"Tasting" St. Lucia

Wow!!! Meet the beautiful island of St. Lucia.

Dad and I just spent four delicious days on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean with Elder and Sister White who are about to complete their mission and return home.

We had a little rest and relaxation while we tasted our way through the island. You see, one of our main focuses of the trip was to eat great meals. We live in Guyana, you know, where foods we are used to eating are hard to come by. Just now I've been trying to buy a simple little box of baking soda without any luck.

We swam and snorkeled at the beaches (senior missionaries have different rules, you know), rubbed ourselves down with special mud (Sister White and I, that is!), checked out the waterfalls and beautiful botannical gardens, and slept until we felt like getting out of bed.

The mosquito net over our bed was delux and there were watermelons growing on the tree just outside the room where we stayed. Check the photos below if you don't believe me.

We sneaked out in the dark to take a dip in this charming little pool in a picture-perfect setting.

We held up our missionary skirts so we could wade in edges of the sea until our hems were wet.

We wandered through an old army installation where for years the English and French fought repeatedly for control of the island of St. Lucia.

Then, we headed down to Anse LaRaye, a small village on the coast.

Right off Elder White was greeted by someone that we guessed was the mayor of the town?

We wandered the lanes of the little village and found cute little houses all in a line. This one was my favorite.

And little kids playing on the beach with no adults in sight...

And washer women (maybe their mothers) concentrating on some serious washin'... (There are no smiles in this group!)

As we crossed the river to return to our parked car, we discovered these two women scrubbing their dirty clothes right in the stream.

On the other side of the bridge, things were spread out. Will they stay nearby until all is dry?

Time for ice cream! We couldn't get quite get our fill no matter how much we ate!

And now we'll move on to Soufriere where we spent most of our 4 days.

Right in the center of the village was a cute little park that I call "the village green". Who are those 3 white faces hiding under the beautiful red-flowering Flambouyant tree? Is that a church tucked behind the tree?

I'll walk you through the little town of Soufriere and show you some of the sights. It is morning and some of the town ladies are sitting on the sidewalks selling their produce and other stuff.

Comfy spot?

Now we'll jet back to our hotel room. You've already seen the spectacular photo at the first of this blog. It was taken right from where we were staying in Soufriere.

And these were the watermelons that were growing on the trees just outside our hotel room door!

Guess what? Sister White and I are off to be a little wild and crazy and to have some fun. We'll start with the mineral mud baths.

Someone, calling to us from the bridge above us, asked us if they could snap our photo while we sat together on this rock. "Why, of course," we answered, "for a dollar!"

Eventually, my "friends" insisted my scalp needed the full therapeudic (sp?) mud treatment, too.

Cleanup time... Who was the sneaky camera man that snapped this lovely shot?

Let's check out the waterfalls.

Do we look like two senior missionaries?

Are we having fun?

And who are these two deadbeats who are afraid of getting wet?

Oh, isn't this one cute?

This was definitely a wet squeeze!

Here's one more waterfall where in the movie, "Superman II", Superman supposedly plucked an orchid for Lois Lane.

We met the Williamsons for a few moments at our church in the southern tip of St.Lucia.

I always love seeing that familiar black and white sign that reads, "The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints"!

And this is the view point they drove us to at the very southern tip of the island.

Our little trip was fun, fun, fun!

Now,we're back in Guyana in full missionary mode and cherishing every minute of it!