St. Vincent was a different island, we still have mixed feelings about whether we really liked it or not. We stayed at a marina here called the Blue Lagoon where we were unable to just jump into the water for a quick cool down swim, it was somewhat dirty, thankfully because we were paying for a mooring ball here, we were able to use the swimming pool and shower facilities at the marina.St. Vincent has a volcano called La Soufriere which rises to about 4,000 feet. We decided to take a tour to the top of the volcano and check things out. Absolutely amazing, about 5 hours of hiking (there and back) up a mountain and through an unbelievably green rainforest, Leslie our tour guide was another great person with an abundance of knowledge about his island. He is a local grandfather with 2 kids and 2 grandkids who hikes up to the top of this volcano 3-4 times a week. It was a challenging hike and would definitely keep a person in great shape. Bamboo has my vote for favorite plant/tree,
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they are amazing they grow so perfectly straight and are incredibly strong. The locals use bamboo as supports while building their houses until the cement supports are completed. The first hour and a half was total rainforest and then as we gained altitude the air became cooler and the forest became a lot less dense until there was not much more than grass growing. We came across a lava river bed that was quite a site to see, the lava cooled and became amazingly smooth. The kids were amazed at all of the volcanic.jpg)
rock around them, trying to crack them open to see what they could find inside, hoping for some precious gems of some sort. Quite a few pieces made it home with us in shorts pockets for family and friends to see. This volcano was last active in 1979 and Leslie our guide, who has lived on this island his whole life, was here to witness it, how neat/scary would that be? A bit of a disappointing arrival at the top of the Volcano, we were surrounded by thick, wet clouds that refused to clear away. We were unable to see the complete rim around the volcano but were able to see down inside where there was a pool of sulfur water. The winds were so strong that Leslie made us sit down so that we would not be.jpg)
blown several hundred feed down in to the crater. We were so wet and cold that our visit at the top was quite short. (I was not too impressed with the short visit as I was still huffing and puffing from the hike up). During our hike a couple of ‘local’ guys who actually live up on this volcano and do some ‘ganjia farming’ in the rich volcanic soils, as Leslie called it, passed us with only bare feet. These guys live up on the mountain for months growing ‘weed’ that they then carry down to sell in the local towns. I am very sorry to tell you all that Kevin has also picked up a bad addiction to Hairoun, he consumes at least 6 350ml containers a day and.jpg)
is always searching for a local dealer. (It is actually pronounced Hi-roon and is the local beer in St. Vincent). Kevin is collecting beer from each island to share with his beer buddy Devin who will be arriving in February. On every island each brand of beer is carefully sampled and only the best brands are allowed into Kevin’s collection. On our descending hike, our kids turned into Tarzan and Jane and began swinging from the vines in the forest. Well they were more like George of the Jungle as they were not the most graceful swingers. How FUN. On our return to Leslie’s van we arrived to a disappointing sight, obviously sales in the drug business are not.jpg)
as good as we thought, one of the mountain men broke into his van and stole his sunglasses and to Kevin’s total disappointment our locally made chicken Rotis lunch. Rotis are a local dish that is made up of chicken, potato and a curry mixture that is wrapped up in a flatbread of sorts, it is really good. Poor Leslie who is such a positive man, was so frustrated with these guys. We did get to visit the local police station so that Leslie could file a report for his insurance, so that was kinda cool..jpg)
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knife, maybe if we had called it a Chicken Roti knife they would have had one. Next on our agenda was a trip to the Botanical gardens. We were given a quick tour of the gardens and of course our favorite thing here was the talking parrots. The kids had them talking like crazy…Hello…Morning… They are a rare and protected bird in St. Vincent and were wonderful to see up close. The gardens themselves, although they had some interesting trees and flowers from around the world, were not kept up as well as we thought they would be. After visiting the Devonian Botanical Gardens so often, we had high expectations I guess. .jpg)
After heading out of the Blue Lagoon marina we were off to Walliabou Bay on the north side on St.Vincent. Now this is where the filming of “Pirates of the Carribean” took place. Definitely a large part of 1 and smaller parts of 2 and 3 were filmed here. Disney left different stage parts behind taking down anything of value I am sure. It was so neat to be able to climb and stand where Johnny Depp had once been. One of the local bar owners, where a large portion of the props remain, sells copies of a picture that he took of Depp where it shows him drinking a beer and smoking a joint , I am sure Johnny would be happy 
about that. Saturday night on our boat is movie night, needless to say Pirates of the Carribean 1 was the request for this Saturday and sure enough we saw all the parts in the movie, it sure caused us to watch the movie in a different way, a lot more exciting. The boat boys here in Wallilabou Bay are sure proud of their area and are quick to let you know that they played a part in the movie, mostly fishermen.
