We spent Ryan's last day relaxing on lounge chairs at Reduit Beach. The surf was up, and it was highly entertaining to watch people get rolled unexpectedly! You would think that folks would learn from the mistakes of others, but that didn't happen on this particular day...
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| Living the Life... |
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| Morgan Contemplates Her Entrance Strategy |
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| Bill, Ryan & Morgan Enjoy the Waves |
Ryan was scheduled on an afternoon flight back to the States, so we decided to
make a day out of our trip to the airport, as it is located about an hour and a
half away on the southern end of the island.
We left at 11 am, and managed to see a fair bit of the island on our
way; we went through Castries, the capitol (and the main cruise ship port),
wound up through the rain forest (yes, it rained!), stopped at the top of the
island (overlooking Point Dennery & the Atlantic Ocean), passed Banana
groves, and saw how very different the East & West sides of the island are.
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| Point Dennery Overlook |
Despite our "tour", we arrived at the airport
early, so grabbed lunch in the restaurant.
Ryan, looking forward to home & his own comfy bed, left us with
hardly a backward glance-his words were something along the lines of "I
love you, but I am really ready to sleep in my own bed!"....and off he
went. Love you too, Bubs!
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| Old Mill Works at Fond D'Or |
On our way back to Rodney Bay, we decided to
stop at Fond D'Or, the site of a former Sugar Mill, now a national Heritage
Site and Nature Preserve. Our guide, Paul, was quite an interesting gent, with
a rather unique array of facial tattoos.
He gave a very animated tour of the property, and was veritable font of
information-just we were looking for! I
am going to paraphrase a bit of the information I looked up on the internet (found
here), to add to what we learned from our guide, as we had a very
abbreviated tour:
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| Entrance to the Boiling Room |
Nestled in
the heart of Mabouya Valley on the east coast of St. Lucia, the beautiful Fond
D'Or Nature Reserve and Heritage Park is steeped in history, culture and
mythology. The park was first settled by the island’s indigenous inhabitants,
and was later used by European sugar planters to establish a sugar cane
plantation. Various historic plantation
buildings dating between the 17th and 19th centuries are located here,
including the ruins of two cattle mills, a windmill, boiling house, steam mill
and various other relics.
Fond D'Or
Nature Reserve is renowned for its natural beauty, and you will discover many
hidden gems during your walk. Following a hiking trail through an estuarine
tropical forest, mangroves and dry scrub woodlands, you will see various flora
and fauna. The trail ends at a secluded, white sandy beach, which is a nesting
site for leatherback turtles each year between April and October.
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| Inside the Strangling Fig Tree |
I took some beautiful pictures (if I do say
so myself) of the ruins, and also got a nice shot of the resident Boa
Constrictor resting on his tree branch...I will remember to look up for nasty
surprises from now on! Our guide
informed us that in all of his years at Fond d'Or, he has never seen a
poisonous fer de lance (snake, in patois) on the grounds, as the Boa likes to
eat them, along with the occasional Opossum and other critters.
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| Boa on His Branch |
Back in the day, the Sugar Mill was run using
the indigenous people as slave labor, which, for obvious reasons, was not very
popular. Local lore says the slaves, in
an effort to escape, retreated deep into the Rain Forest. The Mill owners brought poisonous snakes to
the island and released them into the wild, to kill the slaves. After a few years, the snakes became such
scourge, that Mongoose were imported to kill them....unfortunately, as is often the case, the Mongoose became a
problem! Never seems to be a good idea
to introduce non-native species to ones environment....
The Preserve is also a venue for Weddings,
various events, and the home of the annual St. Lucia Jazz Festival. A worthy stop☺
Then it was back into the taxi
and headed "home" to Mañana. We are planning a day trip to Castries soon, so, as always,
We'll keep you posted ♥
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