Grandeur of the Seas - Day 7 - St. Lucia (Part 1)

Is there ever a cruise where the port days aren't back to back to back? I love sea days just as much as port days (and honestly maybe even more than port days) but having several tours back to back wears me out. Today we dock in St. Lucia, the last of the three new ports to us this cruise, and we've booked a private version of the popular tour offered by Cosol Tours. Check out the Boos Cruize channel on YouTube for a great representation of what this small group tour is like. Here is Cosol Tour's description of the tour. It was a little out of our comfort zone and not the norm for the tours we usually choose but Dad was really interested.

Woke up super early so I took some time to enjoy the sunrise from our balcony:

We finally had another cruise ship in port with us - the Aida Perla, a German cruise line.

We had an early start for our tour this morning so I made my Windjammer run to bring back to the cabin. The ship was taking a long time to clear and let passengers disembark so we decided to take Carlington up on his escort offer. Here is where we encountered the trouble trying to get up to Deck 11 as Carlington had the only two elevators that went there locked for people who were already there wanting to come down. Dad intended to somehow stay standing there waiting on those elevators but I'd finally had enough and hopped into the neighboring elevator that went up to Deck 9. Seems silly when you recall we were already on Deck 8 but at least it was forward progress. Take the time on a ship to learn the elevator patterns as some only go up to a certain deck requiring you to walk that deck until you reach another set of elevators that go the rest of the way. We were stuck climbing the last two sets of stairs. By the time we walked over to take seats in the lounge, Carlington announced that the ship had finally been cleared. The group that had been waiting filled up 1 1/2 of the 2 elevators. 

The rep from Cosol Tours was waiting for everyone right by the gangplank saving us the time of having to find him in the terminal building. Once we confirmed our name on his roster, he recognized us as the one group that booked as "VIPs" and called for his colleague CJ to come for us. CJ led us to what would be our own van and I'm glad it was ours alone because it gave me flashbacks to the St. Croix van. This one at least opened on both sides but the section between CJ's seat and the first bench seat was like one giant wheel well that looked like someone draped carpeting over a giant foot locker style trunk. CJ had suggested I'd be better off in the middle bench seat but I chose the first believing I'd have more leg room. Each time I had to turn around in that seat was like trying to shimmy down a theater aisle when no one is willing to stand up to let you by. At one point I made the best of it by propping my legs up on the trunk like space but each time we had to hop out, I'd scrape and pin my leg in the small space. I eventually took to sitting sideways with my back to one of the doors a la middle school before bus seatbelts were a thing. I didn't realize it until later this day but I'd bruised up my leg so bad riding like this that it looked like I'd taken a dark gray paintbrush and made random stripes across the back of my calf. Is tattoo pants leg a thing? Dad opted for the one full length bench seat in the back sitting on the end so that his legs could sit out straight next to where the other bench seats fell short. He too complained of a sore back by mid tour. One of the things CJ kept encouraging was that the cooler in the back between Dad's seat and the back door was full of a variety of drinks that we should feel free to help ourselves as we desired. Unfortunately, it was really only reachable by opening the back door so we learned to ask for drinks whenever CJ stopped for something.

We pretty much followed the same itinerary as the 12-15 person group did in their own van but would get there within minutes of them leaving the area. Our first stop was an overlook where CJ pointed out the natural formation known as the Lady Slipper for its likeness to a ladies' high heel shoe.

Our next stop was at a roadside stand nestled in banana trees where CJ joined us in sampling a local whole banana each. St. Lucia is very proud of their banana crop and being the only banana supplier to the United Kingdom. He polished off his banana first and it was a little shocking to see him just throw the peel onto the ground among the trees. He encouraged us to do the same explaining that it's like natural fertilizer for the banana trees. Is that some sort of banana cannibalism?

CJ showed us how each bunch of bananas was covered in blue bags to keep bugs and birds out who will try to build their nests in the bunches. 

