St. Lucia

     We got to St. Lucia just in time to take a sunset river tour. We saw a water monitor, kingfisher, fish eagle, ibis, a couple of smallish crocodiles, and tons of hippos! I was super excited to see hippos outside of a zoo and also because one of my favorite books when I was little was Hot Hippo and I felt all cool, because I already knew most of what the guide was saying about hippos from it.

       We got so close that the ferry almost bumped a hippo! They were enormous and quite cute...in a sort of grotesque way. It made me really want to go and watch Disney's Fantasia, so I could see the one bit where the hippos dance around in tutus. However, hippos are not all cute, they are very dangerous! In fact, they are thought to be the 5th most deadly animal, killing approximately 300 people a year. Although they look fat and lazy, that's because they are nocturnal and at night they may walk about 6 miles to graze, so there were warnings all over town telling people to stay indoors at night. I was glad to be in a fairly large ferry!

       We had been lucky enough to not only make the last tour but also have that last tour be a sunset one! This was not only pretty, but the hippos were waking up and getting ready to get out of the water and munch.

I am excited about this picture because it was taken with my broken camera

The lighting was absolutely stunning, and it was a very romanticical idea to be on the water with the sun setting, a slight breeze, and "exotic" animals.

After our tour we searched around for accommodation and the next morning we had a market adventure (just f.y.i. the markets in St. Lucia are a bit of a rip-off, it would be far more economical to shop at the little stands on the sides of the road leading to the town) and then were off again.