Last Day

One thing I forgot to mention, Marigot Bay was where they filmed the 1967 version of Dr. Dolittle. I learned this fact while having a drink in the aptly named bar "Dolittle's."

We walked down to the cove below our villa for some swimming this morning.  The water is warm but the cove is very rocky.

Not looking forward to returning to the snow.  This is the last update unless something incredible happens between now and the airport.

Until the next trip....

Rainbows and Flowers

Took a drive down to Soufrière today.  This is the south west corner of the island where the Piton Mountains are.

Beautiful rainbow over Marigot Bay to start the morning.

Things went downhill figuratively and literally soon after this.

Problem #1: We kept getting lost. You'd think it would be hard given that they have basically one road but there are also no signs and stopping for directions got us more lost.  We soon discovered that when they say "left" they actually mean "right" and vice versa.  We finally starting calling it an American Left or American Right.

Problem #2: Our van, the little-engine-that-could, was on empty and it became a race to find a gas station before it became the little-engine-that-could-not. We assumed there would be a gas station  along the way. We stopped twice to ask directions to a gas station and received the same answer: "Sure, Mon. No problem. Gas station in Soufrière. You almost there Mon." Good thing it was downhill at the end. We just made it to the gas station.

Problem #3: The roads.  Remember the goat paths I described... the roads to Soufrière are Mountain Goat Paths.  Up and down with switchback, followed by hairpin turn, followed by switchback and so on.  The steep hills were almost too much for our poor van.  Butch's leg was numb from pushing the gas pedal to the floor.

Anyway, we finally made it.  We went to the Diamond Waterfall and Botanical Gardens.

Then we went to Sulphur Springs to see the remnants of the bubbling volcano and take a mud path in the warm sulphuric pools.  Good: Mud bath was very soothing. Bad: We stunk like sulphur the rest of the day.

We ate a nice lunch at the Ladera Resort which is nestled high in the hills between the Piton Mountains.  Fantastic views here.

We return home to the snow and cold tomorrow.  Hope to get one more swim in the ocean before we return.  I never did get to hike up Gros Piton.  As my readers may have noticed, this is not exactly an adventure travel crowd.  

Living like the rich and famous

Before I forget, last night's dinner included our most unusual food of the trip.  We went to Julietta's, a local restaurant at the top of the goat path.  The roads here are these crazy steep hills.  Butch is finally getting the hang of driving on them in our horrible van.  We have to turn off the A/C in the car to get enough power to make it up some of the hills.  Back to the food... we ate fish guts. Not kidding. They are fried fish cakes made out of fish parts. Despite the name, they were good.

Today, was the best beach day of the trip.  Herman and Mandela piled the boat high with coolers, chairs and a grill and took us off to our own private beach.  The ocean was not calm today so we had to jump from the boat into the ocean to get to the beach.  As you can imagine, getting back on the boat to get home was something of a circus.

View of our villa from the boat

Here we are living large on our own private beach and with our hosts cooking us a BBQ lunch.

Lunch was yummy chicken, rice and vegetables.  They brought their own rum punch concoction.  They kept giving some to Charlene while giggling "Mr. White going to have trouble tonight."  Poor Jamie.

Great swimming here.  The water was wavy but not rough.  The only problem was that everything was too turned up for any decent snorkeling.

The circus began when we attempted to get back on the boat. The water had gotten much rougher than when we started in the morning.

We had to swim everything out and then swim out to the boat to get on.  Eric and I had a brilliant plan of sending Butch out to the boat first since he can easily pull the rest of us in.  The only problem was first getting Butch into the boat.  After some struggling, the boys helped him get on and then the rest of us proceeded one by one to swim out.  The boys yelled "Floppy Fish" every time they pulled one of us in.

Grilling tonight at the villa and then off to the Pitons tomorrow.  

Marigot Bay

I can't even begin to describe today.

Non-stop sun, swimming, laughing, drinking, eating.  All good. All Day.

We went to Marigot Bay which is the bay directly below our villa.  You have to take a ferry across to the beach and restaurant area.   Our ferry was met by our new best friend, Mandela.  There is always a Mandela in places like this.

Anyway, Mandela spent the entire day bringing us beers, food and coconut rum served in fresh coconuts.    Yet again, the water was perfect.

We've hired Mandela's friend Herman to take us on a boat to some secluded beaches and good snorkeling spots tomorrow. Of course we did.

Today had a number of firsts for the group... first Pina Colada for Jamie, first snorkeling for Charlene and first ocean kayaking for Butch.  The ocean kayaking did no go well.  He did alright while we were in the cove but panicked when the waves started as we left the cove. I had to turn us around and bring us back into the safety of the cove.  Oh well. I give him points for attempting to be my adventure buddy for the day.

Sally the dog took quite a liking to Jeff. She loves Piton beer too.

We are currently just relaxing back at the villa. Enjoying the infinity pool and the sunset and the complete lack of snow.   Allison has given most of us nicknames... Eric is Goldilocks for his use of every bedroom in the villa, Butch is Yeti because of his hairy chest, Jeff's name is unprintable but has something to do with his passing out and sleeping in his bathing suit last night.

We are going to go out tonight for some local cuisine.   More tomorrow.

Silly Infinity Pool Pictures

Here are some people without a care in the world

Pigeon Island

Winner of the first person in the ocean award: Me. Of course.

This is from the cove below our villa. Charlene and I walked down this morning.

We went to Pigeon Island today but we were one man down.  Poor Eric was really sick and spent the day in bed.

Pigeon Island has two small beaches, an old fort and some good hiking.

Butch, Jamie, Jeff and I hiked to the top of the fort.  Views are beautiful. You can see Martinique from there.  The only problem was that it was hotter than we expected, none of us were wearing the proper footware and we only had 1 bottle of water.

Views from the top

After the hike to top of the fort, Jeff, Jamie and I then proceeded to hike up Signal Hill.  Butch was getting dehydrated so he went back down to the beach.  Signal Hill is much higher than the fort and does not exactly have a real trail.  It's more of a scramble over rocks.  At one point, Jamie got freaked out by the dizzying heights over the water and sat down.  Being great hiking partners, Jeff and I just left him there and we assumed we'd pick him up on the way back.  But, he's a stubborn one and he proceeded to climb to the very top.

Top of Signal Hill overlooking the aforementioned fort

More from the top. Jeff and I were adventure buddies today.

After hiking, we swam at the beach.  The water was perfect.

We are cooking dinner at the villa tonight and tomorrow we are heading to the beaches at Marigot Bay.  

The Morning View

Rested and ready for fun.

We were tired last night and Eric was not feeling well so we hung around the villa instead of going out for dinner.  We ate hot dogs and beans.  Funny story about the hot dogs... we were complaining about the hot dogs in Barbados last year so Gia bought us a huge package of them at Costco.  Allison had the hot dogs and some ham in her luggage.  No one would stand next to her as we went through customs. "Do you have any meat products?"  "Of course not".

Here are the promised pictures of the villa

The top floor has a living room and kitchen and the bedrooms are on the 2 lower floors. 6 bedrooms so Jeff finally gets his own room.  The last few trips he's slept on the couch.

And here is the view from the villa

Much better than the blowing snow at home.

The infinity pool

Drinks on one of the many decks last night.  Charlene and I took this picture at the end of our hike up the hill.  In case you were wondering, Piton beer is a winner.  No one can quite remember exactly what Banks tastes like so no answer on the Piton vs. Banks question.

The plan today is to drive to Pigeon Island to go to the beach.  I've already voted the rental car the worst ever.  Allison is calling it the "little engine that could."