Day twentyfive, Wednesday 23rd February, Castries, St. Lucia

We woke up this morning to see another extra large size cruise ship outside the window, and when we got up on deck, we saw to Royal Caribbean ships, and a Silver Seas cruiser docked around us. We liked the Silver Seas boat, it was about the same size as ours.  The sun is out, the sea is blue, and we have another island to explore.

OK, so somehow or other I’ve landed escort duty with Peter to the “Delights of Mamiku Gardens”.   Now let’s be honest, gardens aren’t really my thing, and I would never have chosen this tour.  On the plus side though, the tour guides tell you loads of stuff about the island as you travel, and they stop at convenient panoramic views, and gardens usually have loads of butterflies n birds ns stuff, so it’s not all bad. 

And it wasn’t at all.  My coach wasn’t a coach, it was a minibus.  There were only nine passengers, and our tour guide was really knowledgeable and did tell us loads of stuff about the island as we were driving through.  When we got the gardens, we were handed over to the local expert that walked us through and explained various things about the plants, herbs and the gardens themselves.  It was very pleasant, the orchids were lovely, and we managed to see hummingbirds. 

The hummingbirds didn’t stay long enough to have their pictures taken, but the big fat caterpillar and a lizard did. A few local snacks including banana bread and rum punch, then we were on our way back. We arrived back at the ship at 1.45pm, just in time for lunch.  By the time we’d finished, we just had time for a short walk into Castries itself.  

From what I’d seen as we drove through this morning, the city does have some nice places to see, but we didn’t get far, just to the craft market about 15 mins away.  For a long time I’ve been admiring all the wonderful colours and clothes, and today I finally bought a lovely top/dress thing.  As you can tell, I haven’t worked out how to wear it, but it is gorgeous.  The back to the ship for a nap, cos we were shattered.The ship was due to sail at 5 tonight.  but we were late leaving.  I’m not sure why. Maybe we it had something to do with the other massive cruise ships leaving before us.  We had dinner on the deck, and could see one of the other cruise ships as we sailed past it.  (For some reason it was going slower than us, very colourful with all its lights in the dark though).  We finished up in the Neptune lounge to watch the first of the acts that have just joined the ship.  We really liked Colin Fingers Henry who made us laugh and played piano too.  Really good. Tomorrow we dock at St. Johns, Antigua, and we’ve been asked to do escort duties on another tour “Spectacular Antigua”.  I’m looking forward to this one actually, cos it isn’t too long, and it takes us to a few sites in the National Park.  Should be good.