Island Medicine, Part 2

Of course it wasn't all work while we were in St. Lucia. Our group managed to stay at a resort for 2 nights/3 days to relax.

One night, we went to dinner at an old sugarcane plantation called Balenbouche (French for bullet-in-mouth--apparently named for a duel that took place that didn't end well for someone!). The grounds were very pretty, and there was a small, black sand beach on the property.

Old still:

Black sand beach:

Same spot, minutes later:

We stayed at the Almond Smuggler's Cove Resort, which is on the north part of the island. It was three days of eating, which made up for all of the peanut butter and frozen lamb neck at the cafeteria during the weeks before!

The Brig Unicorn (apparently was in "The Pirates of the Caribbean"):

One of many lounging spots:

There are two prominent peaks in St. Lucia. Gros Piton is the taller of the two, but the climb is slightly easier (very steep, but you don't need ropes to pull yourself up). Petit Piton is not quite as high, but is a much more difficult trail.

View of Gros Piton from the bottom:

This hermit crab was found halfway up the mountain trail!

View of Petit Piton:

Strange-looking breadfruit tree:

It was a great two weeks. Unlike my experiences in a rural hospital in Alaska, here I felt like I was able to do more for people because although we had less medications to treat people with, we had access to surgeons. It was more what I think practicing medicine was like 20-30 years ago rather than just being a pit stop hospital, where pretty much everything and anything is flown out for a higher level of care. As for the vacation aspect, I would have liked more time to explore the island and to have gotten in some scuba diving, but it just didn't work out. The island itself is pretty small- something like less than 20 x 20 miles, so I don't know that I'll be returning.