|
09.01 13:49.38N
61:03.88N
So Happy New Year everyone. Hope you are
enjoying 2008.
For New Year's eve itself as I mentioned in our
last blog, and spent it with Chris and Carol from Phillippides III,
Henry, Tim, and Jez from Ariel, and Rebecca and Tom. There is a rather
grand hotel here so we went up to their party. They had a live steel
band, rum punches, fireworks at midnight, followed by THE WORST disco I have
ever been to: A mix of incredibly naff 1980's party tracks, and American
'house' music. We struggled through 30 minutes of it and decided the boat
was calling.
View from top of hill at sunset. Those
little dots in the water are Our
beach from down below. and yes they are real life coconut
boats. Little Blue is the 2nd from right,
past the
plant.
palms you can see there.
Since then we have been doing a lot of
beach-style activities, which is fine by me as I have had an excellent book to
read. We also went out for a day: we hired a cab from the very excellent
Ben's Taxi and Jeep hire (+1758 488 9347 and ask for Dave) for a morning,
and went off to explore. Our first stop was at the Sulphur springs.
Apparently, this whole area of the island constitutes a 'caldera' - a volcanic
crater 12 km across which last erupted over 200 years ago. It doesn't emit
lava, but gas and ash. These days the mud pools bubble gently all the
time, stinking reassuringly of rotten eggs. The smell comes from the
hydrogen sulphide gas which only smells when in low concentration. If it
were ever to stop smelling, our guide advised us to head for the hills as that
would mean that dangerous levels of gas were coming out. Not that running
would actually help, as the gas would frazzle you inside and out, and turn St
Lucia into a rerun of Pompeii before you could say Pyroclastic
Explosion.
 
Our next stop was the Diamond Botanical
gardens. The guides here work voluntarily, and rely on your tips for their
pay. As a result, ours almost sprinted round, eager to get back to the
gate and pick up here next fare. The whole place is absolutely beautiful:
it's not very big but packed to the gunnels with exciting and exotic plants and
their attendant critters. So really, I want to go again and just sit there and
absorb the atmosphere. In the mean time here's a sample of what we
found.
For that authentic rainforest feel, this
is This lovely lady is
called a Ginger
Lilly
Barbara, Tom, and Rebecca at the waterfall
what the gardens look like.
Finally, our last stop was yet another waterfall,
this time a hot one!!!!!
These pools are at about just over body
temperature, and thus are very difficult to get out of...
So yesterday we said goodbye to Rebecca and Tom -
boo hoo! Thanks for all the chats Rebecca, and thanks Tom for letting us
girls thrash you at cards, not to mention the use of your fab computer. We
shall miss you both. And now we await the arrival of my cousins, Robert
and Caroline later on this evening.
| 
