THE CARIBBEAN

I took hundreds of photos during my trip in January down to the caribbean islands. I didn’t bring my digital camera everywhere. For safety reasons, I relied more on my iphone while we went on activities. However these are my favorite snaps from the non-iphone photos.

[St Thomas]
[St Lucia]
[St Kitts]

The islands we visited were: St Thomas, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts and St Maarten. They were all blue skies and turquoise water (though never the exact same shades of each) and it would be hard to pick a favorite since we didn’t explore them all very deeply. We had a pretty ‘sheltered’ experience with our air conditioned buses and catamaran with full bar and amazing views.

For me, it was hard hearing about the 40% unemployment rate while I drank rum punch and danced on a boat, snapping photos with an expensive waterproof case for an expensive iphone. It didn’t exactly put a damper on the trip but I couldn’t just shrug off the feeling that it wasn’t quite fair. I made an effort to leave a tip when I could, though I know that won’t make a big difference. It is so hard to not be incredibly happy when you are standing waist-deep in turquoise waters holding one of many rum punch drinks and staring off into the horizon – while a man in a canoe tries to sell you a coconut or conch shell.

It was my first trip anywhere south of Florida and I really did not expect it all to be so beautiful. Photos don’t do these landscapes justice. In St Lucia, we had booked a 6 hour land and sea activity, it was great getting a tour of fishing villages, the botanical gardens and then hop on a catamaran from Souffrière Bay. I felt as though we really got to see the beauty of the island and all its vibrant colours. And the tour gave us a glance at how people really live, and a little lesson in Creole thanks to our tour guide.

See some of my favorite iphone moments on my instagram.

[big thanks to my family who helped make this trip possible! xox]