Sunday I decided to hike… so I headed out to Pic Paradis. I parked at Loterie Farm. From there I could take the longer hike of 2-3 hours to the top, or the shorter hike of about 45 minutes. Good thing I took the shorter hike, zig-zag up a steep hillside, with me scrambling to grab on or hold onto something to get up. But even though the day was hot and humid, there was a bit of a breeze in the shade, and the vegetation was lush. The views once I got closer to the ridge, was amazing.
I was encouraged on my walk by a young French speaking family from St. Martin, who told me to look out for monkeys. Sure enough, down the other side we saw them. I tried to get them in a photo, but couldn’t get a good shot with my camera phone. A little later, near the bottom, a monkey literally ran across the path ahead of me. Golden brown with black faces, the vervet monkeys are an invasive species in the Caribbean, native to Africa.
When I got back down to the bottom, I enjoyed lunch at the open air restaurant there at Loterie Farm. Almost as good as the French restaurants at Grand Case… I took the leftovers home to re-heat for dinner in the micro-wave at the condo.
