… another island trip, of course! 16th trip to some Caribbean island (and the 28th Caribbean island we would be visiting). Crazy thing is … we have never gotten on to a cruise ship!

Our shirt colors were on brand though!!

This is the second time we are having this experience. Our hotel – Sandals – had a lounge for incoming passengers where you freshen up, have some coffee or drinks and snacks and then head out to the hotel when you are ready. We had the same experience in Fiji earlier this year. That one was a Marriott lounge.

It was a long drive – nearly one hour – for such a small island. The airport is in the southernmost corner of the island. The runway is literally off the edge of the water – on both sides!! And the hotels and beaches are on the north side. In between are the mountains and the roads have a lot of curves and hair pin bends. The forests in the mountains are as lush as rainforests of Costa Rica. The drive itself reminded us of St. Croix a lot.

There was the Providenciales Thursday Fish Fry in Turks and Caicos. There was the Friday Oistin Fish Fry in Barbados. There was the Sunday Fish in Samoa.

And now the Friday Street Fest in St. Lucia.

These islands seems to have a decompression day every week where everybody comes out and has food and drinks outside with a lot of island music and dancing.

The locals were dancing to the island music. The tourists were dancing to the island music. Even folks who could not dance – check out the guy in the wheelchair – pushed their way to the front to catch a piece of the action. Nobody danced as if nobody was watching like the gentleman in orange shirt. He is an elderly tourist and he was funny.

Apparently the local cricket team (which is in a winning spree I believe) was there too but I did not recognize them.

We came back from Street Fest and noticed that the car dropped us a short distance away from the lobby. Looked like the road was blocked a party was going on. People were dancing and singing with beer bottles and wine glasses in hand. There were two DJs doing everything DJs are supposed to do. Except there was no sound – let alone any blaring, heart thumping floor music.

Upon inspection we found out that the hotel was giving headphones to everybody. You could stream in any of the two DJs – that would be the reason for the red and green lights on the headphones. And of course dance to it.

Not sure who had more fun. The dancers lost in the music or the non dancers watching people flailing arms and gyrating silently!!

… till some folks started dropping in compliments. Now, she thinks it is a good looking shirt. Just that I do not look good in it.

Both of them have international flights. Except the one close to our hotel takes you to nearby island countries only.

So, we are at a vacation resort. That exhorts us to relax and forget about calendar, deadlines and all that. And then the turn around and try selling precision watches to me!!

Growing up in India, I remember we had two gul mohar trees. They had those flowers where all petals were red in color except one which would have all sorts of colored dots on them. And that tree had fruits that reminded one of daggers.

Here in St Lucia, we saw the same tree but the flower is white in color. I do not think I have seen that before.

We were looking for some souvenirs and local coffee beans. The beans were a bust.

Learnt a couple of things – you can make ketchup from banana!! I knew the rum part but ketchup?

Also, those blue covers around the bananas – apparently they are put to protect the bananas from birds and insects.

I also learnt that a banana tree can blossom only for one year!

Petit Piton in front and Gros Piton in the back. These are volcanic caps.

That is the town of Soufriere below. We will go there and then take a boat to cut across the Pitons to reach our targeted beach today.

That was the explanation our funny guide gave when I asked why the trees had not grown in certain parts of that mountain. Turns out, in reality that there was a bush fire some time back and now the trees are growing back slowly…

A pretty humble one by size. And very cold water!!

Our boat took off from the marina in Soufriere and went straight to what looked like a vertical fault line in the middle of the mountain. In that cave we saw hundreds of bats! Apparently, their droppings are used to make mascara!! Go figure!

We drive into the Soufriere volcano! A rare drive in volcano in the world. In the middle of it is sulphur springs that is super hot. And the idea was to cleanse our skins in it…

You can see that parts of the ocean are getting rains…

The birds are picking up any leftovers from the tables that they can lay their eyes on. The staff here seems to have reached a kind of understanding with them. They do not seem to chase them away at all. When a guest leaves the table, the birds will swoop in and pick at the food left at the table. Eventually, the staff comes to clean the table (whatever is left by the birds of course). They make no attempt to shoo the birds away. The birds, in their turn seem to acknowledge their need to clean the table and kind of hop away with that attitude of “Oh! You are here? No problems. I will move a bit.”

Surprisingly, for all the food that they eat, they are remarkably thin. This might have something to do with the fact that they kept stealing the sugar-free sweetener packets and peck at them till they got into it while carefully leaving the white sugar and brown sugar packets aside!!

On our way to the airport, we stopped at Noble Tree Coffee place. I had talked to the owner – Candyce – beforehand and let her know that we would like a tour. It is a relatively new place that she and her husband Keith has started. We got a full tour and got to taste some really good coffee. Finally found some coffee that was neither overly bitter nor sour. We spent over an hour at the place getting to know about the locally grown beans (arabica, robusta and the relatively rate liberica) and the whole process of coffee making.

If you ever visit St. Lucia and are remotely interested in coffee, try out Noble Tree.

Meet Yason Albertson from St. Lucia!!

“You know what I figured while shaving today?” I asked her as I emerged from our hotel bathroom in St. Lucia.

“No.” she said, betraying absolutely no attempts to conceal her disinterest.

“Well, if you start from the day we got married…,” I continued.

That must have piqued some level of interest in her since she turned back and looked quizzically at me with that familiar “Now, what?” look.

“Exactly 30 years, 30 months and 30 days later…”

I was losing her quickly . All that math made her countenance turn decidedly unquizzical – if that is the word I am going for.

“… will be your birthday this year!” I finished triumphantly. Smug in my belief that I had delivered a mic drop moment.

She looked at me. Disbelief writ large over her.

“THAT’s what you think of while shaving?”

This was not going in a way I had anticipated. Truth be told, I do not have the faintest idea what others think of when they are shaving. For me, numbers, equations and geometrical figures come to life while shaving. There is nothing strange about that, right?

“You are a strange man”.

I was wrong.

In my defense, she knew me very well 30 years, 30 months etc etc ago. So, there!