St Lucia the second time,

This was the day of the gold medal Hockey game and we almost hated to leave our room. The game was not on the television but we checked on the computer and found out that the game was 2 to 0 for Canada and the third period was about to begin.

Only 2 ships in port today.

We had a cruise critic tour arranged for here so we had breakfast and headed for the meeting place.  We would find out that the tour had been oversold and we had to wait for a second vehicle to arrive and take the 2 extra people. No one travelling with us had a way of learning the score of the game so we had to spend the day in Suspense.

The first stop was a visit to “The Church of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary” The church was established in 1899 and it is amazing in its architecture. Because it was Sunday morning there were many parishioners attending mass. St.Lucia is 85% Catholic.

As we drove through the city our guide Emerie told us about the various buildings.

Next we travelled to Morne Fortune which is a military ruin.

We stopped at Marigot Bay where we had a photo stop to get the view.

We also visited a Banana plantation where we were told the various steps in raising bananas from sprout to full bunch ready to export. I bought a couple of them and they were very sweet. We were surprised to see that they encase the bunches in blue plastic bags which have been specially treated to help in the maturing of the bananas.

We drove through the 2 fishing villages of Anse La Raye and Canaries. These villages seemed to be very poor. The area is very hilly and the houses are precariously perched on the sides of cliffs.

Our last major stop was to visit the drive in volcano at Soufriere. We were given a guided tour of the caldera and its history was explained to us.

 We had a couple of photo stops to see the Pitons. At one of these photo stops I bought a necklace. It is made of coconut shell and is brightly coloured. It seems to me that I already have to matching earrings. I think I got them in Hawaii.

All in all it was an event filled trip. I have never seen such winding roads for so long. I neglected to bring Gravol with me and I was not feeling at all well. Fortunately a lady on the tour had some ginger which she gave to me.

We arrived back at the ship around three and the first thing we did when we got back to the state room was to check on the hockey game. We were thrilled to learn that Canada has won the gold . Go Canada Go!!

The tour was interesting , my general opinion is that I would not choose to live here. It is quite poor, the island is not well developed and it is entirely too hilly. 

Tomorrow we return to Antigua