There are two cruise ship docks in Castries and when we woke up on Day 5, we realized that the ship was berthed at La Place Carenage instead of at Pointe Seraphine where we have always been docked on previous stops on St. Lucia. Fortunately, they are just across the bay from each other. We were hoping that our tour guide, Herod, would be aware of the change and meet us at the right spot. We figured that most locals know Herod anyway so we could always ask someone to give him a call.
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| Valor at the pier in Castries |
We grabbed a quick breakfast and made our way off the ship to meet Herod at 8:45am. As is the norm, once we got through the shops that they send you through to get out onto the street, there was a crowd of people hollering and offering tours. We asked the first guy we came to if he knew where Herod was and he immediately pointed us to right outside the door where we spotted Herod’s wave and smiling face.
We have toured with Herod several times and he has always been so accommodating. We had been trying to arrange for a Land & Sea Tour with him but he needs a minimum number of people to run that tour and did not have enough. He told us, when we were emailing him, that we shouldn’t worry. He would take care of things and make sure that we got to do exactly what we wanted once we got there. He had arranged with a friend who was running a tour out of one of the Sandals resorts that we could hop in the boat with their crew and they would take us down the coast to Soufriere, where most of the best sights and experiences on the island are found. Herod would pick us up in Soufriere and do whatever we wanted to do or see.
Our trip down the coast was beautiful. It was already very warm at that time of the morning and the boat would stop periodically so the guide could point out some sights from the water. We got to go right into Marigot Bay, which we had only ever seen from a lookout above the bay on our previous land tours.
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| Marigot Bay |
We saw spots where they filmed Dr. Doolittle and some Pirates of the Caribbean scenes. We went through a small tunnel in a rocky outcropping that was used in a scene from the movie. These water taxi guys sure have to know how to maneuver the boats as there is a lot of current and waves going through the tunnel.
We went directly to Sugar Beach, an upscale resort located between the Pitons, the volcanic mountains that are St. Lucia’s claim to fame. They dropped us off on the small dock and pulled out snorkel equipment for anyone who wanted to snorkel. Dave wasn’t up to it but I grabbed some gear and headed into the water at the base of Petit Piton. There are tons of tropical fish and lots of coral to be seen, even though it looks like nothing exciting above the water. Unfortunately, there were a lot of little small jellyfish around that day. Some were very hard to see until you came into contact with them, then ZAP!! It wasn’t extremely painful but after two or three zings, I decided to head back in. We had some beach time and then got back in the boat to go to Soufriere where Herod picked us up.
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| Snorkel area at Sugar Beach |
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| Sugar Beach Resort |
Our next stop was the drive-in volcano. Since we had seen the volcano tour on prior visits, Herod took us straight to the volcanic mud baths down the hill. You are supposed to immerse yourself in the hot (and I do mean HOT) mineral pool first but the day we were there, the temperature of the pool was 105F and I stepped in up to my ankles and jumped right out. Herod said that you can get dehydrated in that temperature within a very short period of time. We went right to the buckets that contained the mud and smeared the mud all over ourselves and then went to sit in the sun until the mud dried out. Then we scooped up water from the mineral pool and got the worst of the mud off and hit the open-air showers to rinse the rest off. When you are done, your skin feels so soft and smooth, like a baby’s skin!
We headed back to the car and our next stop was a local restaurant called Martha’s Tables, where we stopped for lunch. Absolutely delicious local cuisine. I had mahi mahi done in butter and garlic and Dave had a Creole Chicken dish that was so tender the meat was falling off the bones. There was also saffron rice and beans with small dumplings, steamed veggies, sweet potato, a starchy root vegetable that is common to the islands, homemade mac and cheese and an eggplant stew that looked like a green chutney and was very tasty. We met some people that came over from the Sugar Beach resort and chatted with them for a bit before we continued on with the tour.
The next stop was Dave’s favorite spot on the island….the warm waterfall aka The Fountain of Youth. They say you leave looking and feeling 20 years younger : - ) It was quite crowded when we arrived but everyone left within about 15 minutes and we had the entire place, both waterfall and soaking pool, to ourselves for over a half hour until a couple from Melbourne, Australia joined us. It is fun to meet people from all over and pick their brains about their weather and culture.
We headed back to the pier to catch the water taxi back to Castries but had to wait quite awhile. Herod was on his phone chattering away in Creole and I figured he was trying to hurry the boat along as our all-aboard was at 4:30pm. Eventually, we heard him say “Mango” during a conversation and when he hung up, I asked him if Mango was on the way. We had Mango as our water taxi captain a few years prior and he was very charismatic and we always remembered him. Herod said that the other boat was still on its way and he wasn’t making us wait any longer and since Mango was just heading back to Castries with a group, he got him to turn around and come back and get us.
We had a pretty wild ride back to the ship because time was of the essence and speed and waves makes for some rocky slams and bumps. We made it back with five minutes to spare before all aboard. We were very sore when we got off the boat and knew we would pay for that ride the next day. The ship didn’t actually leave until 5pm, but we don’t like to cut things that close.
We didn’t have much time to get ready for Formal Night #2. I just wanted to lay down and sleep. I had a Greek dish called Spanakopita (Greek pie with spinach, feta and stewed tomato) for supper. It was delicious!! Another pro of cruising is that you can try new and different dishes without wasting money. If you don’t like it, you just ask for something else and they bring you another option.
We were so tired from our day…the fresh air, the hot mineral pool, the boat ride. We spent the evening in our cabin watching TV and trying to keep our eyes open until a reasonable time to go to sleep. We can thank Herod for another wonderful day on St. Lucia and for tailoring our tour to exactly what we wanted. If you are ever interested in a great tour guide, email him at herodtours@gmail.com or check out his website at http://www.herodstours.com/ . He is in the process of revamping his website as emails sent from the site are not getting through to him so I would avoid using the contact form until things get fixed up.
Vicariously enjoying your cruise!
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