Family Trip to St Lucia - Volcanoes & Waterfalls

We love traveling with just the two of us, but every once in a while we're lucky enough to get some family or friends to come along, so we were happy when Paul's sister, Betsy, was interested in taking a short international trip with us. She had a short list of things she hoped to do, and after some research, the Caribbean island of St Lucia was the preferred location. In total, Betsy, her husband Chad and Paul's Mom Maggie joined us for this little excursion to the tropics. You may remember this motley crew from our family trip to Italy back in 2017.

We arrived in St Lucia on a Tuesday afternoon and departed on Saturday afternoon, leaving about 4 days total of exploration and relaxation time. We stayed at a small locally-owned resort (Stonefield Villa Resort), with about 17 villas, nestled a couple hundred feet above the Caribbean Sea near the iconic Piton mountains of St Lucia's west coast near Soufriere town. This was our first time staying in a resort like this and it comes with some pros and cons we'll be sure to point out as we go through the post - but overall it was a great experience!

Here we are in St Lucia! Looking all adorbs. 

Upon arrival, we checked into our resort in the late afternoon and were just in awe at how beautiful the resort grounds were, with lush vegetation, tons of fruit trees and amazing views of the sea and mountains. Our villa had three bedrooms with a shared living/dining room/kitchen and two bathrooms. The bedrooms were air conditioned, but the rest of the space was cooled by the Caribbean breezes. Overall, we tend to avoid hot places in our traveling, but this trip really showed us how when buildings are well planned even warm places can be incredibly comfortable.

Our villa!

We had private outdoor showers.

The incredible view from our deck.

The hotel grounds were lush and beautiful.

A panoramic view from our villa.

Our villa was called "Lime Mill" and some remains of the old mill were in our yard.

The main room of our villa.

And the best part... this was our private pool view towards the Pitons.

After getting settled in, it was getting close to dinner time so Paul and the family headed out to the nearby town of Soufriere to get some dinner and bring back some groceries. David opted to just hang out by the pool (he had a bit of headache from the flight/windy road through the mountains to the resort). Here we come across problem numero uno about resorts, Soufriere is not far away (20 mins by foot), but since we're up in the hills and there's only one road to town... with no sidewalks... arranging a car was essential for everything we did off the resort grounds. The resort was great about doing this for us anytime we asked within 15 minutes notice, but it definitely adds up in terms of cost. Dinner was at Belle Vue restaurant, which was on the second floor of a seafront building, with nice views of the sunset. The fam brought back some pizza for David (spoiler - it was not great, but even bad pizza is pizza!) That evening we relaxed in our pool and villa. 

Belle Vue restaurant.

Goat curry!

View of the bay and Petit Peton from Soufriere .

The streets of Soufriere.

The next day, we arranged a trip to the nearby Sulfur Springs and the Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens. The tour started at 9:30am and lasted about 2 hours. St. Lucia is unique because it has active geothermal features, similar to Yellowstone or Iceland. We could occasionally smell sulfur from our villa when the wind was blowing the right direction. The town of Soufriere got its name from these features, as in French it means "sulfur mine." The area is part of the UNESCO world heritage site. We had a short guided tour overlooking the steam vents and bubbling mud pots. Just downhill from the geothermal area, the muddy stream is cool enough to enter. Tourists can wade in the warm water and rub the mud on their skin in a series of pools.    

Overview of the geothermal field.

Steam rising from the ground.

Taking our guided tour.

Maggie with mud!

It got a little bit busy. :)

Paul and Maggie wetting their feet in the hot springs.

Paul sporting mud on his legs.

After rinsing all the mud off, our next stop on the morning tour was just down the street to the botanical gardens. This was a very pleasant, lush gardens with a nice waterfall at the end. A claim to fame is that several movies have had scenes filmed here, including Superman 2 and Romancing the Stone. While the gardens weren't too crowded, there were, oddly enough, two large German-speaking tour groups.

The gardens were essentially like a lush jungle.

Main path through the Botanical Gardens

Diamond Falls at the back of the Botanical Gardens.

Betsy and Chad at the falls

Don't trip!

One of the German tourist groups.

Some beautiful flowers.

Baby bananas!

This bird really wanted some snacks and landed on our backpack.

