St. Lucia, Soufrière, & The Drive-In Volcano

I recently visited the small island nation of St. Lucia.  It is located between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean with a close proximity to South America.  St. Lucia heavily depends on its banana crop (in my opinion the bananas taste amazing) and tourism.  Jungle forests and mountainous terrain cover the tiny island causing the major cities and towns to be situated on the coast.  Due to its back and forth history between the English and French control, inhabitants speak English and St. Lucian Creole.  The Creole, as I was told by a kind man named Vincent, is derived from African origins with French, English, and Spanish influences.

On an excursion, I rode a catamaran down St. Lucia's western coast to a tourist town named Soufrière.  The French settled this coastal town in 1746 and is known more for its Drive-In Volcano.  Two mountains rise from the sea and create beautiful peaks noticeable while sailing down the coast.  These mountains are called the Pitons, and the two peaks are the Gros and Petit Pitons.  My group I was traveling with rode up to the volcano's crater.  Sulphur Springs, the Drive-In Volcano, or Qualibou as the volcano can be called is a caldera.  This type of volcano once had an eruption and the mountain collapsed in on itself.  We were told that its last eruption occurred on 1766, but not one where lava or magma spewed out.  While standing around, the air had an acrid odor, which was Hydrogen Sulfide (rotten eggs). The guide informed us that as long as we smelled that stench that we had no worries about the gas causing respiratory paralysis.

The crater contained numerous minerals deposited there from eruptions and other occurrences in the volcano.  Gases were spewing and there were a handful of bubbling pools.  Our guided informed us about one of the bubbling pools that we were gazing upon below us.  In the past, visitors were able to actually walk on the rocky and hellish terrain.  Until one day, a guide by the name of Gabriel demonstrated how malleable the minerals and deposits were under their feet.  He jumped while standing on this ground and sunk up to his waist.  Gabriel survived but had second-degree burns from his waist down.  This event ended the tours going into the crater and limited future visitors on walkways and behind handrails.  The immediate picture below is Gabriel's Hole. It is quite large these days.