I'm home! Getting home was a little bit more of an adventure than I expected since my flight from JFK to Reagan National Airport was canceled due to thick fog and impending rain. My fellow Bucknellian in Barbados, Whitney, and her family were kind enough to let me stay with them for the night until my parents could come pick me up in Pennsylvania in the morning, but before I knew where I was going to spend the night, I'll admit I was freaking out a little.

Driving over the crest of the hill overlooking the valley where I live, I thought to myself that Middletown, Md., is the most beautiful place in the world. Though I have gone scuba diving, snorkeled, hiked through thickly forested gullies, zip-lined, stood under a waterfall and walked into a collapsed volcano in St. Lucia, and done things and met people I never would have done or met at home, it feels good to again do the things that were off-limits to me in Barbados: play my clarinet and see my friends, to name a few.

But before I reflect too much, I should say that last Monday, Candace, Duante, Whitney, and I --the Bucknell in Barbados gang -- took a day-tour of St. Lucia, an island northwest of Barbados.

We flew out of Grantley Adams International Airport early in the morning and, a little over a half-hour later, touched down at the airport outside of the capital, Castries. Driving through city, our awesome tour guide, Steven, told us about the St. Lucia Jazz Festival, which was going on while we were on the island, which our packed schedule did not permit us to see, and pointed out the Castries cathedral:

Here's a photo of Castries from above:

As we drove up into the hills, Steven warned us that our day in St. Lucia would be a sightseeing tour and a roller coaster ride in one, which was true, and not just because of Steven's driving. One of the most striking differences between Barbados and St. Lucia is that St. Lucia is so much more mountainous. Our guide for ziplining last weekend (more on that later), told us that Barbados, unlike St. Lucia and many other Caribbean islands, is on the North American, rather than the Caribbean, plate, and is composed of coral limestone, which serves as a natural water filtration system. Lacking St. Lucia's volcanic origin, Barbados also lacks St. Lucia's sulfur springs and hot mud baths. We spent much of the day zigzagging through seaside towns nestled in the hollows among giant, emerald-colored mountains.

This, for example, is Canaries:

Anse La Ray is a waterfront town that hosts a similar weekly seafood festival to Oistins in Barbados.
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Not just in Anse La Ray, but in many of the towns we passed through, there were large murals painted on retaining walls and the sides of buildings:

We also stopped at Morne Fortune, the mountain site of many battles between the British and the French dating from the 17th century. St. Lucia was seven times British and seven times French before its independence in 1978 -- leading, I've read, to its nickname "Helen of the West Indies" after Helen of Greek mythology, whose abduction sparked the Trojan War. Steven pointed out that while the buildings built by the French are mostly gray stone, those erected under British occupation are brick.

Here's a powder magazine:

The governor-general's house was nearby:

Morne Fortune is also home to Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, where students painted this mural:

Here's another mural in the town we drove through on the way into the forest:

Since it had just rained, the water was really turbid, but Steven said people swim here sometimes:

Then a guy stopped our van on the side of the road, and Whitney and I held a boa constrictor. He swore that if it bit us, there would be no venom, only scars.

There's much more to tell about our day in St. Lucia alone, but I'll save it for my next entry. Stay tuned!