Day 45-46: November 16-17, 2024 – St. Lucia

When we get to a port, most times we can just walk off the ship into town. In smaller ports that can’t accomodate large vessels, we may have to drop anchor a short distance away, and then take a smaller boat, called a tender, onto shore. Soufrière St. Lucia was our first tender port.

Dozens of Magnificent Frigatebirds glided overhead. They are known as “condors of the ocean” because of their 8 ft wing span.

One of the top tourist attractions in Soufrière are the Sulfur Springs, which are said to have anti-aging and healing properties. I always enjoy hot springs, and this one had the added attraction of a mud bath. My fellow shipmate Paul and I decided to investigate. I can’t vouch for its healing properties, or that it made me any younger, but I can say we had fun!

We cleaned up after our mud bath, then made our way back to the bus stop to wait for a mini-bus to take us back into town. A couple guys approached us and offered to take us on a hike through the rainforest, show us an off-the-beaten path waterfall, and then walk us back into town. Sure, my mouth said, while my brain was thinking, “are we really going to follow two random guys deep into a rainforest, on the promise of a pretty waterfall”??

We did indeed, and it turned out to be an excellent decision. Our guides knew the forest intimately. The 50 ft waterfall is called Superman Falls because it was featured in the Superman 2 movie. We ducked under the falls and the water was oh so refreshing on a very hot, humid day.

Also in the movie, superman apparently ducks into the forest to pluck a bird-of-paradise flower and present it to his sweetheart, Lois Lane (I’ve never seen the movie, but that’s what our guide and Mr. Google told us). So our guide did the same and presented one to me. He was also very knowledgeable about all the plants, fruits, and flowers in the forest. In the picture on the right, he picked a cocoa plant from a tree (from which chocolate is made) and cracked it open for us to suck on.

For giving us such an excellent adventure, our guides Tim and Wayne join the Faces of the World gallery.

The next day, we moved to another St. Lucia port, Castries, the capital of the island nation, where I got caught in the middle of a fierce rainstorm and got soaked to the bones!

Next stop: Fort-De-France, Martinique