Flesh eating fish, ziplines and rum….quite the week! We spent the early portion of the week working on Galt and getting ready for our next move over to Martinique. After some frustrating days, we decided it was time for our last chance for adventure on St. Lucia so we rented our trusty little car again and headed out. Some friends told us about a fish pond that was an easy hike up from Rodney Bay beach. After several wrong turns on potholed roads, we parked the car, found the path and realized a bit too late that we probably could have driven the entire way to the pond. After a short hike we came across a quiet pond that hid a secret. The pond was reportedly full of little fish that would eat away the dead skin from your feet when you submerged your feet in the water. Bill bravely went first and it looked like a piranha feeding frenzy as they attacked his tired and worn feet. When I did not see blood pouring into the water, I decided it was safe to slip my foot into the pond. As I climbed on the rock to sit down, the little fish clustered around the rock staring at me wildly. I hesitantly stuck my foot into the middle of the little fish and they began to gently peck away at my feet. Too gently! It tickled so horribly that I could only stand it for about 5 second intervals. Bill sat there as if nothing was happening to his feet at all! After a few more quick dunks, I decided my tired and worn feet would just have to keep their dead skin attached! Once Bill was done with his tiny fish spa treatment, we walked down to Marie’s Beach Bar which was a 40 year old establishment and something of an institution on St. Lucia. Marie was a feisty woman who said she would not hesitate to use her machete if someone tried to walk out on their bill. We both decided it was best to take her at her word!
Early the next morning, we made our way to Rainforest Adventures which was housed in the St. Lucian Rainforest preserve for a try at zip lining. The first big adventure was getting fitted into all the gear topped by a lovely hairnet. Our group was then shuttled by a treetop tram up the mountain to the zip line course. It was a series of 8 ziplines that soared through the rainforest canopy with stops in between each line. The guides were very meticulous about making sure all the harnesses were attached correctly prior to shoving us off a very high platform. Some of the lines zipped along at quite the fast pace and it often felt like we were going to crash into the next platform but the guides grabbed us with the brake line every time and everyone arrived safely to the bottom. The hard part was that you can’t zipline uphill….so we had to make a strenuous trek up a steep path to get back on the aerial tram for the ride down the mountain but we made it back without any issues and I was quite proud of us! Adventure number three was finding our Airbnb for the night. In the islands, there are no exact addresses so Airbnb just gives you the name of the road. Our GPS system in the rental car was set to Chinese so it was definitely no help. I did figure out that “weechie weechie ook taw” must mean “Watch out! There is a man in the road!” because it said that a lot! We finally found the road and turned to make our way up the hill. We ended up on a dead end road and as the GPS yelled, “weechie weechie ook taw” a man stepped out into the road to help us. I showed him the picture of the Airbnb and asked him if he knew where Christine’s place was. He nodded and said, “Yah, she is a friend of mine. Go back up this road, then take the other road up the hill, round the corner and you’ll see it”. Then, he proceeded to repeat the same directions four more times. It is a thing in St. Lucia to give the same exact directions four time in a row. I don’t know why but at least his directions were accurate! We finally made it to the Airbnb and were smothered in love by the hostess, Christine. She was a mother hen who hovered over us protectively until we finally locked ourselves in our room. She was a heck of a cook though and made us an amazing porkchop dinner so we figured a bit of motherly smothering was worth it. We ended our St. Lucia tour with a trip to the St. Lucia Rum Distillery. It was an interesting tour that explained the history of rum distilling on the island from the time of sugar plantations to modern times. It ended with the usual line of rum products for tasting and a bottle in Bill’s bag to sip on later. Our final stop was at Marigot Bay where the original Dr. Dolittle was filmed. Dr. Dolittle’s giant pink snail was no longer in the bay but I enjoyed it just the same! Tomorrow we will turn in our rental car which has been a trusty steed on our adventures. I forgot to mention that St. Lucia is the only island we have visited that has actual functioning red lights! We won’t miss those….they just seem to confuse everyone….. Fingers crossed that the next blog will be sent out from Martinique which is a day’s sail away. Enjoy Mardi Gras and if you give up something for Lent, be sure it’s not something too difficult! God will understand!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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