November 13 St. Lucia

November 13 St. Lucia

Today was tiring as neither of us slept well last night.  We are on one of the lower floors toward the back of the ship and it is honestly one of the smoothest cruises we have ever taken.  Still, I couldn’t sleep and kept waking up to read a book.  Of course, that meant that Jim didn’t sleep either.

We didn’t have AT&T on the iPad in St. Lucia, so I haven’t been able to check mail.  I wonder if we’ll have it again before we get back to Puerto Rico.  I will do a quick check on my Comcast email account when I upload the blogs, however, so you could reach me if needed. 

Jim and I are not impressed with the technology on this ship.  It is very ineffective and quite expensive. 

Before I go any further, do you know why the skeleton didn’t cross the road?  Do you know why the baker worked so hard?

(Answers at the bottom)

We had to be off the boat and ready for our excursion at 8:15 a.m. this morning.  It was to be a 4x4 excursion to a waterfall.  We didn’t know that this meant open-air trucks that held 16 passengers, crammed together on benches along the sides.  There was no room to move, even a little and the drive there was 2.5 hours long.  It rained as we waited for the last passengers to arrive, so tarps were put on to cover the top and part of the sides, obstructing the view.  Since there were only a couple of photo stops, only those on the other side of the truck were able to get many photos.  Frustrating!

We passed banana fields where blue bags were tied around the bananas when they were young.  The bags were to prevent insects from getting to the fruit.  There are no monkeys on the island, so that wasn’t a problem.

We passed huge storage tanks filled with crude oil from Venezuela.  It seems the U.S. won’t buy Venezuelan oil, but it will buy from St. Lucia.  Therefore, St. Lucia buys from Venezuela and sells to the U.S.

Hurricane Thomas in 2010 was the last hurricane that did damage in St. Lucia, and big sections of the road were washed away.  They are still repairing it and the homes that washed down the mountain, killing 11 people.

We passed a fishing village, and young boys playing in the water.  I took a few photos, but wasn’t very pleased with them.

We finally arrived at the waterfall, and walked down slippery clay dirt as it had rained earlier.  Due to the rain, the water was very muddy.  Apparently, it is clear after it settles again.  Several of our group decided to go swimming as the water was 10.5 feet deep.   They climbed behind the waterfall and dove or jumped off.

Climbing back up from the waterfall, Jim and I were totally exhausted, both from lack of sleep and the long, cramped ride.  I collapsed in a hammock, waiting for the others to come back from the waterfall. 

The sun had come out, so the tarps were removed from the truck, allowing the wind to refresh us and the sun to scald us.  (I did add more sunscreen.) 

We learned a great deal about our young guide, Chris.  He went to vocational school after high school to learn air-conditioning and refrigeration.  The number one industry on St. Lucia is tourism, so he does this from November – April.  The rest of the year he is a baker and bakes cakes for Sandals, who have three all-inclusive, adult resorts on the island.  Chris is studying information technology for an Associates Degree at present.

St. Lucians pay 5% of their pay to the government each day.  They also pay 15% for everything they buy as a sales tax.

Drugs aren’t really much of a problem in St. Lucia.  The first time you are caught, they don’t really do anything.  The second time is still minor, but the third time, you have to do 60 YEARS in jail.

The official language is English and all students learn it in school.  However, they speak Patois (a sort of a French dialect) in their homes, so kids learn both.

Back in our room, we both took a nap for about an hour, but are too tired to dress for dinner and eat as much as they serve at every meal.  We decided to just go up to the cafeteria later if we get hungry, and get something small.  Hopefully, we’ll sleep better tonight.

The answers to Chris’s riddles…

1)     The skeleton didn’t cross the road because he has no guts.  (One lady suggested that the skeleton had no legs to stand on.)

2)      The baker worked so hard because he kneaded the dough.