Nick * Kesha * Boston * Easton * Payten: Day 5

A few days before our trip, I received an email stating that our biking excursion had been cancelled because the boats to transport us to/from the cruise were in use by scuba divers. We decided to take our chances and see if we could get a taxi to the resort where we wanted to mountain bike but we would be pressed for time. We got off the ship in a hurry that morning and headed to find us a taxi. We ended up finding a water taxi that would take us and pick us up from the Anse Chastanet.

In 1605, the first English settlers arrived on St. Lucia's shores, only to be driven away by the native Caribs. The French tried their luck a few decades later and for the next 150 years, St. Lucia went back and forth between the French and the British. England got final dibs on the island in 1814, and even after St. Lucia gained its independence, the Caribbean island remained a part of the Brittish Commonwealth. Yet the French influence is apparent in the culture, local patois, and the names of the historic towns like Castries and Soufriere. The twin peaks of the Pitons tower over the island's lush mountains and rain forests. So lush in fact that the island looks like it should be floating somewhere in the South Pacific. But its lively festivals, calypso music and favorful creole cuisine are unmistakably Caribbean.

While on our water taxi ride, we were able to see how lush and beautiful St. Lucia is. We all decided that we could return to this island as well for a week sometime because there were so many places that we didn't see.

Us waiting for a water taxi to take us to Anse Chastanet

After we found a water taxi (from Mango (just like the fruit)), Mango took us to Anse Chastanet Resort which was beautiful. We then took a small boat over to another place Anse Mamin to meet our biking pro (Jovan) who gave us the history of what we would see. An 18th century sugar plantation on St. Lucia was formed into this mecca for mountain bikers. In the days of Caribbean colonialism, the 500-acre French owned plantation produced sugar, molasses, rum and cocoa. There are remnants all over from the plantation that Jovan showed us during our small tour. He gave us a small tour of the biking trails telling us which were easy, intermediate and expert. We were adventuresome and took the challenging singletrack loops that wound through the lush Anse Mamim Valley that bisects the private estate owned by the resort. The trail system was described as 'incredible' with lush jungle terrain with innumerable wild orchids and a variety of birds, a fresh water reservoir and a stream with an old-fashioned swimming hole for cooling off, an old church and ruins of the 18th century French colonial plantation. He also showed us all different kinds of fruit and trees that grew in their jungle and ways to use each of them. He showed us some natural sleeping stuff they use for their kids, some some similar to Aloe for healing, and many different fruits as well as cocoa which we tried.

Nick "holding up the Balenbouche sugar bowl"
these large round bowls were what they put sugar cane in to melt it down for molasses

None of us liked the taste of just the plan cocoa bean ... love Brandon's face on this one! He spent the next 5 minutes spitting every piece of finely chewed cocoa bean out .. hehe

The last trail we did was the expert trail called Tinker's Trail. Two-time U.S. Olympian David "Tinker" Juarez designed the trail that switchbacks up to a 900 foot peak. To explain how difficult this trail is... to date, Juarez is the only person that has succeeded in riding the trail in its entirety all the way to the top. Nick and I took our bikes up a little ways (maybe 1/4 of the way up) and joined Jodi in hiking up the trail. Brandon was a trooper and took his bike to the top! Once at the top, we got to ring Tinker's Bell which has been placed on the top of hte mountain and also see one of St. Lucia's most spectacular 270-degree view of the Caribbean. You could see the famous Pitons and a gorgeous and breathtaking view of the Caribbean waters and their island. Coming down the last stretch of the trail, I took a nasty fall but walked away with minor scrapes! (lucky compared to a girl we heard on the previous day was horse back riding and fell off and the cruise ship had to leave her behind at a hospital - yikes).

After we were finished mountain biking, we all headed down to the beach and walked from Anse Mamin to Anse Chastanet where we decided to snorkel. We heard some great things off Trip Adviser about the snorkeling at the reef there at the resort. I was surprised at how few people were over there for the day (it was like we had the place to ourselves one again). Nick and I stopped for some chips and salsa at their outside grill and were pleasantly surprised at the chips (banana chips, sweet potato chips and some other kind of chips with their salsa, sour cream and guacamole and topped off with a cold, refreshing Coke :) ahhhhh (that's making me thirsty and hungry again). We then joined Brandon and Jodi snorkeling and saw many colorful fish including needle fish, a moray eel, angel fish, puffers, flat fish, sting rays and a sea horse. It was a fun snorkel!!

We then waited for Mango to come and pick us up. Someone hit his boat but thankfully he borrowed another boat and picked us up and returned us to the ship. Along the way, he told us fun facts - we passed under the arch that they filmed in Pirates of the Caribbean. We passed homes belonging to Mick Jagger, Oprah Winfrey, Howard Stern and the filming place of Dr. Doolittle. It was just fun to see more of the homes and places of St. Lucia on our way back to the ship.