Good Vibes

On Tuesday we woke up to breakfast in bed. We got to have two free breakfasts in bed- one for getting concierge service and the other for being on our honeymoon! It was great. I wish we could have had breakfast in bed everyday!

After breakfast we got on the move for the Joe Knows St. Lucia Land and Sea Tour. By far the best investment we made in St. Lucia! We had a blast and got to see so much of the island.

First let me share the phrases and song of the day. Phrase one is "Good Vibes" the St. Lucia way of saying "It's all good". Everyone there says it ALL the time! The other phrase they like to use is "No pressure, No problem". Everyone is really laid back in St. Lucia. Then we had a song that they played about 100 times on the boat ride. It was so much fun! We even danced on the return trip. The song is called "The Bumper Sticker Song". Here is the link to youtube if you want to check it out! :)

The tour started at the Market Place in Castries. There we got on a speed boat to head around the island. Here is a map of the island. You can see Castries near the top left and where we ended up was down by the two mountains, the Pitons and the Soufriere Volcano. So we covered most of the Caribbean side of the island. It was absolutely gorgeous!

We took soooooo many pictures!!!

This is the harbor that we left out of in Castries. Our captain was Donovan and our guides were Big Willie and Big Al. They were so funny and really made the trip! 

Scenery around the island

Below is Marigot Bay. There is more water behind the palm trees on the left side, a secret bay. They said the British would hide their ships behind those palm trees to surprise the French.

 Up on the ledge were supposed to be some celebrity houses. They said George Foreman, Mick Jaggar, and Oprah all have houses on the island.

 Another village

Our first stop was snorkeling. Unfortunately we didn't take an underwater camera so we don't have any pictures to share. But we were able to see a lot of really cool fish and even some crabs on the ledge. We saw a few what looked like barracudas too! After snorkeling we continued around the island to the Pitons and Soufriere. The Pitons are absolutely beautiful! They are not the highest point on the island though. The highest point is Mount Gimie more toward the center of the island.

In Soufriere, we got off the speedboat and into a van for the ride up to the volcano. The volcano is active, but it lasted erupted over 100 years ago. They said it should erupt again sometime in the next 100 years. The volcano causes hot springs. There is also mud up near the volcano that the St. Lucians say is therapeutic mud. We took a mud bath and spread it all over us, then washed all of it off but our faces. They said the water was 108 degrees, so pretty hot! Here we are with mud all over us!

We also took a few shots of the volcano. You can see the steam rising from it!

We got back in the vans and headed to the waterfall. It was also a hot spring, but not quite as hot as the mud bath. It felt like bath water instead of a hot tub! There was a little hike to the waterfall so we got to see some cool things and hear about some of the plants that grow on the island.

The green thing hanging off the tree to the left of Big Willie's hat is sour sop. It is supposed to have medicinal value.

These are cat tails.

A beautiful view of the rain forest from the trail.

Down at the waterfall we washed the mud off our faces and took a few more pictures.

After leaving the waterfall we headed to eat some authentic St. Lucian cuisine for lunch. It was very tasty. We had tossed salad with vinaigrette dressing, banana salad, rice, red beans, papaya pie, baked chicken, and fried fish. We even had dessert- a little cake with raspberry ice cream. There was a little shop at the restaurant so we bought some bracelets as souvenirs. Then we got back on the speed boat to head back to Castries.

The view leaving the restaurant:

There was a huge cliff next to the restaurant where some of the locals were jumping off from up to 90 feet high into the water for tips! It was crazy! Here are some pictures of them jumping and swimming like crazy to the boat for a few dollars.

Next we stopped at the bat cave. We took some pictures, but the bats are really hard to see because the cavity is so narrow.

Here we are on the trip back!

Our next stop was the cove feature in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The one with all the skulls hanging down. We took a few more pictures there. And some people got out of the boat to swim, including Jason!

A beautiful view looking out into the Caribbean. God's creation is truly magnificent!

Another village on the way back...

Our speed boat dropped us off right at the beach of the Halcyon so we were able to go straight back into the resort and back to our room to rest. It was such an exciting day! Most of our pictures from the trip are from this tour. It was awesome! 

For dinner we stayed at our resort and tried out the italian restaurant, Mario's. It was okay, not the best we had though. I think we both agreed that the Joe Knows Tour was well worth the time and money! We give it 4 thumbs up! :)