Unfortunately, St. Lucia was covered in clouds and a dense haze that blocked out most of the sun and wasn't conducive to great pictures. We waited around a couple of hours for the sun to hopefully burn through the clouds but it never really happened. Below are a couple pictures of that morning:
After taking pictures at Vieux Fort we decided to head to to the Pitons for a hiking adventure. Gros and Petit Piton are both UNESCO world heritage sites and mountains formed by a volcano a long time ago. I was going to try and hike Gros Piton which is nearly a 2000 foot elevation climb to a beautiful view of Petit Piton and the rest of the island. When we arrived I met up with a local guide and since we were short on time, decided to hike about half way up to a great view point of Petit Piton. This actually worked out well since the top of Gros Piton was covered in clouds and the views would be non-existent.
My guide was a native of the island and could have been a the long lost son of Bob Marley. He was very friendly, all about peace and love, was a vegan, and sang in a reggae band. He pulled out his cell phone and started playing his music and singing along while we hiked up the Pitons. The hike was difficult with a rapid elevation gain in a short period of time but in about an hour we finally reached the half way point and a great view of Petit Piton and the Caribbean. At the top, my guide asked me if he could smoke and sure enough he whipped up a rather large quantity of a particular plant and continued his preaching all about nature, peace, and love. Pictures of the view are below.
Since I had a flight leaving St. Lucia at 1:30, we rushed down Gros Piton and upon hitting the trailhead, quickly found a store and drank a liter of fruit juice to try and replace the fluids lost on the long hike. After quenching my thirst, there was another problem... My clothes were soaked with sweat and desperately needed a shower / change of clothes before boarding a 5 hour hour flight back to New York City. The problem was I had checked out my room and a shower was no where to be found in time for my flight.
However, Peter and I are solution oriented individuals so we decided to take advantage of the resources available to us. We headed to a beach right by the airport and I decided to take a quick bath in the crystal clear blue waters of the Caribbean. Peter dropped me at the beach with a change of clothes and my eco friendly bio degradable soap and we made plans to meet back up in an hour. Stripping down to my shorts, I dove into the water and enjoyed the beautiful view while cleaning up for my flight back to the states. The beach I was on is near the middle of this picture.
As I was enjoying the Caribbean water it dawned on me that the I spent 3 days in St. Lucia and the only time I went to the beach was the last hour of my trip and only because I needed a bath before boarding the plane. I'm just not a big beach guy and don't see the big point in hanging out for hours on a beach drinking cocktails. Anyway, after cleaning up in the ocean I went up to a beachfront restaurant and used their bathroom to throw on a fresh pair of clothes and grab a delicious spicy fish dish that is local to St. Lucia. After lunch I headed to the airport and boarded my flight back to the states and New York City to be exact.
The flight back to NYC was smooth until we started are descent into the city... That evening a major storm decided to hit NYC with rain, tremendously high winds, and tornadoes which is not conducive to landing a jumbo jet. The bad weather meant we were forced to circle the airport for about an hour waiting for clearance to land which was understandable. However, I was concerned because I had a tight connection to Austin where I would be spending the next couple of days for my niece's birthday. After an hour delay we landed and checking my flight status saw my flight to Austin was delayed giving me plenty of time to grab dinner and catch my flight.
Unfortunately, after getting through customs and hitting the Jet Blue terminal I realized what a mess the entire JFK airport was. Not only had the bad weather screwed up the flights in and out of JFK but President Obama decided to fly Air Force One into town and for security reasons that shuts down a huge section of the airport normally used... My flight to Austin was now scheduled to arrive at 2:30 in the morning which is a problem since the rental car desk would be closing at midnight. I'd arrive in Austin with no way to get to the texas hill country where I was heading. I found another Jet Blue flight to Houston which made sense so I swapped my ticket. The flight to Houston was delayed several times over the next several hours... Most famously it had been circling JFK for so long waiting for clearance to land it ran out of fuel and had to land in New Jersey to land, refuel, take off, and resume circling JFK until they got clearance to land.
I eventually took off from JFK around 1:30 AM and landed in Houston just before 5 AM. My very nice Dad graciously picked me up at the airport and dropped me at my house where I promptly crashed for a restful 4 hours of sleep before getting up to continue Day 10.
As always any questions / comments please post below or email me at chris@pricelessperspectives.com
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