I have been keeping busy lately despite not having anything to do.

Last Thursday I had a bit of an adventure. An artist friend of my mom’s, Linda, and her husband Mike, from Milwaukee, stopped by St. Lucia on their cruise. I met them and we hung out for the day.

First, they docked at Marigot Bay, just south of Castries. It was a very pretty bay, but absolutely nothing was going on there. So they picked me up and we went back out to the ship. The ship wasn’t one of the office-building sized ones. It was a five-masted sailing yacht. From afar it looks kind of like a pirate ship when they put up all the sails. On board, it was a lot bigger than it looked from the shore. The top deck had 3 pools (one with a glass bottom and two that were kind of like big Jacuzzis). There was a restaurant and an indoor/outdoor bar, a gym, a whole floor of cabins, plus the crew quarters. It was really nice. The glass-bottomed pool went into the big dining room and looked really cool from underneath. When I came on board, there was a big breakfast buffet out, but we just had a drink at the bar.

Our plan was to take a taxi from Marigot to Soufriere. The ship was going to sail, during the day, down to Soufriere but I wasn’t allowed on board for that. So we found a taxi driver, and I asked him how much it would be to go to Soufriere. It had cost me $10EC to come from town, including the jog from the highway into Marigot. I was thinking, maybe $20-30US for a taxi to Soufriere. This was a tourist spot, after all, but I figured they wouldn’t really bleed us. The guy told me $70US. I was really shocked. I didn’t believe him, so he showed me his pricing guide. That was good, because otherwise I would have thought for sure that he was trying to screw us. So his guide did say $70US for one way from Marigot to Soufriere. I talked him down to $60, which was still ridiculous, but better. He also stopped for us at the same Livity Art Studio where I had been the week before with Andrew and Patrick, and at the Piton Viewing Point. Both of those are decent places to stop. The Livity studio has nice wood carvings, and it is necessary to take a token Piton picture while there.

In Soufriere, we checked out the batik place right in town. They have many of the tapestries on display, and unlike the previous week, the owner/artist was actually there working and we could watch him. Batik is kind of a tie-dying thing that uses hot wax and dyes. It ends up with a design or pattern that looks a little crinkly when the wax is washed off. Linda bought a couple batiks there, then we went to check out the guy’s other studio down the street. The second place had a restaurant also so we ate lunch there. I tried the fish since I was there and eating a fancier lunch than normal. The fish I had was cooked in a garlic and butter sauce with herbs. It was amazing. But then my stomach was not-so-hot for the next two days. It’s me, not the fish. Apparently after not eating meat or fish for a long time, your body doesn’t have the proper enzymes to break them down. That’s what upsets my stomach. Anyways, the fish tasted good.

After that, we walked back into town and met up with some of the other people from the ship who had just arrived. There’s not much to do in Soufriere. We looked at the church and talked with a woman from the Ministry of Tourism. We had thought about going to the Botanical Garden that is nearby, but she said we wouldn’t have time. She pointed us to a couple things in town, and told us to steer away from the sketchy guys by the church. Since we didn’t have time to go anywhere else, we just had a drink.

That night, I stayed at Tom and Mary’s. There is no transport back to Castries after 3pm or so. Mary is still back in Michigan, but Tom and I had a nice happy hour and tacos for dinner. From their balcony, you can see all of Soufriere, the Pitons and the harbor. Tom and I watched Linda and Mike’s ship as it put up all its sails and left. I got a few nice pictures.

In the morning, I headed back up to town and skipped out of work all day. I thoroughly cleaned up my place, which was a dump, and did laundry.

Saturday was Heather’s birthday. Sam and Shan prepared kind of a surprise party, but let it slip a bit. I think they didn’t have as good a turnout as they had hoped, but we still had a good time. They had pizza, cake, drinks, and Deb and I brought chips and TastyCakes. We all hung around there for a bit then went to our usual, Shamrock’s. It was a little lame there that night. Not many of our regular pals were there. But Alvin was working and he made Heather a special birthday drink for free. That was pretty nice, because knowing the bartender here doesn’t get you free drinks like it does at home!

I was zonked by about 1 so Deb and I found a ride home. I’ve been having some sort of sleeping sickness lately where I’m tired all the time. I think it has to do with either coming off the two-week bender that was holiday, or being bored and inert at work. I think I’m getting a bit more on track with my sleep-wake cycle this week. I’m trying to eat more vegetables.