After the excursion we returned to the hotel and went down to the restaurant (The Mango Tree) for lunch. Here we run into issue number two about staying in a resort. You're a bit limited in what you can find to eat unless you want to pay for a ride into town. The restaurant was very beautiful and the staff were very pleasant, but the dishes were a bit hit or miss and on the expensive side. Many of produce in their dishes were grown on site (from either the fruit trees all over the grounds or the small garden they have). Overall, we think it worked out well, but this wouldn't compare to a culinary adventure in Italy or Korea for sure.

The first, but not the only, tropical beverage of the trip.

The main pool, next to the restaurant. Amazing weather and views!

Lunch - curried chicken with local root vegetables.

David with his drink!

After lunch, we hung around the villa and in the pool. We walked to the nearby overlook of Soufriere town, which was just a few hundred feet down the road from our resort... about the only distance we felt safe walking without sidewalks. We also walked on the short "petroglyphs trail" and viewed the petroglyphs within the resort grounds. We really couldn't find too much info about these, including who exactly made them and how old they are. Eventually made our way back to the restaurant for a free happy hour with Hors d’Oeuvres, and got some dinner to go. 

Late afternoon relaxation on the villa deck.

Soufriere Overlook

A big bunch of bananas growing near our villa.

We couldn't get enough of the amazing views at Stonefield Resort.

We even found a little pineapple!

The petroglyphs.

David and Maggie!

Spectacular sunset views.

Sunset and a mango tree.

Piton beer... and Petit Piton!

Before turning in, we noticed it was pretty windy and we would occasionally hear a crashing noise as something was hitting the metal roof of the villa. Turns out, there's a huge mango tree fruiting and the wind was knocking down the occasional mango onto our roof. It was worth a good laugh and no real annoyance for the rest of the trip.

Quick work trip to San Diego

I (Paul) recently had a short work trip to San Diego for a climate and health meeting. As with most work trips I only had evenings free, but I was able to get out a bit, enjoy the weather, and try some good food. So this isn't a normal blog post - just a few pictures.

San Diego from the plane.

A tour on equitable transit that was part of my meeting.

Cute little bike racks near my hotel.

The Little Italy area of San Diego.

Pizza with burrata and pancetta. Yum!

Of course I got ice cream! The honey-cinnamon flavor was devine.

San Diego has a few beautiful old office buildings.

A cool church.

Classic San Diego!

A newer part of downtown with soaring skyscrapers.

Interesting landscapes on the flight back to Atlanta.

I hope to get back to San Diego soon, but as a tourist rather than on a work trip. It's a unique city with great weather and a great blend of cultures.

Exploring El Paso

Our last day and a half of our Texas / New Mexico road trip was spent exploring El Paso. The El Paso metro area is just shy of 1,000,000 people, and Ciudad Juárez across the border has 1.8 million. Despite this large population, the area feels quite isolated since the next closest big cities are Albuquerque (4 hours north), Tucson (5 hours west), and San Antonio (8 hours east). We were excited to check out this city that we don't hear much about.

Driving in from Las Cruces on a rainy day, we stopped at Aurellia's brewery, which was an oddly futuristic brewery in a suburban strip mall. We had some food and beer, and continued south toward the city. We made a quick stop at the University of Texas El Paso to see their football stadium, then had some ice cream at the nearby La Michoacana Snacks and Ice Cream before heading in to downtown. Our room was not quite ready when we got to the Plaza Hotel, so they gave us some vouchers for free drinks at Ambar. When the rain let up a bit, we wrapped up the night by taking a short walk around downtown. Downtown El Paso has some nice historic buildings, but is incredibly quiet and devoid of people. There are no residential buildings in the core of downtown, which really hurts the streetlife. Still, the main plaza is nice, and our hotel was great.

Tacos at Aurellia's Brewery in El Paso.

The stadium on a rainy day.

Free fancy cocktail!

Our room was great. This was our splurge hotel of the trip.

Plant man art in the hotel.

Downtown El Paso at night.

A cool old building.

This street downtown looked nice - maybe it gets busier when the weather is nicer?

