and we smelled like rotten eggs for the rest of the day! But it was a small price to pay to be able to experience a bath in a natural volcanic hot spring.

I made mine a mud bath!

The water was blacker than black.

Next stop ~ the mineral baths. The waterfalls plunge into this spot. The river that feeds into these waters are rich with minerals from the earth’s core. Natures answer to a medicinal hot tub.

We had the place to ourselves!

Now that's a mud bath!

On to the Botanical Gardens. This is where the leisurely saunter turned into an uphill hike.

"Why, hello there, my little friend!"

On to explore more of the Botanical Gardens and the Cacoa Plantation.

Victor sliced some fresh coconut for us. My mom is a coconut fanatic. She would have been in Heaven.

Antigua is a huge exporter of cacao seeds. Cacao seeds = chocolate. Or so I thought! I learned a thing or two about cacao and how it is an ingredient in chocolate. Did you know that the darker and bitterer a chocolate bar, the more Cacao it has? Cadbury chocolate (my personal favorite) is less than 10% cacao.

Here, a worker from the plantation is stomping on the cacao beans. Just like rubbing a little cocoa butter on rough feet!

To harvest cacao pods are harvested by hand using a machete to break them open. The pulp and seeds are removed by hand. The open seeds are spread out and left to ferment for a week.

The Botanical Gardens were full of lush and wild with tropical trees, plants, and flowers.

"The Claw."

We headed back to the ship and snoozed on the hour and a half bus ride back to the port. I did wake up in time to catch a shot of this beautiful bay. A scene from Pirates of the Caribbean II was filmed there.

Good-bye, St. Lucia. I can see why Oprah Winfrey has a home here! There are 365 beaches is Antigua. One for every day of the year! I would like to visit again and stay in Coconut Bay. There is an all inclusive Coconut Bay Resort that is calling my name!

Tomorrow is Barbados. We're headed to Payne's Bay to snorkel with turtles and then do a whole lot of nothing! Fine by me. Just give me a beach chair, my sunglasses and a cold beverage and I'm a happy girl!