We get great
joy from having our guests venture out to discover the awesomeness of St. Lucia
and return with glowing reports and pictures.
We thought you might enjoy seeing what a couple of our guests
“discovered” during the first two days of their stay with us.
These two
ladies did their homework before coming to St. Lucia. They had a list of places they wanted to see,
in person, after having seen pictures during their online research. When they arrived in St. Lucia, they rented a
car so they could go where they wanted to, when they wanted to, without having
to depend on someone to take them around.
This gave them maximum flexibility to see what they wanted to see. Their spirit
of adventure was laudable!
Bright and
early the day after they arrived, they arose and noted the early morning beauty
of this area. The sun was about to crest
over the mountains to the east of our valley when they took this photo; the
beginning of a beautiful new day! Our
guests then had breakfast and started out on their day’s adventure.
Finding a
beautiful beach was high on the list of priorities. After breakfast, they needed to finish up
some business regarding their rental car.
And, there is a beautiful beach right by the airport where they rented
the car. It made perfect sense that the
beach was their second stop. Vigie Beach
is on the Atlantic side of the Island. Nonetheless,
it is a beautiful beach; and when you look out at the Ocean, it just goes on
“forever.” And on-shore, looking at the
sand tells a story all its own. There
was a heart declaring love for the Island of St. Lucia; very touching! There was also your “typical” sand creation –
a fort made of sand.
This photo tells a different story about this beach. Lots of footprints and paw prints – must have been where a dog(s) played with the owner(s.) Look real close and you will see shoes that were shed when someone decided to wade into the ocean. Overall, this scene gives you the feel of a popular beach that gets lots of foot traffic. The beach loaded with footprints also tells you that lots of people are drawn there to look out to a place that seems to go on forever and can take you to “far-away” places. It’s a place that fuels dreams. And these ladies still dream big dreams, and act on those dreams.
That
evening, back at home base, it was dinner time.
The beautifully plated meals served at Calabash Mountain Villa certainly
make your mouth water. When initially
served it looks so scrumptious you can hardly wait to dive in. Then as you begin to consume the meal, you
realize that you have a hearty serving of food and start to wonder if you will
be able to eat all of it. You dig in and
do your best to savor every bite. When
done, all you can do is sit and enjoy the great conversation at the table
(nobody can move.) Often the
conversation just goes on until it is bedtime...
The next
morning the ladies were ready for day two of their site-seeing. This day was determined to be the day for the "Rhythm of Rum Tour" at the St. Lucia rum distillery. This tour is a great experience. On this tour, the very capable and
entertaining tour guide gives you the history of St. Lucia rum making and all
that goes into the process. The Tour is
very educational and the tour guide is very entertaining as he shares his
knowledge of the process with those taking the Tour. (You come away from the tour with a new
appreciation of all that it takes to distill rum.) The added feature of this tour is that you
also learn a bit more about St. Lucian culture as the rum is discussed in
context of the celebrations of which the rum is part and parcel. There was a segment of the tour that
discussed the rum in context of the St. Lucia Carnival experience. They even had recordings of the music and costumes
that some on the tour agreed to adorn and get into the Carnival spirit. And yes, our guests got into the act (and no, we are not sharing a picture of that.)
Following
the Tour, you are led to the “tasting area,” where the tables are set up with
bottles of the various flavors of rum that are distilled there. You have an opportunity to go around the
tables and sample different flavors of rum.
Then you can go into the onsite Rum Shop (duty-free shopping) and
purchase the bottles of rum you want to take with you. And yes, we engaged in the buying end of the
tour.
A good chunk
of the day was gone and it was time to head back to the Villa. And on the trip
back, the beauty of the communities we passed through prompted a photo-taking
stop. So, we parked the vehicle in Anse
La Raye and our guests exited to take pictures from a viewpoint (an area that
is situated where you can take great photos of the area and not obstruct other
traffic.) The viewpoint gives you a
great look at the layout of the community that is situated in a very
mountainous area. The mountains in this
area make for a dramatic and beautiful scene.
The beauty of the vibrant colors of the homes almost demands that
pictures be taken.
Back on the
road again, we find more places to capture land and seascapes. Gorgeous and colorful homes abound on the
Island of St. Lucia! More mountains –awesome
surroundings– simply gorgeous! And we
even got to capture a storm coming in from the sea (we managed to move on
before it actually came ashore.)
Written by Sandra Emmanuel
Pictures courtesy of our
guests!
March 19, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment