Adventure in left-hand traffic

A completely different Christmas day! After a rather noisy first night on St. Lucia, we woke up early again today. However, the noise was not from traffic, but rather from drumming raindrops on our roof, chirping birds outside the door, and especially roosters (everyone has them here!) that start crowing not just at sunrise, but even two hours earlier 😄

On our balcony with a wonderful view of Castries Bay, we had fresh fruit salad and cereal for breakfast. Then the adventure of renting a car began. When we arrived yesterday, we noticed that the 'road' is actually more like a pile of stones with deep holes and large cracks - and it's steep uphill. So, we walked down to the main road and waited for the bus that would take us to Rodney Bay to pick up the rental car. The bus system here is fantastic. Buses are simply vans with about 12 seats that constantly drive privately and pick up or drop off people at bus stops or any other possible stopping points along the way. A bus passes by every 2-3 minutes. If it's full, it simply drives past the waiting passengers. But they don't have to wait long anyway. So, we arrived in Rodney Bay and since we were way too early, we had to wait until our rental car was delivered to a hotel there. We did that at Reduit Beach, which is very nice, but also extremely touristy, as Rodney Bay is the largest tourist center on the island. While slurping a coconut, time passed quickly and soon Tim was ready to take on the big challenge of left-hand traffic. He did it excellently. 

Back at the hotel, we had initially planned to walk to the beach, but the path was so muddy due to the heavy rain in recent days that we couldn't get through. Instead, we laid down by our small sweet pool, which we had all to ourselves. Tim caught up on the sleep he missed last night and slowly but surely, we're getting a nice tan 😄 Meanwhile, an American family in the apartments above celebrated Christmas with loud singing performances.

As the sun slowly sets over the sea, we sit here on the balcony with homemade rum punch and watch. At seven o'clock, we will go to the Christmas menu at Keith's son Thor's new restaurant, which sounds very promising. Tomorrow we will go on an adventure tour to explore the highlights of the island. 

PS: Uploading pictures is currently not possible due to the weak internet connection.