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Published: January 6th 2008
I went on tour today with my teens. A “Biking and Waterfall Hike” that was far more wonderful that I’d expected or imagined. I’m on port manning this week (due to safety requirements, we have to stay onboard during port times on a rotating basis), so there hasn’t been any travel stories to share. But yesterday and today I switched around IDs (the process to be able to get off the ship). Yesterday I had to return to the doctor in Barbados for more follow-up work. It was a long, tiring and exhausting day. Today, because the teens signed up for the tour, work required me to get off - and I was happy to.
We had a half hour ride in an open air safari jeep to the village of Anse La Raye. The drive is stunning. We drove through the Marigot Bay area (where I went for my birthday last year), then father south along the coast. We got our bikes and rode out of the village, alongside a river, past a banana plantation and into the rainforest.
Brittany recently commented on my blog about Emerald Pool in Dominica that she imagines her soul living somewhere like
that one day. Riding through the rainforest today, I recalled that and thought that my soul is somehow at home there. Something about rainforests just fills me with peace, joy. The vibrant colours, the sunlight dripping through the trees, the air that is warm on your skin yet fresh and cool in your lungs.
After the ride, we hiked further into the forest to a picturesque waterfall - Venus Falls. Along the way, the guides chatted with me about all the fruit trees we walked under - sweet orange, sour orange, coconut, papaya, mango. I told them the best mangoes I ever had were in St. Lucia. I learned the island has 54 different types. One, a small green kind, is called “titi femme” - meaning woman’s breast. Clearly, a favourite tidbit for the guides to tell. And the sweetest of them all, my newfound personal holy grail of mangoes, is called the “Sweet Julie”. One day . . .
As usual, there were tons of people selling various things or offering different things to the tourists. One guy came along with a boa constrictor! People were pretty wary, but I braved the snake for a photo. As
it hung over my shoulders and the tail wove a bracelet around my arm, I laughed and joked it was like Britney Spears’ “I’m A Slave 4 U” performance.
The last stop was for a swim in “The Pool of Youth”. Swimming in in is supposed to make you 10 years younger. The water was really cold, but I swam. And I climbed over the rocks into a smaller pool where a waterfall crashed. I stood in it and let the pounding water massage my shoulders and soothe my soul. The tensions from yesterday slipped away.
Travel. Tours. Sunshine. The island of St. Lucia. I feel fulfilled, inspired, content, grateful, happy. Regardless of anything else going on, I have all this. And that’s more than enough.
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swills82
Sarah Willett
titi vs. chichi
In Honduras they call them chichis. lol. Love your photos. Makes me wish my soul were there too :.(