Saint Lucia Vacation 2017 (page 6 of 10)

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Greta's blog (Day 6, February 21st 2017):

Zipline day! The zip line pick up wasn't until 10:20 so we thought this would be a good day to skip cooking in the room and instead have breakfast at the resort restaurant “Dragonfly”. Greta had Eggs Benedict with a side of breakfast potatoes, and Mike had an omelet – both with OJ. The food was good but definitely pricey. The buffet looked wonderful, but Mike is still fighting his cold and wasn’t that hungry. We walked the beach a bit and then headed to the lobby for our pickup.

Once we got on the bus (we were the first ones) the guide said he had three more people here to pick up and that if he wasn’t back in one minute, we were to leave him. Mike answered “OK!” a little too quickly and from then on, Mike was the guy he teased for the rest of the ride. The guide’s name was Simple when he was a in a happy mood (and Kevin, and Shane and Fin if he was in other moods), and after we had picked up people at a few different resorts, he started in. He had everyone on the bus introduce themselves, mention what they did for fun, and where they were from. Oh – and what “team” they were on... “Team Kevin” or “Team Baby Blue” (mike was wearing a light blue shirt). Everyone picked ‘Team Kevin” except for the couple who had gotten on the bus at our resort – they chose “Team Baby Blue”. Ha! Nearly the entire bus of people, other than a couple from Louisiana and a couple from Barbados, were from hockey country (New York, New Jersey, a few areas of Canada) – we were all here to escape the cold (although right now MN is having record highs... but still not 80 and humid!). At one point, Simple mentioned our driver Adrian “was blind, but took 'medication'”. Then he said “oh – before I talked about 'medication'” – he pointed to a man on the bus – “You sir – are you DEA?”. We all laughed but the man’s wife spoke up and said “No! Better – he’s RCMP!” once we explained to Simple that he was a Mountie from Canada, his eyes got really big when he discovered he’d actually picked out a guy who was law enforcement!

It was a long ride to the other side (east) side of the island. We wound through the city of Catries again, and then got deeper & deeper into the rainforest. There was less traffic, more hills, and lot of sweeping views of banana fields. As we got to the east side of the island, we would catch glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean as well – the water is a lot rougher & colder than the Caribbean.

After passing through the fishing town of Dennery, the drive wasn’t much farther to “Treetop Adventure Park”. Once there, we got off the bus, wandered through a short walk through a greenhouse, labeled plants, plus fenced-in areas with goats some type of domestic geese) to the main building.

There we had the option of ordering food for the end of the tour, and got our gear set up (hairnet, helmet, gloves, harness). It took a bit of time because a big group had just returned, but eventually all of us in the group (which now had grown to include a number of people who had driven in themselves, or taken another bus) were set at the first zipline. There were to be 12 lines in all plus a few board-and-rope bridges to cross.

They showed us on the first line how to put our dominant hand (wearing a glove with a leather palm) on the bottom cable behind our head and our front hand on the clip. Once you were “zipping” down the line, it was best to tuck your feet under your body to go faster. If you’d end up stopping before the end of the run, you’d have to spin yourself around and hand-over-hand pull yourself up the line to the end.

It was A LOT of fun. The lines were of different lengths & speeds – the longest may have been about 850 feet. The board-bridges you’d walk across but clip yourself into a cable so that if you fell (no one did), you’d be able to get your footing again easily. We had a guide named MK who followed us most of the way and took pictures for us so we didn’t have to worry about that – he was great. He had to leave for a bit because one of the gals on our tour just couldn’t go through with it – she did a couple zips with a guide and then I think it was just too much for her – so I think MK brought her back to the starting point. Mike also figured out how to hold his Go Pro (he didn’t have a bracket to attach it to one of the helmet with a Go Pro mount) so he could video a few of the runs. On the last , fastest run, MK went down with Greta and made sure she stayed straight – but gave her the Go Pro and said “Don’t worry about hanging on, adjusting your speed or steering -- just film” so we got some great video at the end, panning over the valley as she flew down the line.

Then back to the main area to drop off our gear & get some food. We hadn’t ordered at the beginning, but someone came by at one of the last stops & asked if anyone still wanted to order, which we did. We both got the same thing – a piece of fried local fish, French fries & a Piton. The food was hot & ready for us and all we had to do was pay – no waiting. Before that, we made sure to get a picture with MK, as he’d done an outstanding job taking care of a lot of the camera work for us.

Along the tour, we’d been told we may see spiders, snakes or the St Lucian Parrot. No parrot was seen that day, and the boa constrictor that sometimes makes an appearance was no where to be seen, but we did see two tarantulas along the way. One was hiding behind the tarp of the stop pad on one tree (his name was Anansi – like the character from African folklore), and one was in the rooftop at one of the starting points. When we got to the end and were getting ready to go, another tarantula was just crawling down a post – and then on Simple (who’d recently joined us). Crazy! Greta had her picture taken next to the spider and it was quite a hit on Facebook.

Then back to the bus. Kevin (he was no longer Simple) had mixed us up a rum drink in our absence, so everyone got a toast and a small taste of some strong rum punch after a job well done. Then he engaged us in conversation again. This time we all had to introduce ourselves again by stating what we did for work. Amazingly enough, in the dozen or so people on the bus, we had two cops, two electrical engineers, two people who worked at banks, two couples from New Jersey and two couples from Canada (although Toronto and New Brunswick are rather far from each other).

Once we got dropped off at our resort, the weather was starting to change. In the rainforest, it was definitely very humid and still. Once we got back to Windjammer, the wind was really picking up and blowing up a storm. There were dark clouds in the sky as well.

We got back to the room, and quickly left again – we had to run into town for gas for the car and some throat lozenges & spray for Mike. We also picked up some more water & OJ. At the gas station, attendants fill your car for you but at least they take credit cards (in Mexico, near where Mike works, they do not, which can make getting gas more difficult if you don’t have the right cash on you).

We cleaned up after getting back to the room, and then took a short walk down to Papa Don’s, the Italian Restaurant on the premises. Unlike the other restaurants, this is not down by the beach – it’s up among the villas, and just a few minutes from where we were staying. We each tried the drink of the day , a frozen blended drink called the “romantic” – which was good – sort of coconut with a berry flavor in it as well. We had a seafood crostini for an appetizer, which was excellent. Then we share a bottle of wine with our meal (champagne shrimp risotto for Greta, spicy shrimp linguine for Mike). It was rather windy, but no one’s food blew away. The food was good and it was a relaxing meal after a busy day.

Then back to the room for a quiet night of reading before sleeping.

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