St. Lucia was different from all the others.

Most of the trips offered were inland. St. Lucia boasts a beautiful landscape, and I guess that their beaches are not as spectacular as the other islands we visited, just a wild guess for what I saw.
The target was to see the two spectacular heights, Gros Piton (the big Piton), which is 798.25 m (2,618.9 ft) high, and Petit Piton (the Little Piton), which is 743 m (2,438 ft) high; the Piton Mitan ridge links them. The picture above is the Petit Piton. There are more pictures of them on Wikipadia, from different angles.
We were told it would be 40-50 minutes drive from the boat, but it was one hour and a half driving in a minibus. But I liked it since I had the opportunity to see the island. The guide talked a lot about the island’s features and history. What I remember was that there are many banana plantations.
She said with the same breath, “I never go bananas,” and in the same sentence, she delivered a warm message about what should be friendship and understanding around the world.

On the road, we saw some nice houses.
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We crossed villages and towns.

In some settlements we saw many abandoned houses with broken windows and missing roofs. The guide explained that the owners left for work outside the island but usually returned when they had money or to retreat and fix their houses.

Our stop was on a farm where we could see the two Pitons and a fishermen’s village from above.

​On that farm I was impressed by the number of fruits it had, like bananas, oranges, lemons, something looking like watermelons, then onions, pineapples, beans, you name it.
Below is a pineapple. It takes two years to grow and only one fruit per plant! We should have respect for it when we have it on our plates.

On our way back, we stopped on a beach for 20 minutes, having a resort nearby… It is where my opinion about St. Lucia beaches took form.
But the trip was lovely, and because it was so different from other islands’ experiences, I am very happy with it.

A little bit about the island and its ladies.
France’s Miss Universe   #missuniverseFrance was from Martinique.
 
And a little bit of history: Josephine, born in Martinique, was Napoleon’s only love, whom he divorced in 1810 because she could not give him an heir. But Napoleon’s last words were, “France… army … head of army… Josephine.”
I am tempted to add her picture here since it is worth seeing the lady who captivated the most powerful man on Earth in his time.

Going back to our trip..
We once again opted for a snorkeling adventure with two stops. The first stop was snorkeling in some caves having coral reefs. It is a protected environment due to its ecological value. The rule was that the water should be calm enough for the safety of the tourists and the corals in the cave. The on-shore government organization supervising that place gave us the go-ahead. But the captain of the catamaran decided that the water was not clear enough (some small waves) and we could not see much anyway.
So the catamaran did not stop, and we headed for the second snorkeling stop.

We stopped near a beach with coral reefs about 50 meters from the beach. We saw a nice variety of colored fish. Not many, but enough to be pleased with the expedition. One strange thing was that the beach was completely deserted, even if we spotted bars and restaurants.
So we swam to the beach and figured out why. It was a soccer game: the world cup final, France-Argentina/ The bars and restaurants had big TV screens outside, and everyone was glued to them.

​When we returned from the expedition, we found out that all bars and shops in town were closed because it was Sunday. Besides, our cruise had to leave in less than two hours, so, we headed for the boat right away.
We will visit Fort-de-France some other time. The city is not the island’s capital city but an administrative one, since Martinique is France’s territory.

​We reached Barbados on Dec 16.
The port was mixed, having cruise boats and industrial use.

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​We opted for snorkeling - green turtles expedition.
The catamaran was excellent and offered a net about 2 meters above the water on both sides. On that net, the guests had a more strong sailing feeling. The pitch was strong, and the waves breaking just one or two meters below created a feeling of belonging to the ocean.

On the other net, my wife took the best spot.

​Once we reached the green turtle spotting place, we saw many other small boats competing with us. The turtles were small, maybe 30 cm, and they were brown but called green because they eat green seaweeds; the bottom of the ocean was a very intense green.
The problem with poor turtles was that hundreds of people crowded to see them when they showed up from under that green carpet at the bottom. After a while, some tourists had enough and swam to the nearest beach. I remained behind, and I was one-on-one with the turtles. They did not care; I guess they were used to visitors like myself. I am sorry again that I did not have an underwater camera.