December 18, 2007
From St. Vincent our next stop will be St. Lucia. Now St. Lucia brings us a bit of extra excitement as we know some people on this island that we are going to meet up with and tour around with. Vicki and Doug from Regina, SK, whom we met this past summer out a Wabamun Lake (Liz and Harvey, Liz and Vicki are sisters, who own a cabin beside Kevin’s parents out at the lake graciously introduced us and the rest is history) own a house here and spend their winters in luxury on the beautiful island of St.Lucia.A HUGE THANK-YOU goes out to Doug and Vicki who opened their beautiful piece of heaven to us and welcomed us with open arms. This was
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the first time on our trip that we were able to go into a home on one of the islands, they are amazing in that because all of the islands are incredibly hilly they are all built on stilts of some sort. Well Liz and Doug’s house is no exception; up high on a hill with their gardens in their yard and fruit trees wherever you turn I can sure understand why they come back winter after winter. Just imagine cleaning up your summer garden in Canada just to turn around and plant another one here, only add a mango, grapefruit, lime, orange and coconut trees to the mix. Nothing beats fresh fruit from your own fruit trees and Vicki and Doug had our mouths watering in no time. Huge mangoes served up still on their peels, with a facecloth to catch all of the juices running down our faces. We were kept busy eating fresh fruit, and also had a quick lesson on the Canadian method of extracting coconut water from the coconut, Vicki is amazing with the drill. Thank-you again for your hospitality and amazing produce that came home with us, I don’t think the delicious mangoes and oranges made it 24 hrs on our boat..jpg)
The day following our visit to Vicki and Doug’s house, Vicki became our tour guide extraordinaire for the day. We had a destination of the St. Lucia Botanical gardens, but in order to get there we had to hop on to a local bus which here in St. Lucia is a little bit different, here they are regulated which means that there is not the squishing in and sitting on knees that we experienced on other islands. What was the same about this bus system were the roads that they have to wind in and out and up and down. The bus trip was just as educational as the botanical gardens themselves. We viewed such amazing sights as banana plantations, local villages, local .jpg)
farming villages and the beautiful Piton Mountains (two mountains which stand side by side with a beautiful anchorage in between them, you can climb the taller of the two). We arrived at the Botanical Gardens just before opening time and therefore beat the daily cruise ship rush, which we were very thankful for. The Gardens here in St. Lucia definitely made up for the gardens in St. Vincent. We saw the most beautiful flowers and plants and trees up close and personal while taking a relaxing walk on beautiful paths that lead around the gardens. It was so nice to see the grounds so incredibly well taken care of. In the gardens we saw some .jpg)
mineral baths that Louie XVI had built so that his soldiers could relax and benefit from the minerals, they have been redone for tourists to swim in, but we did see the original baths. Supposedly if you bath in them they take 10 years off your looks, none of us figured we needed this so we simply admired. In these gardens we also came across the Diamond Falls, these diamond falls contain the same minerals as the baths and therefore have colored the stone wall behind them, an absolutely stunning view. Our tour with Vicki was not over with the bus rides and the Botanical Gardens, she then took us to Milo’s Restaurant in the village of Soufriere. A little local .jpg)
restaurant where they served up an absolutely delicious lunch of Chicken and Fish Rotis with a salad or fries and of course a cold Piton (the local beer on St. Lucia, it is getting harder and harder for Kevin to pick a favorite).Once again a HUGE THANK-YOU to Vicki for taking a day to spend with us, it was wonderful.
We had one more stop to make on St .Lucia (well there was more than one but we are having to pick and choose as we are on somewhat of a schedule) we had to visit Pigeon Island National Park. This island is actually not an island on its own anymore; it has been attached to St.Lucia, with a couple beautiful hotels on the manmade causeway. Pigeon Island is made up of 2 peaks joined by a saddle ridge that we were able to hike to the top of and across. These peaks were used in the 1780’s as a strategic British observation post to see the next island north, the French in Martinique, who had planned to dispel of the British in the Caribbean. Unfortunately for the French the British on Pigeon Island were watching their every move and when they left
Martinique to try to take over the island, Admiral Rodney and his fleet were ready and waiting. The British defeated the French in less than 24 hours and Pigeon Island has not played an important role since. In 1817 a hurricane destroyed many of the buildings here but thankfully there are still enough left for us to let our minds imagine and wander. There is a small museum here which helps to create a picture in your mind and a smaller bar under the museum in some of the old officer’s barracks, where the walls are made of large stone and tunnels lead in and out of the bar/restaurant. We stopped for a quick drink and I had a/one pina colada that sent
my head spinning. (That local rum gets you every time.) There were a few old large trees here that kids insisted on climbing, it was not till we wanted them to pose for a picture that they realized that they were full of ants, just look at their faces, they were laughing so hard and were unable to sit still.Here in St. Lucia we anchored at Rodney Bay, which is a beautiful beach about a mile long. It also has a huge marina that holds hundreds of boats.
