Ava's Tropical Dreams

  New Friends, New Toy The last week or so, we have had so much fun! A few days ago, we moved up to St Pierre (a bay on the west coast of Martinique). While being there with some of our old friends, we also made lots of new friends. I love living on a boat as every bay we go to we find it so easy to make new friends as everyone is experiencing the same amazing journey.  ZOO DAY! One day, lots of families went to a nearby zoo! There must have been around 10 children and 10 adults! We all had so much fun looking at raccoons, monkeys, flamingos and more. It was really cool to see the difference between zoos in the Caribbean and zoos in Europe- there were no giraffes or elephants as they can not get them out to the islands very easily. Amazingly, the zoo has been built inside the ancient ruins of the town of St Pierre. The whole town was destroyed when the volcano, Mount Pelee, erupted in 1902 burning every building to the ground.The eruption killed 29,000 people with only 3 survi...

 Martinique! Last week, we sailed from St Lucia to Martinique. For a few days we were in Sainte Anne bay exploring the towns and beaches. One day, our family and all of our friends met in the town square for dinner and fun! The beaches there were lovely with nice sand and turquoise water. My dad had lots of fun kite surfing as it was very windy. I tried to wing foil but was not very successful! One time, we decided to go into a craft store... it was heaven as we got lots of supplies for crafts on the boat!      Fun facts about Martinique: It is a french Island! The locals speak French and not much English 💬 Everything is in Euros not EC (Eastern Caribbean Dollars)€💶 It is rainier than some of the other Caribbean Islands ☔💧 Martinique is a popular tourist destination ✈🛄   After exploring some of Sainte Anne we sailed to a bay around the corner. While sailing, we got out the boatswain chair (pronounced bow🎀-son👦 as I found out from my grandad) and tied it to...

St Lucia and the Pitons! St Lucia Flag Over the past week or so, we have been exploring the island of St Lucia! Last Friday, we did something really challenging but fun... We hiked the big Piton!!! We started at 600ft and hiked/climbed 2000ft. It was around 2-3 hours up and 2-3 hours down. We did it with our friends so there was 7 of us+ two tour guides.    Fun facts about Gros Piton: Only 70% of people make it to the top- most give up halfway or even 3/4 of the way! This mountain is a volcanic plug not a volcano itself-the volcano imploded and erupted elsewhere (the pitons). The full height of the Piton (from sea level) is 2619ft! That is more than double the height of the Eiffel Tower! There is 27 bird species 🐦 as well as many bats, opossoms, rodents 🐀, frogs 🐸 and hummingbirds.  It is millions of years old! There is a beer named 'piton' after the pitons! Here is a short, descriptive paragraph my sister wrote for home school:  As the Piton towers above the wate...

 Party weeks! I am sorry I have not done a blog for so long. There has just been so much going on... Christmas Eve and Christmas:   Christmas Wakeboard Christmas Eve meetup   tug of war!     On Christmas Eve, a lot of other cruising families went to the beach to do some fun games. All the kids (from ages 6-15) took part in games like tug of war, paddle board racing, egg throwing and more. We all had so much fun! On Christmas day we did the usual tradition of opening presents first, but after we went wake boarding! It was the perfect morning for it! Me and my dad even wore Santa hats as we went around the bay. We also did a float where a big group of us tied lots of floaties together and drifted through the bay! After the float, we went to a pot luck where all of the cruisers on Bequia brought a dish and had fun together! Mum's Birthday! On the 27th of December it was my mum's birthday! 🎉  My family and all of our friends took a taxi and went to a bar on a ...