The most relaxed tour guide in St. Lucia

Another day, another island. And today we are on the gorgeous island of St. Lucia. The best way to describe this island? LUSH. (That's also the best way to describe some of our fellow tour passengers today, too, but more on that later.). We arrive early this morning and after enjoying our regular breakfast in the piazza, we disembarked the ship to find Spencer Ambrose, our tour guide for the day. In trying to decide what to do for both my and Jim's first visit to this paradise, I kept going back to the idea that I would regret it if I didn't spend time at Jalousie Beach, which is a black sand beach, nestled in between the Pitons. The Pitons are two mountains that were created by St. Lucia's volcano and are about a mile apart from each other. Jalousie Beach is so named from the French word for jealousy, because at one time this area was quite exclusive. Because this beach is still difficult to access (30 minutes by speed boat or 2.5 hours by car from the port) we decided to maximize our time and chose Spencer as our tour guide. For $80 per person, Spencer sent his boat, along with a captain and Terry, our tour narrator. We shared the boat with 8 other people to get to this beach. Terry was quite entertaining with his tales of his home on the island and with his dreadlocks, Rastafarian colored hat, and repeated use of "yeah mon" he was the very picture of what you'd think an island guide would be. He also mentioned St. Lucia's love of "local cigarettes" a few times. We were the first people to arrive on the beach and we quickly found our shady spot under a palapa. Jim and I took off immediately to try out the snorkeling and while it wasn't the best we've ever seen, we weren't disappointed. We also saw squid today (so cute!). The fish at this spot had no fear of people and would even take little nibbles at our toes. (I've heard people pay good money in some spas for this?!). After our snorkel, we relaxed and did our usual people-watching on the beach. Terry came by to check on us and bring us soft drinks. I asked him if the "local cigarettes" he kept mentioning were legal and he explained that they weren't but also police generally didn't harass users. And this is when Terry turned into a salesman, flashing a quick bag of marijuana and asking if we'd like to be "taken care of". We politely declined. We got a good little giggle from Terry saying he only smokes a little, usually around 10 joints per day. And here I thought it was island life that made this guy so relaxed! The rest of the day was spent swimming and enjoying the scenery. We were also served a local lunch of green banana salad, various root vegetables, plantains, green salad, and jerk chicken. Jim got to try a St. Lucia local beer called Piton (of course). Now a few of our fellow passengers got a little too enthusiastic about the unlimited rum punch and beer and could barely walk back to the boat when it was time to leave. (See? Lush.) A couple of them demonstrated that medical phenomenon that the more your sobriety goes down, the more your speaking volume goes up. Terry, the captain, and the other passengers looked like they were ready to throw the worst offenders overboard towards the end of our ride. At one point of the ride, I looked down and noticed that the drunk woman near me only had 4 toes! On each foot! That made my day! I had to sneak a picture of them (you're welcome!) Below you'll see that picture, along with our views for the day and some pictures from another stop we made at Marigot Bay (where the original Dr Dolittle movie was filmed). We arrived back on the ship and had a quick dinner. As for us, it's just about bedtime because we're as relaxed as if we'd had a local cigarette. But ours is natural, caused only by the sand, sun, and island life. Until tomorrow, goodnight, mon!