31/1/11 Monday
Our JetBlue flight from Buffalo was on time with no problems however both of our duffle bags suffered some damage. We were met at the airport by Alex and Szeveda from Slovenia. I had been chatting with Alex at TA and they offered to give us a ride to Rodney Bay in their rental car. They are a nice couple who have done a lot of traveling. Alex and I are of the same mind in that we look for budget travel to allow us to vacation longer. We checked into the Bay Gardens Inn and got a room on the first floor opposite the pool. Mike came by to pick up some meat I brought for the charter later this month. He will keep it in his freezer until we get back from Grenada. After talking a little over some Chairmen’s Reserve Mike brought along we walked over to the main road and got dinner off one of the food trucks. I had fish and fries, Kim had chicken and fries $28 EC for both meals. After Mike left we walked down to Happy Day bar where we found Trendy. We had a couple drinks and gave him the flask I had bought for him since he was admiring mine on the last trip. We walked back to the hotel and stopped at Ku da ta to have a drink with John and some other friends, I had also gotten John a flask and he was very pleased with it. After a full day of travel we called it an early night.
1/2/11 Tuesday
Started the day by going to Rituals for breakfast, I had eggs, cheese and bacon on a bagel with a large coffee, Kim had a toasted bagel with cream cheese and a coke, the bill was $30 EC. We walked to the Bay Garden Beach Resort and spent most of the day lounging around the pool as Kim needed to defrost after being stuck in Buffalo all winter. About mid-afternoon we went to Happy Day bar and had a couple beers with Trendy. Afterwards we all went to the Triangle Pub for a local lunch. Kim and I had the Grilled chicken meal, very good and fresh off the charcoal grill, Trendy had the stewed pig tails the total bill was $ 42 EC for all three meals. Back at the hotel we gave Trendy the clothes Nick had sent down for him. After some time spent around the pool we took a nap and met Mike at H2O for some more drinks. Got out of there about 11:00 pm, took the bus back to the hotel and then walked over to the food trucks where Kim got a bake to eat with the leftovers from her lunch, I picked up some jerk chicken and a couple bakes for myself.
2/2/11
Took a cab to Cas En Bas where Mike has his apartment. The road is very rough so the driver dropped us off at the end of the asphalt and we walked the rest of the way down to his place. We had some fresh squeezed juice and fruits Mike picked up at the market yesterday then walked through the bush on an unpaved road to Cotton Bay. We grabbed some lounge chairs at the resort there and enjoyed a day on the beach. There were only a few people on the beach which wrapped around a little bay. We had lunch at the resort, chicken club for Kim and Mike a cheeseburger for me with some drinks, tea and tip the bill was $85 US, ouch! We walked over to the Amerindian burial ground and took some photos of the coast which had a lot of lave rock exposed. While walking back to Mikes we came upon some tourists that were driving their rental car down this dirt road to the beach. We couldn’t believe that they would even attempt it since the locals rarely do unless they have a proper truck. They seemed very happy and not stressed in the least so we reassured them they were heading in the right direction and went on our way. Mike picked some fresh aloe from his yard and we applied it to our sun baked skin, very soothing although a little gooey. We decided to forgo the cab back, it was all downhill from where it would pick us up anyways so we walked down to the main road and grabbed a bus back to the hotel for showers and some internet. Now since we were on the beach on the Atlantic side and walked all the way to the Castries Gros Islet road, which is along the harbor on the Caribbean side we can now say we walked across St. Lucia. We decided on the Red Snapper for dinner since we had a late lunch we weren’t very hungry. I had sautéed snapper with lime herb butter, $58 EC, and Kim had the BBQ rib basket with rice instead of fries, $30 EC. We walked down to Happy Day bar for a nightcap and since Kim’s legs were sore from all the walking Trendy had one of his friends give us a ride back to the hotel.
