It’s been 2 weeks since our honeymoon but it seems like 2 years ago! Work has been crazy for both Jason and I so we just haven’t had a chance to reminisce. But before I forget the entire trip, I need to blog about our adventure.
Jason and I are adventurous travelers. We enjoy the beach but we get antsy to go do other stuff too. Initially we wanted to do Costa Rica but it was rainy season so they said we might not be able to do a lot of things. I was working with Anne from Odyssey Travel and she is awesome. I am the type of person that likes to plan my entire trip, find good rates, nice hotels, things to do, etc. I love that stuff! But with wedding planning, I barely had time to put much thought into our honeymoon planning. So that’s where Anne helped out.
Sandals was running a special on a bunch of their resorts on various Caribbean islands. St. Lucia was the only one that had a volcano and rain forest so that is why we chose that island. We did an all inclusive package, our first time doing that.
We flew into Atlanta and had a direct flight from Atlanta to the island. It was about a 5 hour flight. St. Lucia is way down south right above Trinidad and Venezuela. It is 27 miles by 14 miles with about 130,00 people.
The island is very lush; lots of green. Their economy depends heavily on tourism and banana plantations. There were bananas everywhere! They even sell banana ketchup, which I tried and liked so I bought some. It’s not sweet though, it’s got a kick to it.
Our resort was very nice and had everything you needed. We had a first floor room right next to the main pool. Our patio was in a garden and faced the spa. We also had a rec center next to us so Jason and I played a lot of ping pong.
We did the spa one day, a tour of the island another day and a zip through the rain forest another day. The other days were spent laying out on the beach and visiting some of the other resorts because we had a free shuttle.
The zip through the rain forest was so much fun! The put you in a harness and hook you up to a rope and you zip from tree to tree. One zip was the length of 8 football fields! It’s such a great way to experience the rain forest because you are above the trees and can look down to see everything.
The water of course was beautiful. We did a boat ride around the island on a catamaran. We stopped in one area to do snorkeling. When the boat stopped, from afar, you could see all these people in canoes coming from shore to the boats. They were selling goods such as jewelry and handicrafts and even coconuts. The coconut man, as I call him, was selling 2 coconuts for $5. We only had a $20 so we ended up buying coconuts for the entire boat. We made the coconut man very happy.
We did take a trip to the volcano. We saw the bubbling lava which was pretty interesting (and smelly). They have technology in place to anticipate an eruption so people can evacuate. It would affect half the island if it did erupt.
We also saw a part of the island that was in a scene of Pirates of the Carribean. You can see it in this picture.
The locals are very nice people. Everyone is friendly. The crime rate there is very low. And actually, while we were there, there was a tragic shooting of a police officer. The first one in the history of the island. So that was the talk of the island while we were there.
I drank lots of rum punch, the local favorite. I also brought back some real spiced rum, like there are spices in the rum bottle. Being such a lush island, there are so many spices that grow all over the place. I brought back some cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa. Good stuff.
Overall, our experience was very good. Ultimately, it was nice to get away for a week and not get a signal to our Blackberries.