St Lucia

 We docked in Castreis, the capital of St Lucia, at around 8am.   Our booked excursion "Panoramic St Lucia" was not until 11.30am, so as the port seemed to be near the centre of town,  Becky and I decided to go ashore and do a bit of exploring by ourselves.   We hadn't considered the weather though.   We were half way up the 1st street when it came bucketing down and we had to hide under a storefront until  it stopped. Then we managed to make it to the top of the street before there was another cloud burst and we had to take refuge in the cathedral.  To be honest there didn't seem to be much to see in Castries, so at this point we decided to head back to the ship before we ended up getting soaked.   We did do a bit of souvenir shopping though - Becky bought some bags and a t-shirt and I bought a dress.

At 11.30 we hopped on our mini bus for our panoramic tour and I very foolishly sat in the window seat.   What followed was a 30 minute white knuckle ride that I pretty much kept my eyes closed for - no panoramic views for me.   St Lucia is very hilly so the journey was up and down these switchback narrow roads that were barely wide enough for 2 vehicles.   One side of the road would be a really deep drainage ditch and the other side was a drop of several hundred feet.   The driver would rev the engine to get up the hill and would be going far too fast on a narrow road for my liking and then another bus would appear around the corner coming in the opposite direction and our driver would swerve right over to the edge to avoid it.   I don't like heights, so the last thing I wanted to see was us swerving quickly towards the edge of the road where there was a big drop. Needless to say I made Becky take the window seat on our way down again.

The most interesting thing about the island is the way the houses are buit.   Because it's so hilly there is very little flat ground.  Perhaps a quarter or a third of a house will be built on actual ground and then the back of the house sits on stilts and juts out over an incline. Doesn't look very safe - I hope they don't have any earthquakes around here.

Our eventual destination was a house with a botanical garden called Story Hill at the top of one of the larger mountains.  We were treated to carambola drinks (no rum punch this time unfortunately) and other snacks like fish cakes and banana cake while we browsed the gardens.

After the tour it was back to the ship for a dip in the hot tub.