February 9, 2015

The ship docked at the pier in Castries, the capital of St. Lucas, before 8 a.m. The sea was pretty calm as we approached Castries. The temperature was 24 C and the wind NW 7 knots, a moderate wind, and mostly sunny with a ring of fluffy white clouds at the horizon. Just the AIDA Luna is in port with us today.  Castries harbor occupies the crater of an extinct volcano. Due to several fires destroying the wooden buildings, most of the city’s buildings are less than 100 years old.

We had breakfast in the dining room on Deck 3 and sat with a couple from Maine, who told us of the unusual amount of snow and storms that has hit their state since Christmas. We waited in the Theater for our tour to be called and were divided into two groups of 18 or 20 on the pier. We had one of the Excursion Staff on the trip. When asked the percentage of excursions booked before the cruise he said for this trip about 40%, but by the time we had arrived at Aruba, on Day 3, the percentage had climbed to over 80% of passengers having booked at least one excursion.

Our guide is Lucretia and the driver is Linus. He drove on the left side along narrow roads that winded alone, but with less elevation that Granada. As we left the harbour we passed the Castries public market where the local women are traditionally dressed with cotton headdresses; the number of knotted points on top reveals their marital status. Lucretia told us there are over 50 varieties of banana grown on the island. As we headed out of the city we headed toward Morne Fortune, the inappropriately named "Hill of Good Luck." In the 18th century, some of the most savage Caribbean battles between the French and the British took place here. Then we passed Government House, the Governor General’s official residence, an example of Victorian architecture that escaped destruction by the 1948 fire.   Morne Fortune also offers a scenic lookout perch in the Caribbean. The view of the harbor of Castries is panoramic. You can see north to Pigeon Island or south to the Pitons (a half day drive away); today were able to see the form of neighbouring island, Martinique.  We had originally booked a 2 hour easy hike at Gros Piton, one of the two highest points on the island, but it was cancelled.  We drove through the college grounds. It is named after a St. Lucia Noble Prize winner, William Arthur Lewis. We left the bus to view the Inniskellan Monument to an Irish regiment, in the British army, that fought ferociously against the French in 1796.  The view of the island was majestic from this viewpoint. We noted that until the French defeat in 1796, the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College campus was an army barracks for the French and British, changing hands 14 times.  Buildings built by the French were made of stone, while British buildings were made bricks shipped from Britain.  In the various takeovers, construction of buildings was continued with the French using stone the British brick base and vice versa.

Next stop was another 20 minutes further and was a clothing design store, where the Caribelle Batik is created.  We were shown the Batik process of waxing areas NOT to be dyed, before submersing in a colour, then repeating the process with darker colours until the design is complete and the dye dried.  Then the fabric, cotton or silk, is boiled to remove the wax and the design is visible on both sides of the fabric.  Larry found a nice blue patterned shirt.  Next stop was the café of a zipline/tram company, Calabash, where we strolled in the rainforest garden and sampled fresh banana, crab cake and banana bread and had a glass of punch. It was our last stop before returning to the ship but we visited various viewpoints on the route. Step count was 4576.

We went to the Oceanview Café for lunch, then, returned to the terminal building to look at the shops where I bought a pair of pants and matching top in a bright yellow with an orange sun design. We stopped for a Piton beer and Rum Punch, before returning to the ship. Temperature was 29 and sunny.  We took it easy in the afternoon going to the Solarium pool area and compiling the Saturday and Sunday blogs and reading until 5. Then we got ready for dinner, deciding to wear our new purchases.

Dinner was back to the regular table in the dining room. Appetizers were Fruit plate and Seafood Salad, followed by Cobb Salad.  Then the entrées were Pork Tenderloin, Hadock and flattened chicken breast rolled around a banana with rice.  For dessert we had a chocolate muffin with a slice of fried banana.  With my coughing starting again, I went back to the cabin to complete today’s blog and Larry went to the casino for a while.  We went for a nightcap at 9:30 when we returned the daily steps total was 8,203.