Soufriere - Holy Pitons, Batman!

Yesterday morning we woke up early and headed over to the Bat Cave area to pick up one of the moorings (without sails this time). Solstice is just a hundred feet or so away from the area's namesake -- a tall narrow cave loaded with bats. We can hear their high-pitched chattering all day long. Later in the morning we took a taxi tour to the main sights of Soufriere. Our first stop was the Diamond Estates Botanical Gardens, where we were shown around by a site guide named Alexander the Great. He had long fingernails, a few missing teeth, and a lot of energy. He claimed to have had special botanical training and we believed him. He knew the common and scientific names as well as the origins of every plant in the place. He must've told us about a hundred different plants in the space of thirty minutes. He was shouting and pointing them out at such a fast pace that it all became a jumble, but the flowers were gorgeous and the temperature was cool under the tree canopies so we weren't complaining.

After the gardens we took a taxi to the "drive-in" volcano, which is really just hillside covered in sulfur springs not unlike the ones you see at Yellowstone (the crater walls of the original volcano eroded thousands of years ago and there hasn't been any kind of eruption in three-hundred-odd years). The stink of hydrogen sulfide was overpowering, and Kevin shot a video of some of the bubbling pools of muddy water. The mudpool named "Gabriel's Pool" has an interesting story behind it. Apparently tourists used to be able to go right up close to the pools but about fifteen years ago one of the guides, Gabriel, was jumping up and down to demonstrate the instability of the terrain when the ground caved and he fell waist-deep into the boiling mud. (Not to worry: he narrowly avoided winning a "Darwin Award"; he survived and still has the use of his legs. He has, however, changed professions and is now a fisherman in Soufriere.) After the sulfur springs we hopped back in the taxi to view a small waterfall and then we called it a day and headed back to the boat. Kevin fixed the swim ladder and we had a snorkel off the boat -- there's a really good variety of fish and coral here. As the sun set we watched and waited expectantly for the bats to burst out of the cave in one big swarm but it didn't happen.

This morning we dinghied ashore and wandered around the friendly town of Soufriere for a bit before taking a taxi over to the Ladera Resort to have lunch at Dasheene restaurant. We found the food to be so-so but the view was breathtaking. Dasheene is nestled on a hill between the two Pitons (St. Lucia's famed steep coastal mountains) and we had the best table in the place, overlooking the valley and bay between them. During the meal we knocked back a couple of liquid Pitons (locally brewed beer) and enjoyed what is definitely the best view in all the Caribbean.

Where we are:
Location=Soufriere, St. Lucia
Lat=13 51.435
Lon=61 03.913