Next we got to use plantain chips to sample banana ketchup and banana barbecue sauce. I found the banana ketchup to have a sharp taste that reminded me of barbecue sauce but the woman running the stand couldn't believe it. You could tell that the banana barbecue sauce was truly barbecue sauce because it had that same smoky flavor you'd expect from a barbecue sauce.

Our next stop was to Stingray Beach where we met a man CJ referred to as Bob Marley Jr. He stood atop a carved out of stone platform and gave me a long history of how the beach was named because of the large amount of stingrays found in the water here. Then came the use of fiberglass fishing boats with motors and the noise of the boat motors scared all the stingrays away. Mr. Marley was also in the business of selling his painted casaba melon rinds giving me the history in his sales pitch about how the rinds are saved and dried out to be reused as bowls because they can be used for everything from storage to eating. He had me hold the melon bowl and examine it but then ripped it out of my hands tossing it to the ground to show that it's better than china bowls since it's not breakable. Dad elected not to get out of the van during this as I'd be more interested in a photo stop than he would.

Mr. Marley then noted my camera asking if it took video so that I could film him singing a song for me. I told him no so he told me to "just stand there quietly and listen then." He sang "No Women No Cry" while I watched CJ hanging nearby singing along. Such an obvious "take you to see my friend and hear his sales pitch" moment. When he finished I gave him some polite applause, thanked him, and got back into the van. Dad laughed at me later because the one person who got the sales pitch was not the one holding our cash for the day.

A couple photo stops later, we arrived at the restaurant for breakfast, or as CJ called it, 2nd breakfast. CJ took a moment before we went in to point out the cashews growing on trees. He told us how what we see hanging is actually the cashew fruit and the seeds of the fruit are what we eat as cashew nuts.

We had arrived at the restaurant just as one of the bigger groups was finishing up their self serve buffet snacking out on the open patio and soon made their exit. We were led inside to our own table (aka picnic bench) and soon brought over chafing dishes and plates of portioned out for 2 versions of the same food the large group just grazed on. I found it funny that each item literally had 2 pieces represented, 2 pigs in a blanket, 2 chicken wings, 2 hush puppies, 2 banana bread etc. The woman at the restaurant did take the time to give us a rundown of what each item was and briefly explained how to eat the unusual things like sugarcane but once she walked away, we had no clue what was what except for the obvious items we've had before. I did try as much as I could while Dad in his usual picky eater self stuck to the items he could identify.

We thought there would be drinks available here for us but there wasn't. CJ was surprised that we hadn't thought to grab something from the cooler first and fetched us our requested waters. These bottles made me curious - is not all bottled water sodium free? Not to mention this company should contact Barry in Antigua since water isn't blue, it's clear!

Our next stop was at an overlook to see the famous Pitons which convienently was where several vendors had their trinkets for sale. CJ interacted in Creole with one of the sellers and even borrowed a knife from her to eat his fruit while we hopped out for pictures. 

She offered to take a picture of "me with my husband" (I swear I need to get a vacation t-shirt that says "Not Mrs!") in front of the Pitons and that it was okay because she is CJ's friend. I finally agreed to pose for a picture together and called Dad over to stand by me. She told him we had to switch places to have me standing to Dad's right "because the lady is always right." She took a couple nice pictures from different angles before handing back my camera and starting her sales pitch. 

Honestly I'm surprised she didn't ask for money for taking the picture for us. Her table was mostly wood carvings so I directed Dad to her wooden motorcycles and cars since he loves that kind of thing. I think she was so happy to see a potential sale that she started haggling her own prices before we could say anything. Dad picked out a nice looking wooden car for $10.

