The beautiful weather continues as we visit the island of St. Lucia and its capital, Castries. Castries has two cruise ports but today we are at anchor and will be tendering in to the city. From the QM2, we can see the cruise ships that got priority and were able to dock.
Castries from the Ship
We are both on tour today – “Aerial Tram and Tropical Rainforest”. We have done a similar tour in Puerto Quepos, Costa Rica, earlier in the year. First, we have to get to Castries to catch our tour bus so a-tendering we will go.
The tender ride was smooth and scenic and took about 10 minutes from ship to shore.
Tendering to Castries
One of the other ships here is the MSC Orchestra (below).
A short bus ride got us to the Aerial Tram Facility – “The Rainforest Experience”. This was so much like the one in the Costa Rica – a company must run at least two similar facilities. On the bus over, I met a very interesting young couple – the wife worked for Google R&D (so she knows everything about everyone).
I sat in the back of the tram with the guide so I had great views throughout the entire ride.
Aboard the Gondola
Heading up the Hillside
Bromeliads
A Ficus Tree
Giant Tree Fern
Fiddleheads on a Giant Tree Fern
The tree below is a Grommier Tree, the largest in the rain forest.
We could hear some water flowing and the guide pointed out a river flowing below us down the hillside.
A River Runs Underneath Us
Wild Nutmeg Trees (two above)
Looking carefully, we could see some people on the zip lines.
Zip Liners
The tram turned around at the top and headed back down. As we did so, we got great views of the hillside and the two oceans that surround St. Lucia.
Atlantic Ocean
Caribbean Sea
The bus let us off alongside the stores adjacent to the pier. We had to walk just a few yards to get to the little shopping mall that leads to the tender pier. Soon, I was back on the tender and headed back to the ship.
The sail away from St. Lucia provided us with a magnificent sunset.
No comments:
Post a Comment