Are You Ready to See St. Lucia?

Castries, St. Lucia is the birthplace of a Nobel prize winner and
their city's main square is named after him (Derek Wolcott). This huge
400 year old raintree is a landmark in the main square. (You know me and trees...love 'em)

Our cab driver told us our first stop would be at the "Hill of Good Fortune," a beautiful spot 900 feet above sea level, where we could stop and take pictures. And as you see from these next pictures, he was right. What you don't see is the tourist trap on the other side of the camera. Boy, were these people aggressive. I finally had to take refuge in the cab while the others succumbed to the sales pressure and bought beads, flowered shirts, island dolls, shawls, etc.

On the other side of the road was the Government House, the official residence of the British Governor-General of St. Lucia. It was a pretty place.

Higher up on the mountain, we made a stop at an old military fort that is now a school. And surprise, surprise, our cab driver happened to have a friend there that met us, as we got out of the cab to take a few pictures, and gave us a "tour" of the "mountainside" for which we all felt obligated to give him recompense. At least we did get a picture of the four of us together out of it.

The views were even more wonderful from up there, but unfortunately my camera or my abilities didn't do the view justice.
Below is mom highlighting the shot of these neat palm trees. I can't remember what fruit was growing from them, but I like them no matter what kind they are!

On the other side of the island we passed a large banana plantation (a big part of the islands source of income). Did you know that they bag the bananas before they remove them from the trees. Also, banana trees only produce once and are then cut down!
Does that make you have a better appreciate for bananas?

This is the bay on the other side of the island from our ship.

Our cab driver got this shot of the four of us.

And this is an extremely interesting plant. It looks like someone glued bright red pipe cleaners to it, but, on my honor, those things are really a part of this plant...no glue, scotch tape, silly putty, or anything of that type. Those red pipe cleaners are growing right out of the stems! We now know where pipe cleaners come from...this plant that grows on St. Lucia in the Caribbean. Don't forget, as this may be a question on your next trivia game.

We're getting to the end of our cruise. (sigh) Tomorrow would have been your day in Guadeloupe, but since it was closed the day we docked (yes, closed!) I didn't get any pictures. However, if you have a real hankering to see it, you can always google it.
We will be touring St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles tomorrow. Stop by if you haven't become too bored to face one more day of my pictures and commentary.