Honeymooning in St. Lucia - Part One

 It's hard to believe that we've already been married for over a month and are back from our honeymoon! It's even harder to try to put into words how amazing and unbelievably beautiful St. Lucia was. This might sound obvious, but it was just SO different than the world we are used to living in - in the most beautiful way. It was amazing to get immersed in the island life and taste new dishes and experience the natural beauty everywhere around us. A lot of the steep terrain and rainforest looked so untouched and naturally perfect, it almost felt like we were visiting another planet or were on the set of Jurassic Park!

We discovered the dreamy Ladera Resort before we were ever engaged, and once it was time to start planning our wedding, we kept going back to it in our minds and thinking it would be hard to find a place more beautiful and romantic for our honeymoon. At Ladera, each room has only three walls with a panoramic view of the Caribbean Sea... it's safe to say we'll never be the same after spending a few days there! Ladera was our first stop during our 11 days of exploring the west coast of the island. This resort is nestled on a volcano ridgeline in between Petit Piton and Gros Piton -  two mountainous volcanic spires that jut out from the coast of the Caribbean Sea.

When we first got to our room, we were still trying to let the feelings sink in of us actually being on our honeymoon... in St. Lucia... and then we saw our view and we honestly were so overwhelmed and stunned by it all that we both cried! We could not believe what was in front of us. The view was a whole new level of beautiful and it was like seeing something that was too good to be true. It truly did take our breath away! It is a crazy thing to stand in front of something you have only ever seen in photos and have it blow you away more than you ever thought possible. We quickly fell in love, and then everyone from the staff knew we were on our honeymoon and called us "Mr. & Mrs. Salley" every time they saw us for the next five days and we seriously considered never coming home... :)

When we arrived on the island, the driver that picked us up at the airport kept pulling over to pick the cocoa pods, cashews, and apples that were growing on the side of the road so we could taste them right off of the trees. We still can't wrap our heads around where chocolate actually comes from! 

I'll never forget waking up after our first night - all I did was open my eyes and the Caribbean was right there and the sun was just rising. The sky was painted with soft pink and purple clouds reflecting in the sea. It was amazing to see how much the view from our room changed depending on the time of day - always so incredibly peaceful to look at. 

One of our absolute favorite parts of our stay was having breakfast in bed every morning. We had fresh baked chocolate croissants that were made with local chocolate and fresh passion fruit juice. Best combo ever! It was amazing getting to eat so much fresh and local fruit from the island each day. If only every morning could start like this!

The closest beach was Sugar Beach and it was about a five minute drive from the resort - we could actually see it nestled between The Pitons from our room! We hung at the beach on a few of the days and ate spicy creole dishes with our toes in the sand and sipped on rosemary mojitos while we floated in the water. Whenever we were on Sugar Beach, it felt so "honeymoon" which is exactly what we needed. The beginning of June starts St. Lucia's rainy season, so many of the places we went were verrrrry quiet. We kept joking that we felt like we were on The Bachelor since it was just us two and no one in sight at some amazing places! We got really lucky because besides a few sun showers, it was eighty five degrees and sunny every single day except for our last day when it was time to head to the airport.

I spy hubby!

The cutest pineapple sighting...

Another big reason why we came to St. Lucia was to climb the "Stairway to Heaven." Ben's all time favorite song by his all time favorite band... and yet when we got to the hike, we found out that it had absolutely no correlation with Led Zeppelin! The view from the top surely was heaven though... so he got over it pretty quickly :)

Because the local Piton beer tastes even better while looking at The Pitons ;)

On our second morning, we got up early to hike Gros Piton. This mountain is the taller of the two Pitons, but it is slightly less steep than Petit Piton, which makes it hike-able. We were warned by a few Soufriere locals that it is a VERY strenuous hike and not everyone makes it all the way to the top! We went into it with no expectations (especially me) and gave it everything we had in us and two hours later, we somehow made it to the top! It was ninety degrees that day and I've definitely never sweat so much in my life :) When we got to the top, there was fresh fruit waiting and the most incredible view of a quarter of the island...

... and when we made it back down, we rewarded ourselves with homemade ice cream at the bottom of the mountain! I tried one scoop of mango and one scoop of banana. UNREAL.

Later that night, we took a drive out to Jade Mountain and Anse Chastanet for drinks and dinner at sunset. It was amazing to see The Pitons from afar after hiking one of them that day!

The next morning, we visited the mud bath at Sulfur Springs just across the street from Ladera at the base of the volcano. It is believed that the mud has healing powers and detoxifies the body! After diving into the mud baths, we washed off at waterfall down the road... :)

The beautiful view of Soufriere from above...

On our wedding day, I gave Ben a handmade book with the story of how he proposed to me. For the cover, I used clippings from a local newspaper I held onto from the month we started dating seven years ago. I decided on this book idea pretty soon after we got engaged and worked on it little by little over the year that I had to get it done. Ben doesn't have the greatest memory - in fact I still have to remind him how to get to my parents' house thirty minutes away from us sometimes (haha sorry Ben!) It was really important to me to get this down on paper so he would always have a place to remind himself of how he made me feel when he asked me to be his wife. On our last morning at Ladera, we had some time before checkout, so we stayed in bed and Ben read it aloud to me. He only got through a few words on the first page before he started getting emotional.. and then the two of us ended up crying through the entire thing. His reaction was something I'll never forget. 

Soufriere, you were a dream. We'll be back someday!