Southern Caribbean cruise 2009, part 5

Day 5
St. Lucia
September 10, 2009

I was very excited to be in St. Lucia and to see the Pitons! These mountains are beautiful in pictures and as I would find out they are even more beautiful in person!

Here is our approach to St. Lucia with the Pitons seen in the distance:

Soufriere, the city where we docked, as seen from the ship:

We booked a tour with Spencer Tours. We got lucky and had a van all to ourselves (6 of us total) so we had plenty of room! Diane, Tom, Vicki and Mark joined us on this tour. We stopped at various points along the route for pics. Here is our ship as seen from the hilltops:

City:

We visited a banana plantation. Here our guide talks about the growing and harvesting of bananas:

Young bananas covered in blue cellephane to protect them from insects:

Sampling the local bananas:

Banana trees everywhere!!!!

We also stopped to visit the snakeman! Vicki and Mark decided to hold him, but NOT ME!!!

I did touch him, however.

The Pitons in the distance

The smoke that you see in the center of the pic is from active molten lava!

We visited a waterfall

The Rasta plant (good name)

After a lunch of jerk chicken and banana salad and other local favorites we made the short walk to our water taxis which would take us to Jalousie Beach, between the 2 Pitons!

Approaching the beach

On the beach.

On the ride back to the water taxi drop-off we raced the other boat! The rocky formation they are passing is one of the Pitons.

Approaching the drop-off area.

After another great dinner in the Pacific Dining Room we decided to watch some of the opening NFL game between the Steelers and the Titons on the big screen on deck.

The end of another great day!

We loved St. Lucia! Now it's on to Antigua!!!!