The Honeymoon Diaries: Caribbean Cruise - Cosol Tours, St Lucia

Out of the ports we visited during our Caribbean Cruise on Celebrity Eclipse there were two that we could see ourselves returning to for a longer visit. The lush island of St Lucia was one of them.  One of the most well known islands in the Caribbean it's a dream destination for many people and it was easy to see why.

We booked a trip with Cosol Tours who had a packed out 6 hour itinerary for $75 per person which included plenty of authentic Caribbean food and a mobile bar that followed us round to each location with ice cold beers and soda cans.

Our tour began with a trip to Morne Fortune, a stunning view point looking out over Castries harbour where we could spot Celebrity Eclipse in the waters below us.

One of the highlights of our trip to St Lucia was driving through the banana plantations in the Roseau Valley.  We stopped for a closer look and each got given a fresh banana to try. So much sweeter than the ones we buy ever week in the supermarket, they were so delicious. The fruits are also made into banana ketchup that was beautiful, we were tempted to buy a bottle to take home but were a bit worried they wouldn't be too happy with us at Heathrow.

Shortly after filling our tummies up with delicious bananas it was time for a breakfast stop. Despite having already eaten breakfast on the ship (we wont tell if you don't) with the promise of plenty of authentic Caribbean food to enjoy we knew we'd find the room. We stopped at a local house where we were treated to an amazing buffet of food.  Multiple tables were laid out with island coconut cookies, Johnny cakes, meat dishes and pastries. Every thing was homemade and delicious and it felt like such a treat getting to try so much food.

Feeling very full it was a good job that a short beach stop was next on the agenda. We had no idea what was in store for us as we were lead to the water edge and greeted by a speed boat! I have to admit as a non swimmer I was a little nervous but as we took off at high speed crashing over the waves towards the beach I was loving it. Holding onto our hats and each other for dear life we both agreed that it was quite the experience and something we would love to do again one day.

We landed (with slightly crazy hair) at Jalouise Beach, a beautiful stretch of sand between the iconic Pitons. Many people enjoyed snorkelling in the shallow waters but we split our time between paddling and chatting to the locals who were selling their wares to tourists.

Having already seen such a huge amount of beauty in St Lucia it was hard to believe there could possibly be more but next on the agenda was a trip to the Toraille waterfall in the Botanical Gardens.

There are several waterfalls in St Lucia and I have to say that although beautiful this one was covered in tourists. Trying to take a shot without half naked tourists in the background did prove a little challenging.  If you're lucky enough to be visiting St Lucia for a longer period of time I'd highly recommend doing your best to avoid bumping into tour groups when the Cruise ships are in port as everywhere is so busy!

Our trip ended with a visit to the Sulphur Springs, the Caribbean's only drive in volcano.  Stepping outside the comfort of our van we were immediately greeted to the smell of rotten eggs - bleurgh! Our guide explained that being able to smell the sulpher was good as this meant it wasn't poisonous, after that we decided the egg smell was bearable.

We didn't have the time to properly explore but from our view point we saw an impressive amount of smoke and bubbling pools of black water. Neither of us had ever been to a volcano before so it was really interesting to learn more.

The only disappointing part of our trip to St Lucia was having to travel around with so many other cruise ship tour groups.  The huge throng of tourists attracted a lot of locals all desperately trying to sell their jewellery and bamboo animals.  Very hard to escape and a little bit of a hassle there were some locations where we couldn't fully enjoy the experience as we weren't being left alone, this meant that we returned to our ship with a bamboo fish, bird and cricket!

As we were driving back to the ship our tour bus returned the same route that we had travelled earlier and we noticed that each tourists spot we had visited earlier was deserted.  This has made us want to return to St Lucia one day to enjoy the beautiful scenery and experiences without the hassle of travelling in a large group. There were also many locations where we could easily have spent more time.

We most definitely left a piece of our heart in St Lucia and I'm very hopeful that one day we will return.

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