It’s a wonderful experience spending time with our children and their partners on St Lucia. We’ve enjoyed sunshine, great food and drink and activities around the pool, beach and on the water. But it’s always good to get a flavour of the local scenery so we arranged a trip to the local rum distillery and then, today, a catamaran trip to the south of the island to see the Pitons and the town of Soufriere.
The rum distillery is near our hotel in Castries. As another tour was underway, we were left to sample the long array of spirits and liqueurs on offer!
From there we watched a video outlining the history of production, before seeing how the molasses was prepared for fermentation and distillation.
The final room was a colourful tribute to carnival time on the island.
After a couple of days in our hotel we were happy to be out and about again today. An early start saw us boarding the catamaran ‘Endless Summer’ at the Windjammer hotel for a ninety minute cruise down the west coast of the island: destination Soufriere in the shadow of the landmark pitons. The boat clipped along at a good pace, the sea breeze a welcome counter to the heat of the sun. Spirits were high in anticipation of a days sightseeing.
We disembarked in Soufriere and boarded a minibus to the hills and a scenic waterfall where we took the chance to refresh ourselves under the cascade.
After drying off it was back on the bus to drive to Sulphur Springs, the drive in caldera of Soufriere volcano. Having climbed above the crater we could see the bubbling mud pools and steam venting from the cracks; we could hear the hiss of the steam escaping and smell the sulphur on the air.
From here a short drive took us to Morne Coubaril estate where among other things they produce cocoa and sugar cane. More importantly they provided a much needed buffet lunch!
Soon it was time to reboard the catamaran and sail back to Anse Cochon where some of us swam and snorkelled.
From there we cruised up through Marigot Bay, where ‘Death in Paradise’ is filmed before returning to our hotel.
A long but enjoyable day. For us it’s a quiet dinner fro two; the young ones have a taxi booked to take then to the street party in Gros Islet!
Alastair's travels 