Allen Family Fun: Saint Lucia: Part Three

One of the many things we love about Sandals is that they offer tons of live entertainment every night. This was the night of the "Street Party" and we had no idea what to expect. We walked into a gated area and were greeted by this guy with a machete-like knife and tons of coconuts. He hacked the top off, filled the center with rum, popped a straw in it and sent us off with our drink for the night. It looked awesome, but it didn't taste great...I think it needed some sugar or something.

What caribbean party would be complete without a whole pig laying on a chopping block?

Or a HUGE grill filled with every type of seafood you could possibly imagine?

The food spread was unbelievable...there were about 10 stations, each with a different cuisine. Aside from the pig and seafood, there were about six other meat choices...food as far as the eye could see. I was very proud of myself for trying "new" things...I'm not the most adventurous eater.

After the buffet, they had dancers, acrobats, musicians, etc.--and the full bar didn't hurt a thing either.

Crazy stilt walkers--these guys danced, jumped, hopped on one leg, did the limbo...so fun!

Chris & I with the great couple we spent most of our week with, Tim & Kim.

So the next morning we had reservations for a zipline tour. We were waiting in the lobby for our bus pickup, when Chris told me that he saw somebody with an Andover Trojans t-shirt on, and he wanted to go talk to him. I followed him, but didn't look to see who we were walking towards. I heard Chris ask if they were from Andover and they replied "Yes." Chris then told them that we were from Mac and I heard the girl say, "That's where I'm from!" WHAT?!?! Sure enough, I used to babysit for this girl, and her mom used to teach at our high school! They'd just gotten married the weekend before in Mac, and now we're meeting them in a foreign country, at the exact same resort, going on the exact same tour with them. CRAZY!

So here's us with our ziplining buddies--Kayla & Chris.

Ziplining was one of our favorite parts of the trip. We both love thrill rides, so this was a no-brainer for us. In fact, the day before we left we found out that they offer a Twilight Zipline tour through the rainforest at night...we were so bummed we missed out on that!

After getting geared up and a brief instructional period, we were off to our first line. Your back hand was your brake, so we could control how fast or slow we wanted to go. If you brake too much, you get caught in the middle of the line, and you have to pull yourself to the end, hand over hand. Chris & didn't bother braking too much ;). There were 12 lines in all and it was so exhilirating, flying through the trees and over the ravines!

After the ziplines, we stopped at a scenic place overlooking the ocean for some photos.

The next day was our Joe Knows St. Lucia tour. Everyone we talked to RAVED about this tour, and we wanted to see/learn more about the island, so we signed up. We loaded up on a speedboat that morning and headed out toward the Piton Mountains again for some more snorkeling.

There was some delicious, homemade Rum Punch on board!

The snorkeling was much better on this trip--much clearer and brighter colors.

After snorkeling, we headed to a drive-thru volcano and Sulphur Springs.

At Sulphur Springs we were able to walk in the 113 degree stream. The guide told us that after about 30 seconds our feet/ankles would become numb to the heat, but he was a liar. I love really hot baths, but I could only stand about two minutes in this heat. OUCH! Then we headed over to the mud baths. We were given buckets of hot mud, fresh from the springs to rub all over our bodies. They assured us that it would take 10 years off of our appearance--sign me up.