Our full day in El Paso was hampered slightly by the fact that it was a Monday, and a federal holiday on top of that. Some of the top rated attractions were closed, including the El Paso Museum of Art, the El Paso Museum of Archaeology, and several historic sites. But we still found enough things to do to fill the day. We started with breakfast at Chilabox, which was in the "Union Plaza" area of El Paso a short walk from our hotel. Chilaquiles are delicious, and this quick service restaurant concept was great - essentially like a Chipotle or Subway for building your own chilaquiles. The area around it was neat, with a couple of old warehouses that has been converted into offices and restaurants.

Morning view from our hotel room.

A bike/ped section of the street over the railroad tracks.

Chilaquiles time!

The streets of the Union Depot area. Quiet on a Monday morning.

Next we drove over to the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) to check out a couple of attractions. The university has very interesting architecture, with a southwestern motif that almost looks like adobe temples. Speaking of temples, our first stop was the Bhutanese temple. Quite odd seeing this is the desert Southwest! Near by was the Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens. This was a small museum but had some interesting exhibits, especially a temporary exhibit on the Social Justice and Inequalities in the Borderlands. 

The unique architecture of UTEPs campus.

The Bhutanese temple.

The temple was covered with intricate paintings and carvings.

A mural in the museum.

An exhibit room in the museum.

Cool beaded jaguar.

From the University we headed for the mountains. Or, more accurately, for the big hill overlooking the city. In 1920, a 1.82 mile scenic drive was built, and it's still open today. We had some nice views of downtown and Ciudad Juárez. From there we made a couple of stops in the northeast outskirts of the city - first the bizarre Casa de Azucar, a private home that is completely covered in blue and pink decorations, then a quick stop at a video game store in a strip mall.

El Paso, with Mexico in the background.

The phrase "tone it down" didn't occur to this person =)

For the main part of the day, we drove the El Paso Mission Trail, which connects three Spanish colonial missions spanning nine miles of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail. This is just one tiny portion of a historic trail that stretches about 1500 miles from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo (formerly San Juan Pueblo) in Northern New Mexico down to Mexico City. The trail also encompasses Mesilla Plaza that we had visited the previous day, and historic sites in Santa Fe and Albuquerque that we visited in 2021. The furthest north mission, and our first stop, was Ysleta Mission. Since it's the closest to the El Paso, it's kind of in a suburban sprawl area, but the building itself is picturesque. Much of the church today is from the early 1900s, due to various floods and fires in the 1700s and 1800s destroying or damaging previous versions. There's also a small but excellent gift shop with locally made items.

Ysleta Mission.

The interior of Ysleta Mission.

Some hipster priests?

Heading further southeast, the next mission was Socorro Mission. This was our favorite of the three missions, as it's the oldest building and has ceiling beams re-used from even older missions. We had a nice conversation with the woman running the gift shop, who was part of the local indigenous community.

The façade of Socorro Mission.

The beautiful interior.

Close up of the ceiling.

The wall lighting is cool too.

Our final stop along the trail was the San Elizario Presidio Chapel, which unfortunately is closed on Mondays. It was still impressive to see this 1877 building from the outside. The surrounding area had a historic square and a (closed) museum.

Very classic looking mission.

The area around the mission.

It's an old city!

By now we had worked up an appetite, so we drove back toward El Paso and stopped for a late lunch at L&J Cafe. This is the grandmother of all El Paso restaurants, and continuously showed up as pretty much the one restaurant you have to go to. Even at 2PM on a Monday we had a short wait for a table. It's in a weird area 3 miles northeast of downtown, across from a cemetery. It was solid texmex and we recommend it even if it is touristy.

David doesn't look too thrilled about "love and tacos" as we wait for a table.

Paul is excited about some chips!

That's better! We were hungry!

We drove back to downtown and had some Howdy ice cream and walked around for a bit before settling in at the hotel. We had a 6AM flight the next morning so we ended the day early by packing up and eating our leftovers from L&J for dinner.

A cool piece of art... on a parking deck.

Yay, ice cream!

Cookie monster ice cream, with eyes!

Crocodile statue in the square.

Goodbye El Paso!

El Paso is an interesting city. Maybe not on the top of a travel list, but it has a unique culture and some interesting sights. The main draw is the nearby national parks, and it serves as a great starting point for a roadtrip.