We had told Cosol Tours in emails pre-cruise that we weren't interested in spending time at the beach to snorkel and swim (part of the pre-planned tour) and reiterated that to CJ since the weather hadn't been great off and on this morning. He had no idea (so much for going private so we can do as much or as little as we wanted) but made it seem like the only way to visit the drive in La Soufriere Volcano was to leave for there from the beach. We figured it was worth just sitting and lounging on the beach for the 1 hour time frame they gave everyone in order to see the volcano where the mud baths and Sulphur springs Dad wanted to experience would be. CJ drove us to a dock and handed us a few drinks from the cooler to enjoy while at the beach. The only way to get to this beach apparently was via speedboat and to get off the tall dock into the boat we had to step down onto the side of the boat, then onto the seat, then down to the floor of the boat.

When we arrived at the dock, CJ put us on the boat that was there to pick up a bunch of passengers from the German Aida ship. We were directed to go sit in the back of the speedboat like that was some VIP thing but once the boat operators saw that several Aida passengers had children, they were made to sit in the back with us. All for safety but apparently common courtesy didn't translate as it was absurd to these German passengers to sit in a way that while still all in the back would let everyone be comfortable. As we hit the open water and the boat sped up, the childrens' shrieks were only part of the discomfort. Mother Nature picked then to open the skies and it poured on us while we got sprayed by the fast boat ride. We had chosen to bring along one of the RCL towels leaving our bag in CJ's van so I did my best to hold on to our drinks while keeping the camera covered with the towel. Dad had to hold on to his clip on sunglasses to make sure they stayed put. Thankfully the dock at the beach had a wooden ladder attached and it was much easier to climb out of this speedboat.

This beach is 90% part of a resort so everyone using Cosol is told that the chairs to the left are for us to use while all the nicer stuff to the right of the dock belong to resort guests. 1st pic is what was to the left, 2nd pic is what was to the right.

 Within minutes of our arrival, the small section for Cosol people was overrun with even more Aida passengers on other speedboats. Their lack of courtesy didn't improve once off the speedboat. We took two of the dingy loungers that were next to German guests already sitting under one side of an umbrella. Dad took the lounger that fit completely under the umbrella and I took the one next to his so that I spent the next hour with half my body in the sun. It also rained intermittently while we lounged so I spent the bulk of the time tucking my camera under my swim top since I was now laying on the towel. As a result I got a stripe shaped sunburn diagonally across just my elbow, knee, and ankle since I had my leg bent in. I had originally planned to make the best of this beach time and just wade in the water but this water did not look great.

At least Dad liked the local beer. And CJ was the first person who didn't question whether I was old enough to drink.

Does this count as trying the local drink too? My Sprite bottle says it's a product of St. Lucia.

Soon a large group from Aida that seemed to know the guy next to us showed up and proceeded to park themselves directly in front of our chairs. Whatever tour they were on included food because soon someone brought them all over take out containers and they proceeded to eat, drink, and yell at each other all while barely 2 feet in front of us. I literally couldn't even see the water in front of us past them. Some of our fellow passengers showed up possibly as part of an RCL ship tour and took the last inch of beach space available before spending the entire time complaining about family members who booked this tour and how badly they wanted to get a smoke. The second our boat returned, we were at the dock to get back on it. The Aida passengers were in no hurry and our boat driver had to go round them up from the beach so we could leave. Somehow we must have left some behind because the ride back while just as fast, was not as crowded.

CJ came over to the dock once we returned and was helping everyone lift babies and bags up from the boat. To get back on this dock it was a lot less graceful with having to step up on the boat seat, up on the boat edge, and then some people were lifting their leg all the way up to put one foot on the dock before pulling the rest of their body up. I may be super flexible but my legs don't do that so I went with the knee down approach for that final step which soon became both knees. They all wanted to help me up from there but the last thing I felt like doing was standing straight upright while on the edge of the dock. Instead, I crawled on my knees to the center of the dock and stood up on my own. Might as well add brush burn and more bruises to the sunburn and leg bruises before this day is done. I tried not to focus too long on the fact that the young man helping people from inside the boat took one look at me and moved behind me ready to literally push my ass up from behind. Sorry to disappoint you young man but I can still hoist my own fat ass up onto the dock. I gave Dad the same advice about kneeling but he let them help him to stand up.

