Let it Snow & Sailing along

It’s been a long time. Much snow has fallen at home and the weather in St. Lucia has cooled slightly to a more comfortable level. We returned to Moncton on December 13 to spend Christmas with the kids and the dogs. But we had an unexpected delay when our flight from Newark to Moncton was cancelled because of bad weather. After a two and a half hour wait in line to talk to a customer service agent, we found out we couldn’t leave until the next direct flight 24 hours later. So we were stuck in New York without winter clothes. Norm had a short sleeved cotton shirt. I at least had a cotton jacket with long sleeves and a warm hoody that I was able to lend him. The airline refused to put us up in a hotel but “generously?” gave us two blankets and a pillow to help us sleep in the airport. We booked a hotel instead and used the blankets the next day as scarves to help us keep warm. Norm likes to say we made lemonaide with lemons. We took a shuttle into New York and then bought tickets for the double decker tour buses. They were great. We could get on and off whenever we wanted. We would sit up top to see the sights but when it got too cold we’d go downbelow to warm up. It’s amazing how much we were able to see that way. It was a lovely day but a rude introduction to colder weather.

The weather in Moncton was another shocker. We had four storms within one week…each of them between 20 to 40 centimetres. It was the week Deny and Catherine had chosen to go to the Dominican Republic with their friends so Norm had to do a lot of shovelling on his own. I helped with the walkway but at the end I could barely get the snow over the snow bank. Fortunately we had a big melt afterwards so that the snowbanks shrunk considerably.
We had a nice Christmas, spending time both at home and the cottage.

The driveway to the cottage had to be blown out twice. Norm and I had planned to meet there for supper and to spend the night after one of the storms, but the guy hadn’t had a chance to clean out the driveway. I got there first and had to hike at least 800 feet into the cottage, stomping the snow with my cross country skis. There was no question of gliding. The snow was too deep. The worst thing is that I had to carry the prime rib roast I was making for supper, along with other groceries, in a plastic bag in my hand. The dogs were very interested in that grocery bag. But I made it, despite the minus 25 degree weather, and the cottage was toasty warm by the time Norm arrived. What a lucky guy!

So we’re back in St. Lucia. Norm’s sister Gisele and her husband Allen are visiting, and enjoying everything the island has to offer. Last week we sat in on a time share presentation at the Windjammer, a resort down the road. As a thank you, they gave us a nice discount on a cruise to Soufriere, at the south of the Island.

The cruise was on a catamaran. We left at 8:30 and docked again at 5:00 pm. We cruised from the Windjammer past our house. We sailed by Castries and throughout the West Coast of the Island. We could drink all of the rum punch or beer that we wanted. The rum punch was so strong that we preferred a mix of half punch, half passion fruit juice.

Once we landed in Soufriere we were taken by mini-bus to Toraille Falls. It’s a 15 metre waterfall that we get to after walking through yet another tropical garden. It was a great place to take a quick dip. The water hits you pretty hard but it’s very refreshing.

From there, we were taken to the world’s only drive-in volcano. By drive in, they mean that the parking lot and road are actually built on top of the volcano. The Canadian government helped develop the tourist site. It is quite amazing. There is steam rising from the craters and the mud continually bubbles up. In the past, they used to let tourists walk closer to the craters. They would cook eggs in the boiling mud to prove just how hot it was. But that ended after a tour guide fell through one of the cracks. The ground can move and create new fissures. The guide was jumping up and down and a hole opened up and he fell in. He survived but was seriously injured. The volcano is active and scientists say it will erupt again, maybe as soon as 100 years from now. But they say there won’t be lava. There will be a big blast as strong as an atomic bomb and people will be killed by the poisonous gas that will be released.

Our next stop was at a working coco plantation where we were treated to a lovely buffet lunch. We had a short tour of the site and an explanation of how they process coco beans. After drying the beans in the sun on large trays for a few weeks, they pour them into a big cast iron pot where a worker polishes them by doing a coco dance. He washes his feet, adds water to the pot, hangs on to each side, and then swings his legs from side to side as the beans swish up and around him. I will never eat chocolate again without thinking of the coco dance.

There was a scheduled stop on the way home at a popular snorkelling beach. Gisele and Allen convinced me to give it a try and I am now a convert. I will never go far or go deep but in 15 minutes I saw at least a dozen different species of fish, all I water up to my neck. I felt like I was swimming in an aquarium. It was very cool.

The only unfortunately thing about a wonderful day of sailing is that Norm couldn’t be there because he was working. But it was so much fun that we’ll do it again when he can come along.
Sorry you had to wait so long for this latest blog entry. I’ll try to keep writing weekly but it’s going to be more difficult as we get more company over the next couple of months.