Location: St. Lucia
When you think of a rasta, you normally think of the red, yellow, black, and red stripes, Bob Marley, and dreads. You don’t think of them as being incredibly artistic and extremely nice. Here on St Lucia, they gather fruit in the jungle and carve decorations out of calabash. They also stop on the side of the road to help you open a coconut with the machete they have in the back of their car or to point out the best fruit trees, which is what they did when we walked around the jungle of St Lucia. Today was one of my favorite days aboard Argo, filled with sunshine, diving, hiking, and freshly picked fruit. Not having dove yesterday, four of us got to ride partially around the island to help collect sediment cores but moreover dive around the reef, looking at butterflyfish, brain coral, and stinging feather hydroid (trust me, it hurts to get too close!). After lunch, it was time to explore the jungle, trekking up a hill that, when you’ve only walked about 100ft in the past two weeks, felt like miles. We found oranges, both sweet and sour, coconuts, cocoa pods, bananas, and an incredible art studio, not to mention the wonderful locals. We also got our first major provision since the crossing and are stocked up on fresh vegetables, meat, and, most importantly, cereal. It being the first day of Hanukkah, we celebrated by making a menorah out of tin foil and lighting the first candle. With the sun shining, today turned into one of those days where you smile so much that your mouth hurts when you try to stop.