After two weeks it was time to head home with a stop in Sint Maarten.

Thank you to Lin, Robert Joseph and Kerstine for making our stay at Cleopatra Villa  - The Harbour so enjoyable.  Thank you to Tony and George our taxi drivers and to Endless Summer Catamaran Tours. 

Rodney Bay

We leave St. Lucia with many fond memories.

We returned to Sint Maarten via LIAT airlines which now has two nick names. Leave Island Any Time and Left  Luggage In Another Town…..

We had heard about the Leave Island Any Time saying! !   which we discovered when both in St. Lucia and Antigua our flight left ahead of schedule….. 20 minutes on one flight and 15 minutes on another… Air travel in the Caribbean … always an adventure….

We spent five days in Sint Maarten putting Bergy to Bed and saying our farewells.

Thank you to the Turquoise Shell Inn - Carter Polly and Marcus for always making us feel at home - ‘GO CANADA GO’!,  to Bobby’s Marina for taking good care of Bergy, to the ‘Coffee’ Ladies for the lovely Birthday Lunch and gift and of course to Mirjam Jan and Anna - what can we say….

This years farewell to Mirjam and Anna was bitter sweet as Mirjam and Anna will be returning to Holland permanently in July 2010.  We will MISS them………

It was a tough year, but we enjoyed some wonderful times!

Will we return????

God Willing, we hope to return in 2011 and enjoy some time sailing in the BVI (British Virgin Islands)!

So Until Next Time 

Thanks for the Memories!

The Admiral and Gilligan - Signing Off
In the Land of the Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Teams!

This year we took Canada t-shirts with us, something we have never done before.

Wearing the t-shirts always brought comments, always positive, especially in St. Lucia.

Our taxi/tour guide George told us about Canada’s contribution to St. Lucia - done with no political favours expected in return… how refreshing…

In the 1970’s Pierre Trudeau had visited St. Lucia and witnessed the crisis in the country due to unclean water, in fact there was a whole hospital on the island dedicated to treating only water borne diseases. In the late 70’s early 80’s the Trudeau government helped to establish a Health Care system, establish a clean water system and build a school. All of these are very much in evidence still today.

Students from the Canadian built school - Notice the colour of the uniforms ...

George who remembers those days very clearly, is truly thankful to the Canadian government. He said it was the hand up from Canada that helped St. Lucia strive toward becoming a country. This year St. Lucia celebrates the 31st anniversary of its independence.

Our t-shirts also brought many comments and congratulations on the recent Olympics especially the men’s gold medal hockey game, which 6 weeks after the Olympics was still a huge topic of conversation…. It wasn’t just the locals (which always amazed us) who congratulated us, it was travelers from around the world.

It was a fun time to be Canadian and to be travelling ………..

Bob & Donna
Proud to be Canadian - Heading home to Canada - True North Strong and Free

Our housekeeper Kerstine lives in the East Coast fishing village of Dennery.  As we are comfortable riding the local buses we took the trip  to Dennery by local bus, a trip Kerstine does every day.

First we had to take a bus into Castries and then walk across the city to the Dennery bus stop.  As per ‘bus rules’ we had to wait for the bus to fill up before we could begin our trip. This took about 25 minutes.

Now our taxi/tour guide George had told us that the road to the East side of the island was a much better road than the one we had taken to Soufriere. It perhaps was a little wider but still very windy and hilly.

Add to this the Kamakzi bus driver and we were in for a ride of a life time up hill and down dale… The route took us through the rain forest, through farm land, and finally along the east coast. Even at break neck speed the total trip took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Dennery is a small fishing village on the Atlantic Coast, with the majority of the town perched on the hillside.

Like other fishing villages in St. Lucia the Harbour building and Fish Market were built by the Japanese Government. 

We walked along the main street where we bought some local vegetables and along the beach/waterfront stopping at the fish market.

 

Produce in Dennery

Catch of the Day - Tuna

The  people we met were very friendly always wanting to know where we were from. We especially found the children friendly.  

Two young boys we met introduced themselves, asked us where we were from and Welcomed us to St. Lucia. Unfortunately I had forgotten my Canadian pins at the Villa but luckily Bob had some change which he gave them. They thanked us but what they really wanted was for us to take their picture…. which was a change from what we have become used to - no picture taking… We met another pair of young boys on the beach who wanted their photo taken and this came with the promise that we would send copies of their photos to their school and then were given specific instructions, their names, the school’s name, the colour of the school building and the school’s location … very cute.

Before returning to Castries we enjoyed a home cooked lunch of Kingfish at a local café.

The ride back to Castries was more relaxing, but came with an interesting twist. There are two routes into Castries from the island ‘highway’ and when we reached the intersection a fellow on the bus said ‘Driver - Morne’ and so we took the Morne route. We wondered what happens when some people need to go to Morne and others need to go the other route… Ahh Caribbean bus travel always an adventure…..

We enjoyed our day in Dennery and were privileged a couple of days later to meet Kerstine’s children.

Bob and Donna
Bidding St. Lucia a fond Farewell

Although we had already done an island tour by land, locals told us you haven’t really seen the Pitons until you see them from the ocean and as we were missing being on the water we booked an Island Cruise with   Endless Summer Catamaran Tours .

We weren’t disappointed except for the fact that in order to keep to somewhat of a schedule (even though there was lots of wind) they used the motor even when the sails were up…. But it was good to be on the water and sailing.

Our tour left from Rodney Bay and we were fortunate that there were only about 30 people, this kept the tour small and personal and we soon discovered we weren’t the only Canadians on board!  We met two other Canadian couples from St. John NB who were spending a week in St. Lucia before heading to Nevis.

As we left Rodney Bay we were treated to some interesting sights.

Motor Yacht 'A'

The first was the Motor Yacht ‘A’ a James Bond looking vessel parked in the Bay just off Pigeon Point  (FYI check out this link…Motor Yacht A).  We also came across two sleeping dolphins that weren’t bothered by us until we came too close…..

The Pitons through the haze...

It was a hazy day as we sailed down the Coast, but we weren’t disappointed, the view we had of the Pitons was amazing even through the haze.

Like the land tour our destination was the town of Souffriere.  Here we transferred to small mini buses (10 passengers) that took us first to the Toraille Waterfall  - a fresh water waterfall and tropical garden, then
to the only drive in Volcano - Soufriere Sulphur Springs

and finally to a working Cocoa plantation - Fond Doux Estate- that supplies most of the cocoa for Hershey’s Chocolate in the US.

It was at  Fond Doux Estate Cocoa Pod Restaurant that we had lunch and sampled some great Caribbean food. There was chicken, fish, black beans with rice, dashing (taro), green salad and for dessert a banana cake all served with a rum punch or fruit juice.

St. Lucian’s are trying very hard to become self sustaining and doing a good job at it.

Local produce

You see lots of local produce in the grocery stores and markets. They produce their own chicken and pork and of course an abundance of fish - both salted and fresh.

Following lunch it was back to the boat with a stop at Anse Chastenet - a black sand beach - for a swim and snorkel. There were 6 large tourist Catamarans all trying to share the beach and reef, but despite the hundreds of people we did manage to enjoy a great snorkel along the reef.

Marigot Bay

A quick stop in Marigot Bay, where the movie Dr. Doolittle was filmed, then back up the Coast to Rodney Bay.

If you ever visit St. Lucia and enjoy being on the water, we recommend a Catamaran Cruise.

Bob & Donna
Preparing to return to Sint Maarten.

One of the places we enjoyed visiting on St. Lucia was Pigeon Point which marks the entrance to Rodney Bay, a favourite anchorage for boats visiting St. Lucia. Canada was well represented - with several boats from the East Coast but we did see one boat that had an Edmonton registration.

Pigeon Point is a National Park and part of St. Lucia’s National Trust as it is the location of the remains of an 18th-century British fort - Fort Rodney, where the Admiral for which it was named spied on the French ships from the Fort’s strategic viewpoint.

Because of the current drought we weren’t able to hike to the highest point but did hike to one of the viewpoints and had a great view of both the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean and were able to get a good view of the island of Martinique.

The park is a popular place for school field trips and each time we visited there were at least 3 or 4 school groups.

On one occasion as we walked through the park we crossed paths with a couple of teenage girls who quickly stopped running, put their hands behind their back, nodded and said “Good Afternoon”. They waited until we had passed before continuing on their way.

The Caribbean side of Pigeon Point is generally calm with lovely white sandy beaches. The Atlantic side is wild with lots of surf rocky shores and the occasional sandy beach.

.

