12-3-17 St. Lucia:

Today we woke to sunny skies in beautiful St. Lucia. 

While we waited for the ship to clear customs, we had breakfast and waited in the Lido restaurant.  I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the Oprah shirts that we were given at embarkation, so I took this of the guy at the next table.  I really liked the shirts.  It was also neat so many people wearing them throughout the cruise.  Even the men were wearing them.  In fact, I probably saw more men wearing them then women.  The front of the shirt had a small printing on the upper part of one side. 

Back to checking out Castries, St. Lucia, from the ship.

Shortly after 8 we were cleared and allowed to go ashore.  It was closer to 9 by the time we got off.  This time we were docked on the opposite side of the bay then we had been the last 2 times we were there.  The taxi dispatcher was trying to get a van full of people to go to Pigeon Island with us.  With 4 or more people, they said the fare would be $20rt/person, but it we wanted to go by ourselves, it would be $30.  Each time we've been there the cost has gone up.  We figured we'd wait a little while to see if anyone else came up when one of the taxi drivers asked us how much we'd be willing to pay to go by ourselves.  We told him $50 total for both of us rt and he accepted. 

The ride to Pidgeon island was quite a bit longer today since they were working on the bridge that was the shorter route, but our driver was very personable and we enjoyed the ride.  When we got to the park, the gal at the gate told the driver to come over.  Our entrance fee now included a beach lounger for free if the taxi driver told her we were his fare.  Nice little bonus.  I believe the entrance fee was still $7@---or close to that.

We liked this place so much, that this is the 3rd time we've come here.   We weren't disappointed again.

By far the clearest water of this cruise.

Only place we saw these Glassy Slippers this cruise.  There were quite a few schools of them.

We also saw a LOT of spiny lobsters.  This one was running all over the rocks.

Looking back towards the beach.

a snowflake eel pretty far down.  Too far away to get a really good picture of it.

a school of fishies

lots of schools of fish under one of the piers.

a school of the glassy slippers.  I've seen these guys in aquarium stores before.

some of the coral out near where the ocean meets the Caribbean.

by my count, there are at least 8 or 9 lobsters under this rock.

Another type of eel closer to the surface of the water.

a sergeant major defending it's home

the dock where we saw a bunch of large schools of fish hanging out.

puddingwife wrasse and a grunt.

another kind of wrasse

a choris and a juvenile surgeonfish

a blenny

interesting feathery plantlife growing in the water.

After snorkeling for a couple hours, we enjoyed our loungers for a bit.

I even took a walk along one of the paths and found a bar and the ruins of an old house.

cactus by the house

house ruins

Our taxi was due back about 3pm, so I headed back that way.

beautiful beach

Near the entrance to the park.  This use to be a fort.  On previous trips I explored the ruins of the fort and also hiked to the top of the mountain.  I didn't know there was an old house on the property, too.  That was a nice accidental find. 

Looking out to the ocean by the entrance to the park.  It was considerably rougher then the Caribbean side.

The taxi driver who brought us wasn't able to get back for us, but he did send his wife.  She was very nice, too, and was there to pick us up at 2:30 like we asked.
Got back to the ship in time to change and get up to the Lido restaurant for a light late lunch.  Then I headed up to the upper decks to watch sail away and sunset shortly after that.
Views of the port as we were sailing away.

The airport was right by the port, too.  We were told the ship had to get approval from the airport before it could cruise by.

By the time we sailed by the Pitons, the sun was setting.

I was surprised that we didn't stop and pick up passengers near them like we had in the last 2 cruises.  Instead we just kept on going.  There were even other passengers on the upper decks watching as we sailed past the Pitons. 

Shaping up to be a great sunset.

All but about 2 people stayed on the East side of the ship looking East towards the Pitons.  I kept going back and forth.  We were having quite the sunset to the West.

These pictures really didn't do it justice.

Then we were off to the Lido Restuarant for dinner.  I decided to get the New York Steak tonight.  That was a big mistake!  I took about 4 bites and had to spit out 3 of them due to gristle.  But the potatoes were really good, as was the spinach.

We skipped the On Stage Tonight: Musicology featuring Koningsdam's Dancers.  We had seen it before.  It was good, but we were feeling the need for an earlier night tonight and we wanted to see the Poolside Movie: Stronger---the inspiring real life story of Jeff Bauman, and ordinary man who captured the hearts of his city and the world to become a symbol of hope after surviving the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.  It was very good1

Back in our room we had this little guy waiting for us. 

Sure was nice having a day of calm clear water for snorkeling in.  Probably spent another 3 hours snorkeling today.

No "O" activities today.  

But did get another inspirational post card on our bed which read: "No gesture is too small when done with gratitude"