Day 86 5th April 2011

The Pitons

Rum Punch and Piton Beer

Entrepreneurs

We arrived at St Lucia at around 8am this morning. It was not are normal sunshine and clear skies but rather a tropical rainstorm that you could hear before you saw the rain. It did not last long and we set of for our trip on a catamaran around the island to see the Pitons. These are two mountains over 2500 metres high which are the emblems of St Lucia. The catamaran was full of passengers and we slowly travelled along the coast stopping for 30 minutes in a bay to allow people the opportunity to swim in the sea. While we were there the local entrepreneurs came alongside in small boats and tried to sell us small souvenirs with shouts such as “happy hour two for one” and Asda Prices”.

The trip lasted for four hours and although we did get some showers at the start it was mainly dry except for the sea spray. The Pitons were impressive since they rose very steeply to form an inverted cone. They were separated from each other by a high valley. The coast showed many signs of tourism with hotels and marinas as well as many sea going yachts. We saw an enormous yacht complete with helicopter landing area which must have been the toy of a billionaire. We were astonished at the capacity of some of our fellow passengers for rum punch and Piton beer.

The Aurora had moored in a duty free port which simply means that there were lots of shops selling jewellery, alcohol and souvenirs. We walked around but it was an artificial place made far worse by a karaoke bar that beamed amplified off tune singing around the area. Unfortunately the ship was tied up with the starboard side facing the land so we could hear the singing all afternoon. It was awful.

This is our last port of call on this side of the Atlantic. Tonight we start to cross the ocean on our way to Punta Delgado, the last port of the voyage. This is Portuguese territory and we are only staying for a few hours.