For St. Lucia, I decided it would be best to "wing it". There were plenty of things to do; however, I had a tight budget and was nearing my limit. I found that a lot of people made their way to the "Twin Pitons" for hiking and exploration. They were something, from a distance and maybe the one regret I had about my trip. Never the less, my day worked out better than I could have ever predicted.
Image of the Twin Pitons. Since I did not make it to the Pitons,
I had to get this image off of Google.
With no plans and no real motivation to do anything other than enjoy the day and maybe find a beach, I joined forces with a few friends I made while on the cruise ship. We decided that, being an island, there had to be a beach somewhere close. Later I found out that St. Lucia is not known for it's beaches.
After a while we found ourselves leaving the city and making our way to the next point, opposite the cruise ship. Quite a view as you can see below.
Before I continue, a word of caution. Once you leave the city there are no sidewalks; furthermore, the roads became quite narrow and were laking shoulders.
The sun continued to rise as we pushed forward with our quest to find the perfect beach. The deeper we traveled along the winding road, the more the road seemed to close in around us and the road appeared to be heading deep into the island.
Discussion rose amongst us, whether to push on or turn around. We decided that we had gone this far and it wouldn't hurt to travel a bit further.
A brief time passed and we made our way around a blind curve in the road. As we made the turn, we came across a driveway with a sign out front displaying the word "Sandals." At first we were a little confused. The name sounded familiar but we could not put our finger on it. We figured it out not long after and decided that we should check it out.
The driveway was long and passed by the resorts water treatment plant and golf course before making its way to the main entrance. We walked through the gate with no issue. No one seemed to mind that we were not guests.
Then we saw the beach. It was wonderful. The sand was of an orange'ish hue and was scalding to the touch; however, we did not let that deter us from our quest.
Image from the Sandals Website (this is the same one i was at),
I will say it was quite nice, if you can get past the close proximity
of the resort's water treatment plant.
Along the beach were dozens of chairs. Perfect to leave our things as we went for a dip. The water was perfect, as I found it to be for every island.
Feeling refreshed and satisfied that we were able to find a beach, we gathered our things and continued on, talking to some of the employees. We debated whether or not to let them in on our little secret. In the end, we told them our story and to our surprise that didn't seem to mind and actually found the story quite enjoyable, a first for them. They even offered for us to hang out for a while and get some drinks at the bar (all inclusive). We stayed for as long as we could before making the trek back to the cruise ship.
Looking Back:
St. Lucia ended up being one of my favorite days. We didn't take a guided tour or even get to see that much of the island, but what we did do was explore. Sometimes living life without a plan can be quite invigorating, you never know where you will end up or what is going to happen along the way.
Well that sums up my time on St. Lucia, next on to Antigua.
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