Greetings from the Caribbean! Caribbean Island: St. Lucia City: Castries (Capital City) February 21, 2000 by Wayne & Karen Brown

We arrived in Castries, St. Lucia, about midnight after a 12-hour flight from California. The next morning we took a boat to the planned site of our expedition base - Anse Chastanet, which is about half-way down the west coast of St. Lucia. During our 45-minute boat ride we had a good view of the island. St. Lucia is a very mountainous, volcanic island mostly covered with rainforest.

In the Caribbean people say "if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes." That is because the weather is always changing here - sunshine and blue sky, then clouds and rain, then sunshine and blue sky again. The winter is the dry season and you can usually depend on mostly sunny days with very little rain. But not this winter! It is like the rainy season. The weather has already affected our expedition schedule and will probably affect us during our visits to the other islands as well. (Has the weather been strange where you live, too?)

We had planned on climbing the Petite Piton (a volcanic plug) today, but it rained so much this morning that we had to change our plans. The rain made the steep climb up the Petite Piton too slippery and dangerous. If the weather allows, we will make another attempt to climb to the top and show you what we can see from up there.

We decided, instead, to make our first scuba dive today. Just as we were getting ready for our dive, Scuba St. Lucia manager Karyn Allard ran up to us and said she heard a 40-foot-long whale shark had been spotted between the Pitons! (The whale shark is the biggest fish in the world, growing to 60 feet long! It is also one of the most harmless sharks.) We were excited as the prospect of seeing a whale shark because, although we've made thousands of dives all around the world, we have never seen one.

We grabbed our gear, jumped on a boat and joined Karyn on a search for the whale shark! We searched and searched for over an hour. We saw some Atlantic bottlenose dolphins swimming by, but no whale shark! Wouldn't you think that a 40-foot whale shark would be easy to find in calm, clear water? We finally gave up our search and returned to Anse Chastanet. Oh, well. Maybe we will see one before the expedition is over. We'll let you know. Check with us tomorrow to find out what surprises we may find above and below water.

Best fishes to all our adventurers,
- Wayne & Karen

Wayne and Karen (and their equipment) on a dock in the capital city of Castries, waoting for a boat to take them to Anse Chastanet.

This is a map of St. Lucia. Our expedition base (Anse Chastanet Hotel) is on the west coast of St. Lucia, just north of Soufriere.

Our expedition base is located at the left side of the beach at Anse Chastanet and is within view of the Pitons. Notice how clear the Caribbean Sea is here.

The Pitons. On the left is the Petite Piton, on the right is the Gros Piton.