Honeymoon Day 5 (10/5)

Up early for breakfast. Pancakes this time. Krista had the same as every other day eggs, taters, bacon, and toast. We left on the water taxi @ 10 and headed south to Soufriere. Manu dropped us off on the docks and then Earl the taxi driver took us to the Botanical Gardens. Shakka told us a lot about the native plants. We then toured the Diamond Waterfall which was cool. When then went to the Sulfer Springs/drive-in volcano. It stunk, literally. Ba doom! We then went to a nice restaurant while Mother Nature did her daily soaking of the island. I am sure Earl was getting a nice kickback for bring us all there (10 couples on the trip), but the Chicken Roti that I has was delicious. I really need to eat more Indian food. We then went on to New Jerusalem to the hot and cold springs. They were hot and stinky. On the walk back through the rainforest we had crossed a stream that was no more than a trickle on the way there. As we were crossing it to leave Krista and I could step on the rocks to cross, but because it had been raining all day and we were near the bottom of the volcano/mountain the stream flow picked up almost instantly. The last people to cross had to wade through foot deep water in their shoes just to cross safely. By the time we got back to the boat for Manu to take us back to Ti Kaye the sun was out again. Used a lot of money to tip today, but it was a fun day. At 5:30 Cleus brought our Wine and Fruit basket just in time for the sunset. It had lots of fruit, cookies, cashews from the island, etc. We also got lots of great pics of the sunset over the Caribbean Sea. Shakka today, taught us why cashews are so expensive compared to other nuts. They actually are the "seed" that grows inside a fruit. And a one tree only produces about 20 lb of cashews a year. The fruit is very acidic and if you were to break it open and rub it on your skin it would burn your skin off, or if you would eat it, it would burn your throat. So they have to let them dry so the acid goes away before they can get the cashew nut out. So now you learned something. And you will think twice about how much work went into that handful of nuts in your hand. Went to dinner at 8. It was a BBQ buffet. I started with a red bean and coconut milk soup which was good. I then had steak, jerk chicken, and even a little Mahi Mahi, which of course tasted like chicken. They also had pasta salad, curry potato salad, breadfruit salad, and fried plantains as accompaniments. Guava, Banana, and Chocolate ice cream with cinnamon coconut bread for dessert. The band was also really good, partly because I had had 3/4 of a bottle of champange and 3/4 of another bottle of Rose D' Anjou. They actually used my name in song that can't be repeated, but in the end they did say that my wife confirmed that I had an Intercontinental Ballistic Missle. Their words not mine. 10:30 and I am still buzzing strong!