We walked to the Diamond Botanical Gardens this morning, just a bit over a mile. We never figured out why the name Diamond, but it is a beautiful place.
These “Crab’s Claw” flowers were all over the garden.
These flowers come in red, pink and white.
Tiny flowers, big leaves.
More of the foxes’ tails, which here were also called hot cat tails.
Cat’s whiskers! Great name for such a flower.
Nutmeg is the seed in a fruit that looks like a peach.
Nutmeg tree with fruit.
The Botanic Garden also contains hot mineral baths. Josephine, Napoleon Bonepart’s wife-to-be, is said to have bathed here although this history is disputed. Fourteen were originally constructed but only three are useable today.
The hot Diamond Falls feed the mineral baths. It comes down at about 113 degrees F, heated from the caldera that we visited previously on this island, Saint Lucia.
This is a sign that every geology teacher needs!
Brian examining a flower. Unusually, we did not have a guide for this walk, so we had to try to figure out the plants ourselves. Signs helped most of the time.
A symmetrical fungus!
Lizard checking out a flower.
Similar to the crab claws, but upside down from their orientation. Did not figure the name out.
Cocoa pods, which grow from the trunk and are yellow when ripe. The “World’s Best Chocolate” starts here, the sign says.
Bananas are grown commercially on Saint Lucia. Most are exported to the UK.
Beautiful vines hang in the dense forest.
These interesting pods hang from a palm tree. Clare wondered if they were inspiration for some of the women’s hairstyles on this island.
This is actually the road to the garden, which we walked along this morning. Pretty narrow!
A hawk-like bird on a wire.
The Petit Piton, behind the restaurant where we ate lunch.
Old building in front of volcanic rock outcrops.
Beautiful people in fancy clothes on a catamaran for a Sunday afternoon party.
Mangos!
Female Frigatebird in flight. Some of these birds migrate from Africa in the summer.
Sign in front of our tiny resort.
Lots of advertising for the local beer, here with its namesake mountain in the background. This is in Soufriere.
Bunch of Geeks go Traveling 