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Published: December 23rd 2008
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Having had a fantastic wedding day in somewhat monsoon conditions we were greatly looking forward to our honeymoon in the Caribbean. Indeed we were keen to do some 'proper' travelling again, albeit in somewhat more luxurious style than our last global adventure. We arrived, blinking into the sunshine, off our BA flight to be hit by a wall of heat. It had been a long time since we had felt any kind of sun. We were driven to our hotel along some pretty hairpin roads by a helpful taxi driver, we were to discover all the St Lucians are extremely friendly and helpful people, who acted as a guide pointing out the sights on the way. These included crashing atlantic waves, brightly painted local villages and Sainsburys Fair Trade signs posted outside the banana plantations. Apparently Fair Trade really works here.
We arrived just after dark at our luxury 5 star hotel (what a long way we had come from tree houses in the jungle with intermittent electricity) Discovery at Marigot Bay. And it was everything we had hoped for, built to blend in to the surrounding hillside the whole complex (which is not huge) consists of dark wood buildings
Aye, Aye Cap'n
Onboard th Brig Unicorn surrounded by the most beautiful and lush tropical gardens full of tiny blue lizards and irridescent green hummingbirds who flit like insects between the different nectar rich flowers. Overlooking Marigot Bay our room had a birdseye view of where the rich and famous moore their yachts, and in some cases, floating gin palaces in the protected harbour below.
Whilst here our main agenda was to sleep, eat, sleep some more, sun bathe, sleep again, and generally relax. On our first night we headed for our welcome drink at the Pink Snail Champage Bar, where we had our first taste of the islands rum puch. One drink later and we were weaving our way down to dinner at the hotel's famous Hurricane Hole Bar, complete with original fixtures and fittings. The first few days were spent in glorious Caribbean sunshine, where the hardest decisions were, 'Which pool shall we sit by today?' or 'How many small pastries can I manage to eat for breakfast?' However having come all this way we wanted to see a bit of this lovely island. So in travellin monkey style we signed up for several trips. The first trip consisted of catching a small boat
from the hotel and heading down the coast to a local beach, Anse Cochon where we could indulge in a bit of snorkelling. The water was lovely and clear and the fish many and varied, including some 'snuffley whiskery fish' lots of 'stripey fish' and some 'teeny tiny orange fish'. Their real names are probably a lot more boring. The boat trip back was going into the waves which meant we bounced and lurched quite considerably and was officially rated Fourth Most Scary Boat Trip Ever in our Top Ten of Scary Boat Trips.
The second trip was a sunset cruise on board the Brig Unicorn, an old pirate ship used in the filming of the Pirates of the Caribbean (as soon as Alex heard this he knew there wasn't the slightest chance we weren't going to go on this) where we drank rum punch and champage as we sailed out of Rodney Bay to watch the sun go down. Once we were clear of the harbour the crew shimmied up the masts to release the sails and we proceeded under sail power out into the ocean to watch the sun sink down Caribbean style while the onboard steel
band wowed us with typical classics by Bob Marley and not-so-typical classics like 'Angels From the Realms of Glory.' Several rum punches down we decided to invest in some spiced St Lucian rum (we were really getting a taste for it) and some pirate bandanas (we like to blend in wherever we can) only to find said bandanas were not hand woven by Johnny Depp and the like but made in China, bah! On our way back to the harbour we fired off a couple of faux cannon shots at unsuspecting boats or bystanders with amusing results. Once back ashore and still swaying to the music (or the rum punch) we headed for a tiny little fishing village called Anse La Raye where they hold Fish Fry Friday every Friday night. This consists of lots of street stalls selling souvenirs (several were bought) and lots of different fish caught fresh that day. For the princely sum of £7 Laura ate fried bakes (great Caribbean food) caribbean rice and Alex had salt fish stew, marlin and potato cake and fried flying fish. all eaten from tables on the beach, locals and tourists alike packing it out.
The following day saw
our third and final trip, this one an all-dayer, to look at the sites of Soufriere, the old capital of the island. Taking a much calmer boat trip down we slowly roasted ourselves on the boat's roof as we took in the sites. We came in to port at the old French Colonial town of Soufriere under the shadow of the mighty Pitons, the islands most famous site. Twin volcanic peaks that look sometimes right next door to each other, but are actually nearly 2 miles apart. Once there we headed off to our first sight-seeing site called 'The Drive Through Volcano'. This conjbvgured up images of literally driving through a tunnel carved in the base of a still smoking and bubbling volcano and peering out as the lava flowed past us. Not so. In fact it is a 'collapsed' volcano, which means the whole thing is ground level and consists of steaming, smoking vents and a strong smell of sulphur. Good boiling mud however. After lunch in a coco plantation we headed to view the Diamond Botanical gardens where your average household plants like Peace Lillys, Ponsettia and Begonia grow wild and proliferously so. After a quick soak in
the mineral pools, fed by the same volcanic activity that forms the Drive Through Volcano, we were back on the boat heading into the sunset clutching our ubiquitos rum punches.
Our final few days were made up of more slow roasting on sun loungers, lazily watching the huge yachts manoeuver in the harbour wondering if any would crash, eating plates full of good food in the different restaurants dotted around the harbour and drinking brightly coloured cocktails with names such as 'Rainforest Punch' and 'Marigot Sunset'. Today we leave, and as we relax on the day beds in the Pink Snail Bar, the rain is intermittently pour down in tropical bursts, making it somehow easier to return to the cold of Blighty.
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