Capture the Moment Monday

Dave Berry, Director of the Photography Department at Computer School for Seniors will be sharing his insightful Photo Tips with you every Monday for Capture the Moment Mondays.

St.Lucia--Welcome Aboard

Double Rainbow!…that began our very first sighting of the beautiful island of St. Lucia … a pretty special opening act don’t you think? We were snapping pictures right from our balcony. We had gotten up earlier to catch the sunrise, which is always spectacular if there are some clouds to catch the rising sun’s colors, so this double rainbow was an unexpected treat!

St. Lucia was discovered around 1502...several theories abound as to who is credited for this find, one being Christopher Columbus and another a group of shipwrecked French sailors. The island has been under French or British rule over the last 300 years, but gained independence in 1979 as a British Commonwealth. St. Lucia is slightly larger than Barbados, but has only 160,000 people living there. The islands best known products are the hand printed fabrics and fashions created by local craftsmen.

We docked in Castries, which is the capital of St. Lucia. Almost a third of the entire island population lives in this city. We hired a taxi to take us on a tour of the island. Our first stop was a viewing post at an area called Soufriere which overlooks the famous Pitons and the volcanic crater of Sulphur Springs. You had to look close to see the steam rising in the distance. I was looking for a volcano…but it is actually a volcanic crater, so it is kind of nestled among the lower valleys of the hills we were looking at. The Pitons are the most famous landmark on St. Lucia rising to 2000 feet directly at the edge of the island, quite beautiful. Few dare to climb to their summit…and I wasn’t going to be one of them.

Next stop was the world’s only drive in volcano crater, Sulphur Springs, and the smell almost knocked your socks off. It is rather desolate and drab looking as nothing will grow in the hot bubbling mud springs of this area. After that, our next stop was very welcome indeed, the tropical, cool and lush area of the New Jerusalem Waterfall. Had we known we would be stopping here. Patti would have loved to take a refreshing break under the waters that cascade down from the ridge..but alas we had no towels and the taxi driver wasn’t keen on wet seats. There were fantastic, colorful flowers here, I have no idea what their names are but they are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

On the way back to the ship we stopped to take some pictures of one of the most beautiful beaches on St. Lucia…Marigot Bay…swaying palms and sparkling clear water. No wonder it is home to many a beautiful yacht.

By no means were we able to see everything…there are rainforests and sea turtles and many more beaches and so much more. Those will have to be seen on a future visit to this beautiful island. We have to get back to the ship in time to sail to our next stop,which will be Antigua!!!

Dave Berry shares his Photography Tips at Computer School for Seniors (www.cs4seniors.com).