We arrived at our destination, the Hummingbird Beach Resort well after sunset. The taxi ride was over an hour. Our driver Dwayne was full of information to keep us awake, the most interesting being that St. Lucia had been 7 times British and 7 times French, so it seems to be a good culmination of our adventures in the Lesser Antilles.

The Hummingbird Beach Resort is well-named and locally owned. We guess that the owners planted trees and shrubs to attract even more hummingbirds than usual, because they are everywhere. When we first arrived, tired, after dark, we were surprised to see the owner, and her photograph with the Queen of England!

The Petite Piton is the reason we chose this resort, not even realizing how famous our proprietor is! This is an eroded volcanic dome.

The Lesser Antilles Finch has visited us on every island.

The pool at the resort and the view from the pool.

These flowers really attract the hummingbirds all day long.

Netting over the bed was not adequate to prevent bites so we had to buy more repellent.

The Freedom Monument in the Soufriere town square commemorates slaves who defeated the British in 1796.

Town square, with a view of the major church of the town, the Catholic Church of the Assumption.

Inside the church is different from what Clare was accustomed to growing up.

Positive graffiti near the church – so good to see!

This large sailboat was in the harbor until the afternoon. We never did see it unfurl its many sails. We did watch people being shuttled back to this one on small boats.

The local beer is named after the pitons.

Our flight was scheduled for the evening, so after we checked out of Domaine de Robinson at Anse Noir, we drove to Fort-de-France to sightsee. We peeled off the freeway into a 4-level parking garage for Centre Ville. After figuring out where we were, we walked to the Fort St. Louis and to the large park adjacent to the Fort.

The Fort can be toured but we did not have enough time.

Statue of Victor Schoelcher in front of the Palais de Justice. Schoelcher was one of the only aristocrats to favor the abolition of slavery in the early 1800s on Martinique. The Palais displays the familiar French motto “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.”

We briefly visited the Cathédrale St-Louis, noting the large interior with metal framework and colorful stained glass. The cathedral was rebuilt around the beginning of the 20th century after former structures succumbed to hurricanes and earthquakes.

A stand of palms in the large park “La Savane.” Strange to our eyes, to see palm trees in a park.

We accidentally found these wire sculptures of musical instruments at a music school and spied a local “playing” the piano.

Boarding our Air Antilles plane at FDF in Martinique. The flight was in the air for 15 minutes to get to Castries airport on Saint Lucia. However, the traffic in Fort-de-France was terrible; about an hour to drive the 5 miles from downtown to the airport!

After arriving at SLU and clearing immigration and customs (we are pros at this by now), we had an hour and a quarter drive down the west side of the island to our resort in Soufriere.

After seeing the amazing stonework of the French immigrants, and getting back to our place in the black cove to sleep, we were greeted with the prize of fresh fish from people who work here. We were told by Claude about this possibility, and we eagerly anticipated fresh fish.

Not until our last night on this island, but when it came, it was already marinated and spiced. Three types of fish – speared today just for us! Marinated while we were out looking at stone walls. Incredible. We have rarely eaten fish so fresh! The two smalle r fish with orange and black tails are lion fish but we don’t remember the names of the others.

We delighted in the fresh fish, lettuce and tomatoes from a vegetable stand, and bread from a boulangerie. Fantastically French and Caribbean.

Then we went again to the pier to see the stars and the moon.

A fingernail of a moon!

Orion straight up! Clare had to lay down on the pier with binoculars to see the stars while Brian took photographs. We were both happy to do this.

This morning, we got up early to put on snorkeling gear and see the turtles, which frequent an area of our cove a couple hundred meters from the pier. We swam around for 45 minutes, saw some fish, corals, sponges, and sea grass, but no turtles. No pictures this time.

On our way to a magnificent beach restaurant for lunch, we first stopped at a viewpoint overlooking Rocher du Diamant (Diamond Rock), which provides the name for the large beach at Grande Anse du Diamant. In the early 19th century, the British laid claim to the island, christened HMS Diamond!

Diamond Rock is a volcanic neck with breccia blocks visible in this photo.

The beach in this cove is rather large with regular waves characteristic of the Atlantic Ocean.

In this cove, in 1830, a slave ship carrying west Africans capsized. Most of the people perished and this memorial has been erected in commemoration.

The statues are made of concrete. This site is where most of the bodies were buried. The ship’s officers were buried in a proper cemetary!

The beach view from the Chill restaurant, our choice for lunch (we both had conch), and the view from our table. Amazing lunch at an amazing place. We could see people playing in the waves and a kite surfer while we ate lunch.

We then drove to Forêt Départmentalo Domaniale de Montravail park for a hike to see some petroglyphs carved by ancient Amerindians similar to the ones that we saw in Guadeloupe. However, we were not at the correct place or we did not understand the signs. But we had a nice, cool but sweaty hike in the red mahogany rain forest. We eventually determined that Sentiers in French just means trail and not a destination!

The trail was mostly easy and we did enjoy the solitude.

Eventually we reached these carved trees but we do not know their significance as there were no signs in English. It was then back in the car to drive to the Boulangerie and grocery stores for provisions before heading back to our bungalow on the black sand beach. We are serenaded by insects and frogs every night as well as the music of the waves breaking gently on the beach.

Brian needs to finish his Carib beer and go to bed!