​The trip was almost all day, see the turtles and then enjoy the beach nearby.
Time to return to the boat.

After we reached the cruise ship and had dinner, it was time for the evening entertainment.

The next stop would be St. Lucia

We arrived in Antigua on Dec 15, 2022.

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​From the trips offered on the ship, we decided on a snorkeling adventure. We were in a group with 22 guests and made the trip on a catamaran, which took about 40 minutes. The weather was fantastic, and the scenery was worth the trip.

I didn’t have an underwater camera, but it was not a great variety of fishes we saw. Mostly silverish ones, about 20 cm long. I saw other tourists using their cells in transparent zipped bags, and they took pictures underwater with them. Good to know for future expeditions.


​On our way back, they offered drinks… plenty. Rum with something sweet. Maybe we took too many. And it was a price to pay. When we arrived back in the city, we could not go much on the streets. We did not see much to grab our attention and the only place where all tourists crowded was the one near the pier, a tourist trap, with a Christmas tree in the central plaza.
 

​Still, a drummer got my attention. I approached and dropped $1 in his colorful pot. He asked me where I was from.
Then he said with all his heart, “Welcome to Antigua, Canadian man,” and he drummed harder for me.

We started our vacation with two days in Fort Lauderdale, and it was worth it. The city looked well and welcoming night and day. Evenings showed how well it was prepared for the Holiday season.

​The next morning we could not resist to witness the sunrise,

​​Weird time to go on a cruise when Covid is still around. But it worked - with some oddities.
First, we were a party of two, my wife and I (picture taken in St. Lucia). 

​Our cruise was Celebrity Equinox. It was about 70% full. Considering that some guests never got out of their rooms, it was plenty of room on the boat to enjoy it. Maybe 10% of the guests enjoyed the journey on their balconies, the food brought to them by crew members. I know because our neighbors were in this situation. I do not know how they organized their balcony, but I can show you mine.

​The boat looked great from distance, picture taken in St. Lucia.

The food on the boat was great, with many choices in the main dining room, with no restrictions because of Covid. Very few had masks. There were also restaurants to choose from. Some restaurants were included in the price, and the guests had to pay for some other restaurants.

​The journey was ten days, out of which four days were sailing with no stops, so the entertainment on the boat was important. My wife and I enjoy ballroom dancing, but it wasn’t a program for that. People enjoyed the disco, where there were no rules, and it was easy - moving the weight from one foot to another and not needing to sync with the partner.

We asked the entertaining manager for some ballroom dancing since it was a room with a nice dancing floor, on floor 14. Our request was granted, but only three couples showed up.
But the entertainment manager and the DJ came up with a brilliant idea - no music in the room, but on earphones, with three music channels. The channels had different colors, shown on the earphones as blue, green, or red. And the madness began. I expected the partners had the same color on the earphones, and most of them did, but some partners danced to different songs! Everyone on his/her own. I took off my earphones and did not expect what I heard. Some guests, sure that no one heard them shouted the song, trying to sing; sounded like donkeys, but who cared? - they were happy. Others shouted to say something to their partners, maybe that they were on the wrong channel, who knows? The madhouse had a different dimension with the earphones off, so I put them on. I was part of the madness. Beautiful! I enjoyed it.

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Next one was Antigua 
http://www.eliademoldovan.com/blog/celebrity-cruise-antigua-stop

2022, August. My wife and I decided to go up north in a car trip. The initial intention was to reach Labrador…
First stop, Montreal. We lived in the city 25 years ago. It changed a lot, many new buildings downtown. I am not sure it looks better. Below is a picture taken from Mont Royal.

​​Next stop was Quebec City. It preserved the charm everybody knows with chic restaurants, the combination of an old city and new as well… and of course Castel Fontainebleau dominate the landscape.

