st lucia page 3

Carol & Sarah snorkeling. And you wonder why

fish are afraid of people.

A blue fish

A trumpet fish

Soufriere

Saturday, Dec 27

It’s hard to believe it’s our last full day in St. Lucia. It’s amazing… you wait so long to go on a trip – anticipating it with every passing day / week / month – and then it goes by in a blink of an eye.

So, with no time to waste, we woke up about 8:00 to start our day. Time for breakfast at – you guessed it – Doolittle’s it is ! The entire island was egg-less so no French toast, no pancakes, no eggs, no omelet’s, etc etc… Instead, Carol and I split the French Bread Toast with jelly / butter, fried potatoes and coffee / OJ.

Our plan for the day was to go snorkeling by taking one of the water taxis from the resort and we made a reservation with Alex who was recommended by Bernie – the resort receptionist. Unfortunately, after we got our snorkel gear together and went to meet Alex, he was no where to be found. Luckily, Cuthbert, another one of the water taxi guys (aka Beach Bombers) who works for the infamous Michael, was able to take us and matched Alex’s price. He was a very good guide – slowing down for sights, giving us history and explaining where we were and about the towns and to let us take pictures.

Anse Chastanet is where we spent our day snorkeling. Cuthbert stayed in the bay on his boat the whole time just waiting for us – very patiently I must say. We snorkeled, laid on the beach and even had lunch. There is a resort at the beach as well as a restaurant. The beach was a mix of white and black sand. On the beach, there are grass hut-like umbrellas with lounge chairs and hammocks for the hotel guest’s use only. There were cabana boys / girls patrolling the beach bringing drinks from the bar / restaurant that was on the sea side.

Snorkeling was absolutely amazing! We stayed close to each other just in case one of us saw something the other missed. We saw huge fish in a school that looked like Piranha but bigger, a barracuda (we didn't make any sudden moves), puffer fish (Sarah saw a puffer that was so tiny and so cute!), trumpet fish, four-eyed fish, a goldspotted eel that was HUGE! We also saw flounders that were flat and camouflaged themselves, parrot fish, sergeant majors, trunkfish and more.

Back at the resort, it was time to get to our villa, have a beer, relax and finally check out the tram. The tram holds about 4 people and is moved up and down the mountain by cables. It goes up to Oasis Marigot, another resort with lovely villas.

For dinner, we went to JJ’s. They had entertainment this Saturday night. It was a guy putting on a show towards the end of our meal. He did a couple fire tricks including taking 2 sticks and putting it on his touch while on fire, rolling it on his chest, dancing with them and spitting fire. He also took a couple of the audience members and put the fire on their tongues. There was also a limbo dance where he lit the bar on fire before he went under… getting lower and lower each time. As well, there was audience participation where the performer would limbo behind them to help hold them up as they went under the limbo bar that was on fire. Our performer also went very, very low which was truly impressive.

It was a perfect last day. But stay tuned for Sunday and don't forget to check out the differences in cultures!