St Lucia and Barbados

St. Lucia (23^rd April)

Weather again very hot and very humid, but we love St. Lucia. After the obligatory walk around the cruise terminal shops we joined our excursion entitled “Tea on the Morne”. We had a guided tour through the town of Castries before climbing inland to an area called “The Morne”. We visited a local craft centre specializing in the carving of hard woods, such as mahogany, white cedar and many other woods. We met Ludovic the local artist and saw many examples of his work, (mostly well out of our financial range), however just before we were leaving Doreen spotted a carving of a cyclid fish and after bargaining with Ludovic we agreed to buy, providing he signed the work. The rest of the group were less enthusiastic as they were all waiting on the coach ready to leave. After leaving the art studio, we drove around the Morne (this means the Hill of Good Luck), past the Governor General’s residence and on to St. Marks – an old colonial-style home in the hills overlooking the town. Here we retreated to tea, sandwiches and cakes on the verandah. After returning to the port, we joined our friends in a karaoke bar for beer or two or three (no I believe it was five). Great fun.

Barbados (24^th April)

Today we arrived early in Barbados. Bridgetown is the capital, and being Easter Sunday all the shops were closed. However we had previously booked and excursion entitled Orchid World and Sunbury House. After leaving the port in our coach we had an entertaining drive through the island with Fritz, our tour guide telling us this history of the island and included a few anecdotes about his friend Gary Sobers (the cricketer). On arrival at the Orchid World we spent an hour and a half wandering around the garden admiring the many orchids, before relaxing for light refreshments in the garden. On leaving the gardens we drove through the sugar cane plantations and sweet potato fields to Sunbury House Estate, which had an impressive collection of antique furniture. Here we were treated to a cream tea, with sandwiches, and a welcome cup of tea.

Back on board we have been advised that a plane flying out from England with 500 cruise passengers on board has been delayed, therefore we will be staying in Barbados until tomorrow morning before we sail to our next port, Aruba. Tonight we are looking forward to an exciting Tropical themed evening,