St. Lucia - Soufriere Tour

When Bryan & I came for our honeymoon, we did an island tour which took us to the volcano but I remember it being about an hour away. And honestly, I do not remember St. Lucia being this pretty! But after going back & getting to know the island better, I realized that we stayed on the other side of the island. This time, we were down South & I loved it much more! We were only about 10 minutes away from the town of Soufriere & the volcano so it was easier for us to make a trip over there. We had a private tour that started at the volcano:

As you can see, it is still an active volcano! We could see all of the steam & smell the sulphur, in fact, it smelled like rotten eggs the whole time we were there! Do you see those 2 boxes, those were set up from geologist who regularly monitors the volcano. Our tour guide took us around the crater where we found a few streams that had hot water - seriously, like 120 degrees. Looks can be deceiving:

We hiked down there & felt the water. We even found this place where they used to have a bath house in the early 1900's & they would charge people to come sit in the hot water:

We hiked up higher to see the volcano in action. Can you see it bubbling?

Along the way we found a cashew tree & a cashew fruit had just dropped. We love cashews & now I know why they are so expensive:

I thought seeing the volcano with the girls was pretty cool & I hope they will remember this whenever they study volcanos at school:

At the bottom of the volcano, we went to the sulphur springs. They basically have about 5 different pools with dark grey/black water flowing straight from the volcano & the water is super hot. I can't remember how hot, so I'm not going to make up a number, but some of the hottest water I have ever gotten in:

We started at the bottom, in the pool they said was the least hottest, but it was so hot, Sophie wouldn't even get in it:

The smell was horrendous & you can't tell from our pictures, but it was very crowded. There were a ton a people here. After you dip in the water, they give you a clay jar full of warm, sulphuric mud that you are supposed to spread all over your body & then wait for 10-20 minutes for it to dry:

Once it dries, they give you another jug with a darker colored mud - I can't remember the difference, but that one we had fun decorating each other with:

And then you get back into the water to wash it off. This time, Bryan & I walked up to one of the hotter baths, but the girls went down to the original one we started in:

Supposedly it takes 10 years off of your life & is supposed to help with bug bites, rashes, etc. I'm still waiting to see all of my wrinkles disappear & my cellulite firm up. Ha!

Once we cleaned up, we got back in the van & our tour guide took us to a waterfall:

We've seen waterfalls before, but this one was of the easiest ones we could get to that was pretty legit:

I mean it was pretty forceful once you got under there:

This was a fun area to hike & explore:

Now that we had definitely cleaned up & gotten all of the mud off of us, we loaded back up & went into the town of Soufriere. It is in the crater of the volcano:

We drove down there, toured town, stopped at a grocery store to shop & even got to see where the hurricane came through town with the storm surge. It was a fun day & it only took a few hours so we were back on the beach later that afternoon. We absolutely loved the resort & didn't leave much, but it was fun to explore some of the island on this day.