We are thankful for the large marina here in the lagoon because on our sail over we noticed some stitching coming out in our Jib (that is the sail up at the front of the boat) so we took it down and had the local sail maker sew it up for us. We also found a great Italian ice cream shop here at the marina where I am sure they know us by name. We visited the mall in St. Lucia a couple of times to purchase some Christmas food and gifts to help with our Christmas Spirit. I never realized how Christmas shopping puts one in the mood so quickly; I guess the idea of giving really does go a long way.Well our time in St. Lucia was very limited but we were able, with the help of some new friends,
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see the best parts of it and stock up on some Christmas cheer.December 23, 2007
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Well 2 sleeps before Santa comes and we are heading for the Island of Martinique. Now this island for those of you who have heard our boat purchase and hurricane story, know is where we purchased our boat back in August. Kevin and I think that we kinda know the ins and outs of this island, even though it is French and we cannot understand a word, know what to expect and can at least rent a car and get around on our own (you drive on the right hand side here). We rented a little 2 door car here and squished all six of us in to the four available seats, still more comfy that the 21 people in the van alternative. We drove along the east / 
Carribean coast to see what we could find, not really looking for anything in particular just feeling great with our new freedom. Here we found a little village called St. Pierre where in 1902 Mount Pelee erupted and coved the entire town with lava leaving only two men alive, one man was down in his cellar and the other man was a criminal in an underground jail. Here we had some delicious pizza at a little French restaurant and then took the afternoon to enjoy one of Martinique’s beautiful black sand beaches. Now being Christmas eve and all we headed home to locate the man in red on his journeys around the globe (the internet is an amazing thing). The kids were .jpg)
very excited but nervous at the same time as they were told that this Christmas would be smaller due to our location and limited funds for Christmas gifts. Lets just say they said extra prayers that Santa would be good to them.MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.
December 25, 2007
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We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.Our first Christmas away from family, friends, Christmas parties, snow and everything we know, turns out to be alright, I have always said that as long as Kevin and the kids are with me I will be alright and this just proves it.
How better to explain Christmas than through a child’s eyes……
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Kiana – We had a very different Christmas this year in Martinique. Tyler woke me up, It was about 4:45. I was about to yell at him for waking me up so early in the morning but then remembered it was Christmas (YAY!!!). I quickly climbed out of my top hatch (the window right above my bed) and crawled over to theirs and we had we had a 15 minute long countdown while listening to my iPod (the earliest we were allowed to wake up was 5:00). We ran out to the kitchen and woke up mom and dad it took an extra 10 minutes for them to actually know why they were being woken up so when they were awake enough we all started ripping open the many presents we got(thank you!). When everything was open and most of it tried out mom and dad decided we should go for another ride in our car we rented we stopped by a really nice beech. The waves there were big so we were worried that we couldn’t swim because usually where the are big waves there is shallow coral .When the boys went to investigate they found it was just really shallow sand. I was sooooo sad because I had forgot my bathing suitL . We didn’t stay for long any ways and I ended up getting soaked any waysJ. For supper that night we had turkey, ham, stuffing, fresh cranberry sauce, and pumpkin (yummy). Well that’s all folks. kiana.jpg)
Cole – Christmas day was a lot different here than at home, no snow, no Christmas tree and no relatives but overall it was still fun. We woke up at 5 am our time, 2 am your time to see the table full of presents. We got lots of board games, Skim boards (these are like surf boards you use in the sand and water to ride on like a snowboard), books, clothes and candies. Everything but the books, clothes and candy we are sharing. Then after opening presents we drove to a beach with big waves which we had fun in and then we drove home and had a big supper of Turkey, ham, pumpkin, potatoes, and stuffing. This is a Christmas that I will remember for the rest of my life..jpg)
Tyler – Christmas day this year was small. My best present was the Skim boards from Santa. After we opened our presents we got to go to the beach, it was easy to learn how to use the boards but I fell down a few times learning. After the beach in our rental car we went home to the boat and I helped mom make some homemade stuffing. In it we put butter, celery, garlic and croutons. The supper was really good.Christmas day we spent opening gifts and going on another tour with our sports car, well that is the way Kevin drove it anyways. With new gifts
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in hand we headed for a beautiful beach on the southern end of Martinique. I wanted to take the kids down to the Marina in the town of Le Marin where we purchased the boat and witnessed firsthand hurricane Dean. We showed them the hotel we stayed in and the damage that was done to the island. It is amazing how the locals all pull together to clean up their town and get back to normal. It has been four months since the hurricane and except for a few stranded sailboats out in the bay things look pretty back to normal, even the palm and coconut trees have grown new leaves and seem to be back to normal. It does help that Martinique is part of France and when it is needed France steps in and helps out, this is very noticeable when you get to the other islands where they are independent and are left to their own devices.December 29, 2007
Well we hauled up anchor on Boxing Day and sailed away from Martinique in search of some more beautiful sights. Next island up, Dominica, the nature island.
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Luke – While we were sailing we saw a big brown thing, it turned out to be a big turtle that was floating at the top of the water. When we got closer it lifted its head up and then dived down.
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