​Day third was on Isle aux Coudres, in the Gulf of St Lawrence. The ferry to the island is free, every 30 min. Wonderful trails, but take care of flies and mosquitos. Many opportunities for accommodation, but at this time of the year, it is good to book your place in advance.

​Our trip was about enjoying nature; both my wife and I are in good shape and have no problems walking long distances. And we were plenty rewarded on all our stops. For what nature had to offer and the weather was very kind.
But people look for more in their trips, mainly findings restaurants serving local dishes. That was a problem all along. Many restaurants were closed because their employees did not return after COVID. Some others had tricky business hours or limited capabilities. An example was Bistro 7 at Sept Isles, where I really wanted to serve lunch. Brought some memories with me. 25 years ago I worked in Montreal at Novasys and was on the team who developed an application for IOC company located at Sept Isles. The company invited us all to their city and offered a superb lunch at Bistro 7 on the St. Lawrence Gulf shore.

I checked the business hours and they had 7 days a week the lunch time from 11 AM to 2 PM. We showed up at 1:20 PM. It was a Friday. No one cared to ask us anything like we were made of glass. When a waiter finally approached, he seemed confused (not because my French, I am good at it) but because he did not know what to say. He got help from an older lady who said with some acidity, “The kitchen is closed.” We tried the next day at 12:20 PM. After the same waiting time when waiters avoided us, the answer was, “On the weekend we serve only breakfast.” One of my dreams collapsed.

​But as I will mention later, there were places where the service was excellent.
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From Sept Isles we took a small boat to Ile Grande Basque, $30 per person. We had a beautiful time from 10:30 AM to 4 PM.

​On our way to Havre St. Pierre we stopped to see the falls on Manitou river. There are a few, one after the other. Breathtaking, but the camera cannot see it all... 

​We spent the next night at Havre St. Pierre. The following day we had another visit on an island, Ghost Island. Below are some of the ghosts on the island.

​We continued to Natashquan. ​Not far away on the road was another nice fall, on Quetachou river. But what was impressive here was the number of blueberries on the trail. Tons, like in a fairy tale where somebody wanted to paint the hills in blue. And near the fall were raspberries. After we filled our stomachs, we filled in whatever we found in our backpacks.

Natashquan was a nice surprise. It has a good beach and the water was good for a swim. On the beach was Café l’Echouerie looking like a bar 300 years ago, well maintained, opened all time with good food and shows in the evening! Natashquan is a 300 people community where the paved road ends. It also has a camping site ($28 a night) with a kitchen, washing machines, and showers. The first evening the sky was like on fire.

The only way to continue our way north to Labrador was by ferry, but the ferry was fully booked for the whole year 2022. So we reached the end of the road.

 We decided to return home on the south side of St Lawrence Gulf. We crossed the gulf with the ferry from Godbout to Matane. It was the biggest ferry I ever saw.

From Matane we crossed Gaspe and stayed for the night at Campbellton, New Brunswick. We had a wonderful surprise here. In the evening on the shore somewhere, a band played music and people danced! We danced too. True vacation.

We wanted to continue to Saint John to spend a few days on the Bay of Fundy, but the forecast announced rain. We changed plans and returned to Quebec.
Time to go home.

We had an inspired stop for a few hours in Bic National Park near Rimouski. We took a rather dangerous trail climbing up and down on sharp rocks, but we did it.

I will end my story with a happy note. Since I talked about mixed feelings about restaurants on the way, I would talk about the very nice experience at Capiche restaurant in Drummondville; friendly waiter and very-very tasty dishes.
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Back home after 16 days...

ACTUAL transcript of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995. This radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on 10-10-95.

Americans: “Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.”
Canadians: “Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.”
Americans: “This is the captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.”
Canadians: “No, I say again, you divert YOUR course.”
Americans: “THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES’ ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH. THAT’S ONE-FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.”
Canadians: “This is a lighthouse. Your call.”
 
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-obstinate-lighthouse/
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