Once back at the van, CJ gave us the choice of going to the mud baths or taking a regular volcano tour. I mentioned how it was now obvious that we didn't really need to go to the beach to get to the volcano but all CJ would offer is to confirm that one would really have to love the beach to enjoy the past hour there. By now our limited interest in doing the mud baths had dwindled so we opted for just the volcano tour. Dad didn't appreciate the concept of being made to choose but agreed with my choice. We also opted out of visiting the waterfall that was meant to be part of helping to wash off the mud. It rained off and on as we drove over to the volcano. When we got there, the entrance was mobbed with tour buses from both ships' tours. We sat in the van while CJ went and bought us tour tickets but he got stuck waiting in the same long line as everyone else. Once he came back, they moved the bar so he could drive the van into the volcano itself. He pointed out the large platform on top of about 50 steps that would be where we were supposed to go meet some guide for the start of the tour. We took one look over at that platform that was already packed with people and thought umm, thanks but no thanks.

Instead CJ redirected us to the steam vents along the sides of where you drive in and gave us some explanation of their source. We took some time to get pictures and within a couple minutes of standing there, the skies opened up and it started pouring! This moment made me grateful for not choosing to climb all the way up there for the tour.

Dad asked me to get a pic of him with the steam vents

I had him move over so that I could get a pic that looked like the steam was coming out of his ears after this crazy tour:

We had passed the place leading down to the mud baths on the drive into the volcano so we had CJ drive back down so we could get a picture. Most people using the baths had left already. It was still raining at this point so when CJ called over one of the female employees who was carrying an umbrella I thought it was to give me cover while I walked over. Nope, he had to turn back in the other half of our unused tour tickets so he was giving it to the woman to take back to the entrance for him. I quickly got my pictures and got back under cover in the van.

One of our last stops was to Quent's Bakery and Shop to pick up freshly baked bread. A little bit more driving up the road before he met back up with the same woman from the breakfast restaurant who handed him a container of cheese sticks. The bread was still quite warm but didn't melt the cheese very much. I was expecting more of a hoagie style loaf as it was tough to fit the cheese inside this drumstick shaped bread. 

It was shortly after this that I realized I no longer had my camera lens cap. I started trying to search for it on the floor recalling how my water bottle had also fallen during a sharp turn. CJ noticed me searching and pulled over to help me look. To his credit, he also called back to La Soufriere to ask them to look for it. I remember having it when I took pictures of our bread and cheese so to this day I'm betting it's buried somewhere in that van. Thankfully it was only the lens cap that went missing and not the lens itself. 

We next stopped at an overlook by Marigot Bay and got a nice lesson on how ships would come into this little inlet to get protection during battle.

Our final stop was at a multi-table roadside stand where many vendors were set up in a neighborhood known as Morne Fortune Layby. CJ pointed out the Governor's House we'd parked right in front of and just beyond the souvenir sellers was a porch you could walk out on to take pictures of the harbor where our ship was docked. One of the sellers was really trying to sell me her magnets to the point that I thought she was magnetically attracted to me somehow.

On the way back to the ship, we stopped in traffic right next to St. Lucia's Coca Cola factory. You make some fine Sprite St. Lucia.

CJ said that he wasn't allowed to bring us directly back into the port even though they let him pick us up there so instead he dropped us off in front of the duty free shopping mall. We paid him and headed into the mall. Dad seemed fond of this store:

While we knew this tour would have us doing things out of our comfort zone and no one can control the weather, this was probably our worst tour of the whole trip. Our best tours of the whole trip (and not just because they involve food) were on our last two ports. If you're blessed enough to cruise often, you'll find yourself repeating ports especially in the Bahamas and the Caribbean. While it's often nice to get a day staying on the ship while it's quiet on those repeated port days, this time we chose things that were different and ended up being great! If we're ever back in St. Lucia again I think we'll either try out a beach or resort day or just stay on the ship.