Montserrat Volcano

Ok... This is the final posting of our five week cruise in the Caribbean with our friends then on to our current travels.

On Feb. 16, my birthday we headed south from St.Kitts past Montserrat. It was an awesome way to spend a birthday. Sailing past the volcano and seeing first hand the devastation caused by the eruption over ten years ago, was quite the sight. There is a two mile safety zone that we needed to obey and trust me we obeyed it. The cruising guides suggest sailing down the east side so that smoke and ash don't land on you, but since the volcano wasn't spewing, we got adventurous and sailed down the west side. We listened to Chris Parker, the weather guy and he didn't mention any volcanic activity. The picture shows the ash covered houses.

We stopped in Guadeloupe WI for one night. Took a walk in town next morning for fruit and veggies. We tried to check into customs but no one was around, so we gave up. We left here at 10 am and headed for Les Saintes and spent about ten days here. These French Islands are like living in a fairy tale. The only way we could get EUROs was to buy a loaf of French bread using a twenty dollar bill. The banks were closed because of the French Islands strike going on at the time. Otherwise we were happy here hiking and touring the island.

Next and final stop was St. Lucia. This island is know for it's Pitons and beer named after the pitons. Here we visited a collapsed volcano which was amazing. The steam comes spewing out of the street gutters a block away and the sulfur smell was worse then a rotten egg.

The day(Mar. 9th)before Bruce and I left to come home we decided we might want to try zip lining. If you know me at all, you know I do not like heights. I've been on a few roofs reshingling and it is not fun. We had rented a car for touring this island, so the four of us drove to the Rain Forest Sky Rides place. The guy said no zip line today because there weren't enough people. Oh well, I was actually dissappointed. Instead we took a walking tour through the Rain Forest which was nice but all the trees sounded the same. I was impressed with the incense tree that makes the incense for churches and a pretty red and black seed they call donkey eyes. Anyway, after that hike we got a free rum punch. It sure came in handy!!! Bruce saw that a bunch of people came in for zip lining and he asked if they had room. Before I knew it I was put in my zip gear and on a tranopy up through the rain forest. It was beautiful. These guys kept us moving from one tree to the next and after the second zip I stopped shaking and actually enjoyed the scenery below. The worst was standing on the platforms around the trees 150 ft above the forest. Even worse was having to step up on the edge and get fastened to the zip line for the next zip along. We went from 1500 ft to 1300 ft in ten zip lines. After our ten zip lines we hikes back up and took the Tranopy back down. That's when Bruce gave away my second coupon for another free rum punch. Bummer!! Zip lining was the highlight of our trip not to mention the volcanos.