A Forever of Nows

In typical tropical form, the St. Lucian air is humid, and the weather has alternated between gorgeous sunshine and some intense rain showers. The heat is sticky, and we have embraced it, slowing our pace, breathing deeply. This was exactly how we wanted to begin this journey – a gentle, but efficient, transition into the travelers’ mindset and vacation mode.

This is the first of our blog posts while we embark on this multi-country, multi-month adventure. Months of dreaming and planning – it’s hard to believe that we are actually living it now. We have the best of intentions to blog our way through this journey… Please feel free to check in here and follow along!

Our home in St Lucia is the Fond Doux Plantation and Resort – a 250 year old chocolate plantation and estate near Soufriere. The plantation is locally owned and is still a commercial cocoa plantation, in addition to growing all the vegetables, herbs and spices for its two restaurants. That being said, it has become primarily a tourism operation, following the way of the rest of the island. St Lucia used to be a large exporter of tropical fruits (bananas), but has shifted its economic focus to tourism – lucky us.

These first few days, we’ve explored the grounds and tried new (to us) tropical fruits, spent some quality time at the pool, snorkeled at the beach, hiked for views of the towering Piton mountains, and survived a wild tropical storm. We woke in the middle of the night to torrential rain pounding the tin roof of our cottage and sharp thunder cracks that sounded like cannon fire outside our door. A peak outside the door revealed water levels of our plunge pool alarmingly high, threatening to come through under the door…We huddled inside, listening to the chaos of the storm, and fervently hoped the cottage wouldn’t slide down the hillside. The next morning, the locals didn’t really seem too phased by it.

…views from the grounds of Fond Doux…

…the cocoa operation, including the fresh white pulp of a ripe cocoa pod that we sampled…

…some of the flora and fauna seen around Fond Doux grounds…

… Hiking jungle trails with spectator views of the Piton mountains…

…scenes of Soufriere town…

We are very grateful to everyone who shared their best travel advice and recommendations, and to our family, friends and colleagues for being so supportive and offering sincere words of encouragement. We miss our family, friends and home in Seattle – we’d love to hear from you, words from home will be most welcome!

Now reading: Barkskins, by Annie Proulx (both Chad and Lindsay)

Distance from Seattle: 4,183 Miles