By the Numbers

We arrived home yesterday, satisfied and relaxed!  Here are some of the numbers:

129 and 48: stairs from the beach up to the reception area and stairs from the reception area to our room in St. Lucia.  Some of the steps were standard shapes and sizes, some were not.


14: nights in the Caribbean and nights hearing tree frogs


10 (or so): rainbows and dolphins seen.

9 (or so): times in the water, excluding rain.  Most times were with snorkel gear.  Once was a hotel pool, once a bath in volcanic mud, once unplanned.

8: times traversed the road into our St. Lucia lodging.  Of these Jeff drove 6 and cab drivers 2.

7: new stamps on our passports. Entry into St. Lucia, exit from St. Lucia, entry into Martinique, exit from Martinique, entry into Dominica, exit from Dominica, and entry to St. Lucia.  Interestingly no final exit stamp from St. Lucia and no re-entry stamp into the US.

6: free dinners.  Result of  hotel overbooking, hotel executive waiting in vain for us at an airport, night at $1000 per night hotel.  

Another 6: boats taken.  3 were ferries between islands, 1 boat on a river, 1 snorkel boat, 1 kayak.

Also 6: nights spent in open-air rooms.  Note to ourselves for future planning: we prefer air-conditioning.

5: sunsets photographed.  1 on Martinique, 3 on Dominica (all from our hotel room balcony), 1 on St. Lucia.

4: time received chilled scented washcloths: 3 at St. Lucia resort arrivals, 1 on the beach at our resort.  The latter was accompanied by a eucalyptus spray that felt amazingly refreshing.

3: countries visited, cars rented and currencies used.  2 English-speaking, drive on the left, use Eastern Caribbean dollars ($1US = $2.70 EC, though many places used $2.50 EC so it was better to pay in EC whenever possible); 1 French-speaking, drive on the right, use Euros (they are after all part of the European Union).

3 and 24: new countries cached in and total caches found.  15 in Martinique, 2 in Dominica (100% of the available caches), 5 in St. Lucia (83%), and 2 in Georgia.
2: hikes in the rain.  One on Martinique where we kept mostly dry. one on Dominica where we did not.


1 each: private kayak tour, boat trip to go snorkeling,reasonably-traditional Thanksgiving dinner, texting a friend to get the coordinates for lodging, tour of Caribe Indian site and opportunity to chat with the woman who made the baskets we purchased, author signing her book for us, volcano driven to.

Countless: species of animals seen (birds, dolphins, fish and other sea life, geckos, frogs, bats, butterflies, moths, cows, etc.), changes in weather from sun to rain to clouds or any combination thereof, errors in French (grammar and vocabulary), Dominican election signs and parades, times our dinner server in St. Lucia scolded us for pouring our own water ("you're on vacation, I should do that for you"), times the windshield wipers were turned on instead of the turn signal, times we were stopped by people asking for money (especially in Dominica and St. Lucia), insect bites, and perhaps most importantly: hours of fun and countless great memories!