St. Lucia

  The next stop on our cruise was beautiful St. Lucia.  St. Lucia has the most lush scenery of any of the islands we have been to so far (in any of our cruises or trips).  With more than 10,000 banana farmers, you will see banana trees growing everywhere. In some areas, they are covered with blue bags to protect them from the birds and insects.

  The very first thing I looked for as we moved closer to the island was the mighty Pitons (Pee-tawns). These are two huge mountains that come to sharp points at the top. Many say that they look like a woman laying down.  We didn't make it to that side of the island, but our new friends actually went to the top of one of the mountains. They say the ride was a steep one and at some points kind of scary, but definitely worth the trip.

 After doing some shopping - where I purchased some gorgeous pareos, t-shirts and two of my new favorite rings, we went on our excursion.  We opted for the scenic island tour with stops at Bagshaw's and a wood carving gallery and yes, another rum factory.

 Bagshaw's makes the most amazing silk screening items. We were able to see a demonstration and also visit the shop to make purchases. We decided on the table runner. It will be perfect for our Island party I plan on having sometime next year. It was also cool because we were just feet aways from the St. Lucian Sandals resort. We stayed at the Sandals in Negril and loved it. So, it was pretty neat to see this one.

 The wood carving gallery had beautiful pieces and they also had a great little boutique full of hand carved items. One artist was even on sight carving away.  This was the island where I purchased my nutmeg. I can not tell you how amazing this stuff smells when you grate it. Heaven! I've used it several times while making homemade apple pies. Can not wait to try it in some egg nog.

 Next stop? You guessed it - the rum factory. This was one kind of cool, because we could actually see the vats of rum with all of the foam.  So, on this one, we were treated to the informational tour and a promise of a rum buffet. What? I am a bit scared, but what they hay - we're on vacation - right?  The rum buffet was just that. They lined up about 15 bottles of various flavors of rum with little plastic cups.  Then, the guy walked away - leaving us to sample as much or as little as we wanted. I opted for the latter.  Of course, they had a  Rhum Shoppe once we finished. We purchased the Cappuccino flavored rum.

 Back to our tour bus for the return trip to our boat. The island is beautiful and our tour guy was hilarious.
Our wonderful butler, Jonathon, had our High Tea goodies waiting for us upon our return. What a great end to our time in St. Lucia.