Hubby had a great idea.

Well, he thought it was a great idea.

After our totally awesome boat trip we spent the next few days hanging at the resort, playing and letting the kids participate in the kids club ( which they loved, loved, loved, much to our dismay)  But hubby was getting a little bored of the frothy drinks and days at the pool; he was seeking adventure.

Yes. Adventure.

With 3 kids. In St. Lucia.

Turtle Beach . . .way over there!

He had this great idea to rent a car and explore the island.  We had heard about a beach that the Leatherback Sea Turtles seemed to frequent, and with the dude being a diego fan (and Leatherback sea turtles being one of his fave rescuable critters) he made that the destination of our adventure.

Renting a car in St. Lucia took a little more effort than average effort. A taxi to the rental place, a temporary St. Lucian license and then back to the resort to load up the family.

Soufrie, St Lucia

Driving in St Lucia is a little different as well.  With winding roads and drivers passing with a horn honk on a blind corner, it was a little threatening.  Now, I have been on the roads in Peru and this wasn’t as bad as that, but it still kept us on the edge of our seat.

We had a map, but after attempting to follow it further, we better understood the reason for Tomtom inviting us to chart the island. They are in desperate need of some better mapping, and maybe even the odd street sign.

We did find our way to the town that the Turtle Beach was off of, unfortunately it was at the end of a 20k length of dirt road and our little rental car (loaded with kids) just wasn’t going to risk it.

We found the smaller towns a little . . . well,  threatening. The locals weren’t all that warm and friendly (and a few of them were actually sporting machetes)  But then again, we were a bunch of yuppie “americans” zipping around their small towns with our Pentax zoom lens . . . so fair play!

Pretty happy swimming in that waterfall

We did the full island, top to tail, and saw some beautiful spots. We got lost more than once, and usually when the little dude was losing it. We swam at a waterfall, counted 46 goats and 54 horses tethered off the roadside, and picked up a few remaining souvenirs (yay banana liquor & coconut rum)

check out all those tourists! Castries, St. Lucia

It is a lengthy island to drive, and that is from a Canadian who is used to lengthy drives, and while there are a few good tourist spots, they are still few and far between. I wouldn’t recommend St. Lucia as a self catering island at this time, although it is amazing by boat.

At the end of our journey hubby admitted it wasn’t the best day we had experienced, but it was worthwhile getting a feel of the island and seeing as much of it as we could before we went home.  We love to travel, but hate being cooped up in a resort where we just get a glimmer coating of the place we are. Seeing the standard of living, talking to the locals and snooping about was eye opening (for us and the kids)

A few Highlights:

• The kids will always remember seeing a chicken and her 8 chicks pecking in the street gutter in downtown Castries
• Driving a local gal home after she worked her stall – and how she commented that we were “spoiling our boy” by having him in a carseat. He’s 3 by the way. Just 3.
• Realizing that the goats weren’t there for milking . . . they were protein. Both girls agreed they would never eat goat.
• Lock the doors and have the kids smile . . . smiling kids always help to warm up a cold reception in a strange town! Manners go one hell of a long way, no matter what country you are in

mmmm. dinner