Day 0: Arrival

Today, a group of MIT and Harvard students arrived in St. Lucia to begin our field geophysics project.  After landing at the airport, we first drove to our hotel.  The whole drive, which brought us from the extreme southeast corner of the island to the extreme northwest corner, took less than two hours. 

St. Lucia is home to a relatively well-preserved tropical ecosystem.  While driving on narrow, sharply-turning roads (and driving on the left side), we saw the palm trees, banana trees, ferns, and pine trees that live in St. Lucia's tropical rainforest.  (Yes, there are pine trees in the rainforest here!)

A rainforest in St. Lucia, as seen from the car.

St. Lucia is a developing country plagued in certain places by weak infrastructure and poor sanitation.  On the drive to our hotel, for example, we saw several examples of bridges that had been destroyed by recent floods.  We saw other buildings in need of repair.  Along the lines of development, the geophysical study we will conduct over the next two weeks is actually aimed at improving public access to clean water in a nearby part of the island.  

A few vehicles and buildings in St. Lucia.

But the most striking thing about St. Lucia is its exceptional natural beauty.  It's no wonder the island attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. 

The Caribbean Sea near Dennery, St. Lucia.

Now that we are settled in, we are very excited to begin working here.  Tomorrow, we will begin by meeting our St. Lucian colleagues and discussing our strategy for the next week.