We have spent the day on the beautiful little island of St Lucia. It has a population of 173,000 and 60,000 of them live here in the capitol city, Castries. Tourism is #1 in economy here with banana exporting as #2. They gained their independence from England in 1979 but it is still a part of the British Commonwealth. As with many of the Caribbean islands, the houses and buildings are very colorful and the people are very friendly.
Rebecca is coming down with her second cold for the cruise so stayed in bed most of the day resting up. This morning I went on the "Island Splendor" 3 hour tour. My tour bus was small but brand new and very nice. Graham & Jane, two of our Aussie friends, were in my bus also. First stop on the tour was at "La Toc Battery". It was a fortification built in the 1800's by the British to protect the island from the French. The two countries had 14 battles over a hundred year period for who would control the natural harbor here at Castries. In the 1800's this was an important "coaling station" for the steam powered ships of the time. Charcoal was brought over from England and the ships would then come here for their fuel. There were several forts to protect the island but the British built La Toc for maximum protection from its 10 inch gun. The French never returned so it was never used in battle. An American woman bought the land several years ago, had it cleared, and made it into a little museum.
Our next stop was at the Caribelle Batik. There was a demonstration of how batik clothes and linens were made. We had seen this in Indonesia during our world cruise in 2010. It was a big souvenir shopping building also. There many beautiful flowers outside so put my camera to work. The back of the shop was a good vantage point over looking Castries for more photos. Now back in the bus we continued driving and sightseeing. We passed a huge Hess (an American oil company) oil storage facility. There were 14 huge storage tanks each with a capacity for 9 million barrels of oil. Crude was brought here from Venezuela and stored before being loaded on smaller tanker ships that took it to a refinery on the island of St Croix. St Lucia was a more mountainous island with the tallest peak at 3100 feet. We stopped at a small shop to taste some "banana ketsup" and enjoy a nice view of Marigot Bay there several movies were filmed. Now we had a rain shower pass over while driving to the largest banana plantation on the island. Bananas is their major export. You will see the blue bags placed around the bunches of bananas to protect them from the strong sun, insects, and other animals. We continued to the old, small fishing village of Anse la Raye for a photo stop there. Our last stop was at St Mark's for a tour and refreshments at the old Colonial style house built in the 1800's. I arrived back onboard at 12:30. I ordered Rebecca a salad for lunch from room service before I went up to the grill for my lunch. It was a pleasant day here weather wise. 80F, 55% humidity, and nice breeze. It is now 4pm and we are sailing to next island, St Barts.
Big night tonight! We are taking our 4 favorite crew members to dinner with us in Compass Rose. They are all excited but so are we.
