St. Lucia

Hey, team America. Jack and I just returned from a weekend in St. Lucia, and it was AWESOME. The tiny beach town is about four hours from Swaziland. I think it was the prettiest beach I've ever seen. And we could swim normally, not in weird sections like in Durban. No sharks ate us. Good deal. In winter, they have whale tours. We might have to hit it up again for one of those.

We initially stayed in a place called Bibs Backpackers, which was absolutely terrible. Never, ever stay there. Please. It's not worth it. They turn the water off at night, so you can't even flush the toilet. I mean, come on. What is that? So then we went to a place called Parker's Cottages instead, and it was lovely. The family who ran it was nice and extremely helpful. Nothing but good things to say about that spot. I'll try to post photos from both so you can see the contrast.

We visited a beach (Cape Vidal) that was inside a nature preserve/game park. It was absolutely gorgeous. Jack saw his first wild pigs. Then we went on a hippo and croc boat tour and saw tons of hippos (tinvubu in SiSwati). From there, we hit up a night game drive and saw zebras, a bunch of different kinds of bucks and a LEOPARD. First leopard sighting. Score!

Here are some photos!

 Night leopard! Our guide, Skip, said he called this one Alley Cat. She was walking along the road and then posed like this for us for a minute or so. Awesome.

 Beach monkey! There were lots of these guys near the Jabula Beach we stopped at once we hit town.

 HIPPO FACE!

 Craft shop! A lot of what you see here is the same as what you can find in Swaziland. We're still on the hunt for truly authentic Swazi crafts. Still, it's colorful and lovely.

 More hippos! We even saw a baby one, but its head barely popped up next to the mother's. You could tell it was adorable.

 Us on the hippo and croc boat! We saw the tail of a crocodile but no full ones.

 Zebras! These were near the road on our drive to Cape Vidal beach. I think the game park was Simangeliso? Not sure.

Beach! This is the first one we went to, and it was nearly empty. It was so gorgeous. I think Mama T would love her some St. Lucia. Perhaps we'll make it out there again.