At Anchor in Beausejour Bay in St. Lucia

Blue Note
Marco M.
Thu 27 Dec 2012 11:03
Date: day after Christmas 26/12/12
Position 13:49.16N  61:04.0W

At a mooring at Beausejour Bay between the Gros Piton and the Petit Piton.
Getting here from Marigot bay was easy and short 10 NM, mostly done wit the engine since the mountains of St. Lucia were
covering the east wind.

Got the last of the 4 mooring available. A young kids on a dingy helped me with the line.
I then negotiated a good price for having him coming back to take me to do the climb of the Gros Piton.
Appointment at 11am.

At noon he was nowhere to be seen. So, I decided to take my dingy to the exclusive resort of Jalousie.
There I found a driver how organized to take me to the top of the Gros Piton.
Everybody is saying you need a guide, but I'm not sure it's true. The driver took me to a near by village at the foothills of The Gros Piton.
When the road narrowed down the driver "past me" to another guy who walked me over to a building where a lady gave me a receipt for 80 EC$
and called a "guide" to take me to the top of the Pitons.
A 18y young girls "Marvelle" comes few minutes later She had a small bottle of water, her cell-phone, her small skinny dog and wearing flip-flop.
I figured how difficult the walk could be ? And I got a private guide as well.
She start walking fast and at the same time texting on her cell. I made sure I showed her that I could keep up with her.
We started the climb at 1:30pm, after only 10 minutes it got very steep already and by 2:30 I was exhausted and \we reached a point with a beautiful view of the Petit Piton. Marvelle had not even broke a sweat and she told me that was the half-point. We rested for 2 minutes, drank some water and started again for an even steeper second section. Her dog was breathing hard but not as hard as me and Marvelle was still not sweating.
Another hour and we made it to the top. The view (see photo below) was great but, honestly, not that great as all the work had demanded.
The view form the middle-point (see photo below) was better. However the trees and plants on the walk and the satisfaction of a hard work was great.
        

Emacs!
The view of the Petit Piton form half-point

Emacs!
Marvelle with flip-flop and her dog.


Emacs!
View from the top.

Emacs!
Blue Note at a mooring at Beausejour Bay between the Gros Piton and the Petti Piton