2012-11-9  St. Lucia:

Today we woke up heading into the port of Castries, St. Lucia.  This was our first time here.  The view from our verandah was beautiful. 
 The airport runway.

 one of the prettier ports we've been to.

 the port

I spent quite a bit of time researching and trying to figure out where we should go snorkeling.  Ideally, I would have like to go snorkel by the Pitons, but wouldn't have enough time to go there and back.  There were excursions that went there, but they were really expensive.  The ship picked those passengers up at Soufierre, but they would not pick up passengers on private tours.  So I decided to give Peanut Island a try.  It was just on the other side of Castries and it turned out to be perfect.

We headed off the ship to the taxi area again and were directed to one going to Pigeon Island (no longer an island, it was artificially joined to the mainland in 1972).   Even the ride there and back was interesting.
 Marina along our way

 Again we made arrangements for the driver to come back and get us.  Our $20@ rt fare included the $6@ entrance fee into Pigeon Island National Landmark.   The island is a historic site with numerous forts such as an 18th century British fort and Fort Rodney both used by the British to spy on French Ships from neighboring Martinique.

It had a nice secluded beach here.  We had it basically to ourselves for a couple hours before the tours started to arrive (except for the nice lady offering beach chairs for a small fee).

heading in

 Snorkeling here was pretty good.  I even swam out to the far point where the Atlantic ocean meets the Caribbean.  It was rougher by the ocean, but the Caribbean bay was really smooth.  We spent a couple hours snorkeling here.

 A couple species of wrasses I hadn't seen before

One of the many trumpet fish we saw, but the first one I've seen that was bluish.  I know they will turn yellow, but didn't know they also can turn blue.

 Lots of schools of fish.

 the cruise ship excursion people arriving.

Back to snorkeling.

 I also spent some time wandering around the ruins of the old fort here.

As we waited for our taxi to return, we sat on the other side of the park and gazed out at the Atlantic Ocean.  The side we snorkeled at was part of the Caribbean.

All too soon it was time to go back to the ship.  It was interesting seeing some of the American influence in Castries on our way back.

I would have liked to have taken a land tour, but being in port only 6 or 7 hours just doesn't leave enough time to do more then one thing.  

Cruising out of the port

 Our cruise ship did do a scenic narrated tour of the coastline to Soufriere where the Pitons are.  

 I couldn't help but think of Kauai as we cruised along the coastline of St. Lucia!

 such a beautiful island!

 Close to  Soufriere.

 Soufriere

The ship stopped here to tender in passengers who did a couple of the excursions that ended here.  

While we waited for the passengers, boatloads of youngsters came out yelling stuff like, "will dive for money".  

 Don't know how noone got hurt with all the boats flying around and kids jumping into the water for money and fruit that people threw to them from the ship.

 The whole tendering process took well over an hour.  But I enjoyed watching the sunset and seeing the clouds changing colors over the Pitons.  I would love to go back here someday to one of the Sandals resorts.

Pretty nice sunset.---even looking towards the East.

Towards the WEst

One last view towards Soufierre as we sailed away.

St. Lucia did not disappoint!  In fact, I'm probably more impressed with it then I expected to be.