My week long absence is at an end friends, rejoice for I have returned!

*Crickets chirping, tumbleweed blows by*

See, the crickets LOVE me!

St. Lucia was a blast and I will put some pictures up later this week when I find my camera cord. My first day of travel ended in Miami where I actually stayed at a hotel in the airport, which was kind of cool. From my window I could see the airplanes taking off and landing as well as dozens of people's bags falling off the luggage conveyor belt.

From there, it was off to St. Lucia and I have to say, American Airlines gets points for adding neck brace things on their coach seats. Sleeping on planes is much more comfortable and you don't need to bring one of those ridiculous looking horseshoe shaped pillows around your neck. Once on the island, I was again staying at the lovely Coconut Bay all-inclusive resort. No complaints there, especially since they have a water slide for kids me and several swim up bars for the "adults". The only downside: every night the entertainment is a Caribbean "up with people", which at first kind of embarrasses you until you fade off into other thoughts. But hey, work is work so for the dancers, fire-eaters, etc. I commend your efforts!

Adventure-wise, I got to try my hand at kite-surfing which could be really fun if I could master it (it has a bit of a learning curve). There's nothing quite as exciting as being dragged into the open ocean and getting tangled up in your lines-- and that was only the first lesson!

Because the wind was oddly weak, we had to skip our kite surfing one day and opted to hike the Gros Piton, a famous volcanic mountain on the coast of St. Lucia. It was a steep but relatively easy hike that was made tougher by the high 80's temps and 100% humidity. Oh, and the downpours that seemed to hit once every hour. Given the combination of exertion and moisture, they should rename the peak Mount Fungus or Athlete's Foot Peak. It's still beautiful though and outside of our ganja-loving guide babbling about the wonders of corn (which doesn't grow there) it was a fine trek. And after the hike, we were treated to St. Lucia's finest non-fruit based fruit drink, "Chubby" whose slogan is "Grab a Chubby" Apparently, the beverage company decided to carbonate that syrupy fluid in wax bottles and Chubby has taken off. It does however, have the odd aftereffect of making you more thirsty after you've downed a Chubby than before. I hear next year they might add water to the mix to curb this phenomenon.

On the taxi ride back from the Gros Piton, we had a minor car accident which could have been much worse-- a pick-up truck loaded with people would have crashed off the road if they hadn't sideswiped us. I was half-asleep when it happened, trying to ward off a touch of motion sickness (not uncommon on those roads) and didn't even bother to open my eyes during the skidding and screaming. No one was hurt in the end and I got to play with a little black kitten who came out of his house to see what all the fuss was about.

On my last night, we ate at Debbie's which is perhaps the best restaurant I've ever been to. The food is unbelievable and it's almost worth the trip to St. Lucia just to eat there. We teamed up with a fun group of British journalists and it was a good send off. My journey back to Colorado was 18 hours of flights, transfers and driving but amazingly enough I felt very well rested when it was all done. I slept like a rock on 2 of the 3 flights and twice had that wonderful experience of falling asleep as soon as the flight starts and waking up as it lands. Beauty.

Now back in Colorado, the snow is fresh and the sky is blue. Home! I have a ton of work ahead of me but it's all good. And I look great--being dragged across the sand by a kite is a fantastic exfoliant and the radiation I absorbed on the ultra-hot hike of the Gros Piton has given me a permanent red glow.

Posted by James Dziezynski @ 10:04 AM