Tales of the Great Holt-Ysses - Part 6 "St. Lucia"

St. Lucia = cool island! This was about as much fun as we had the entire trip. We didn't know what to do in St. Lucia but we got off the boat and took on the huge huddle of excursion salespeople waiting to take our money and stuff us in a cab to some unknown destination. We decide to take a boat ride that would take us along the coast line to an awaiting cab, who would then take us on a trip to a volcano and a big waterfall. The boat ride was good but the island was great. Very tropical and with lots of mountainous terrain. We get to our dock and walk along a black volcanic sand beach to our cab. We get in the cab and drive to the volcano in the area of Soufriere where they also have a great waterfall called the Diamond waterfall. Amy got into the waterfall pool even though the water was pretty cold. She just wanted to say that she did. The volcano was neat. You actually drive to the middle or surface core of the volcano. It's not as you would picture it since its really not volcano shaped. The side of the volcano where we drove in was blown out years ago so it looks like a regular shaped mountain except it has an area that steams and has boiling mud coming up from underground. It smells like sulfur which smells like rotten eggs. Stinky! You get pretty close to the hot boiling mud but not too close. They had a tour guide fall into a boiling pit one year and it burned him up pretty bad. The smell of the sulfur made you want to snap a few pictures and get the heck out of there. So we did!
We then made to the Diamond Waterfall where we enjoyed the waterfall and a little rain. The rain was almost warm and definitely appropriate since we were, after all, in the rain forest. We left there and got back on the little boat heading for the big boat. We thought we had to be back on the big boat at 5:00pm and it was 4:00pm when we left for it. It took is 30 minutes to get back and we casually stroll onto the cruise ship with a smile at 4:35pm. We didn't realize that our departure time for the ship was actually 4:45pm. Ooops! We almost missed our ship and Amy's dad was pretty hot about it. I don't blame him in hindsight. We looked like we were irresponsible idiots even though we thought we weren't. Amy's dad still gives us a hard time for almost missing the boat. I've missed the boat before but definitely not literally. Oh well!
So we get cleaned up, have dinner and watched the nightly show. By the way we saw some really good but cheesy shows. Each one was at best, way off Broadway quality but still entertaining. The first night we saw the cruise ship on-board singers and dancers and they were pretty good. The next night we saw a comedian and he was pretty funny. On the third night we saw a little polish woman who could play the strings off of a violin. On the fourth night we saw a guy named Mario and his wife sidekick who did this variety magic, juggling, balancing and dance show. It was pretty wheels off but on the other hand the guy worked his tail off and for his efforts alone I give him a score of 7 out of 10. The final night the dancers and singers did a medley of music and dance from different eras and it was pretty good. The MC was this young guy who was very confident but always the MC...if you know what I mean? He's perfect for a cruise ship...again if you know what I mean?
So anyway St. Lucia was great. Oh and to my father in law...sorry for giving you the small heart attack. I also hope the therapist can help you with those constant visions of ringing our neck that haunt you in the middle of the night. Next stop: Barbados!
Brian