On our second visit we rented beach chairs and enjoyed a lovely afternoon by the sea.

Bob and Donna
Getting ready to Cruise down St. Lucia

Just North of Rodney Bay is the town of Gros Islet.

The town is sandwiched between the large resorts of Rodney Bay and Pigeon Point and home to a large public beach.

We really liked the town of Gros Islet and on Palm Sunday I attended church there.

It was an amazing experience.

Palm Sunday was the 2nd Sunday of a Youth Retreat and the service was done by the Youth. Also attending the service were 75 Girl Guides who were visiting St. Lucia as part of their Camp Pot Pourri.

To say the atmosphere was electric was an understatement!

I estimated the church seats approximately 500 people! and it was full to overflowing - folding chairs were brought in and placed in the aisles to accommodate the overflow.

It was a very upbeat service with the focus being on the youth.

The priest who delivered the sermon quoted some interesting statistics about the Gros Islet Area - over 50% of the population is under the age of 35….. He told the parishoners that they needed to invest in their future - their children and reminded (very strongly) parents that their real work was in their home raising their children…

Of course the music was wonderful! ! lots of Gospel and upbeat Service music. I really want to get a copy of the ‘Our Father’ that was used - I had also heard it in St. Maarten.

But the best music was after the service when the youth gave an impromptu concert. They had people dancing in the aisles including the nuns… it was like a scene from Sister Act.

I returned to Gros Islet on Easter Sunday and attended the early (8:00am) service. Once again the church was overflowing and from what I was told the 10:00am service would be just as full.

The church was decked out in White and Gold and everyone was dressed in their finest - with several ladies in traditional African dress.

It was much more subdued service than Palm Sunday, but still lovely.

I will remember for a long time St. Joseph the Worker church in Gros Islet.

Donna and Bob
Enjoying St. Lucia

Upper Balcony

Lower Patio

Bob nicknamed the lower covered patio the Villa #1 FlyWay….

The patio has 2 arched openings on either side of the patio directly across from each other which allowed all manner of birds - usually Banana Quit and Antillean Crested Hummingbird to ‘ping’ through from one side to the other at great speed.

Villa # 1 FlyWay

On St. Lucia we took an island tour, which is a bit of misnomer as you actually only go halfway down the west coast of the Island to Souffrier.

St. Lucia, which became a country in 1979, was last owned by the British and has many British influences.   However, during its history St. Lucia changed hands 7 times between the English and the French so there is also a large French influence as seen in many of the place names, the use of the Patois language and the largely Roman Catholic population.

The town of Souffrier is in the region of St. Lucia’s active volcano. It is also the location of the world famous Pitons (volcanic formations), St. Lucia’s botanical garden and Diamond waterfalls.

Souffriere Harbour

The road to Souffrier follows the Coast Line, it is a windy narrow road with lots of switch backs and ‘S’ curves which climb into the mountains before descending into the villages along the way. It reminds me of the old Fraser Canyon from Spences Bridge to Boston Bar (including the tunnels).

Our taxi driver George was a great guide.

We visited a working banana plantation (owned by the English grocery chain - Sainsbury’).  Along with tourism exporting bananas and cocoa are St. Lucia’s major industries.

Ripening Bananas - Sainsbury's Banana Plantation

George explained how banana’s are grown. The purpose of the blue bags is protect the banana’s as they ripen - so they look perfect for today’s consumers.

Sometimes before the banana’s are harvested, their weight will topple the plant and the fruit falls to the ground - these banana’s are for the local’s to take for their use or to sell. I guess our equivalent to windfall apples…

We stopped at view points along the way generally just before we began our descent down into the lowlands.

We visited a roadside bakery that specializes in Casava bread.  We watched the bread being made (all by hand) and treated ourselves to two loaves.

Cassava bread being baked in an open oven

And we drove through one island’s rainforests with its huge tropical tree ferns.

St. Lucia is experiencing it’s worst drought in recorded history and the effects can be seen everywhere, even in the rain forest.

As we got closer to Souffrier the world famous Pitons came into view and just before our descent into Souffrier George stopped so that we could enjoy their beauty.  If you look closely you can see the city of Souffrier off to the right and the smoke in the foreground is actually steam from the volcano.

The Pitons

The Botanical gardens were busy the day we visited, so we weren’t able to use a guide which we have heard is well worth the money, but the gardens are well marked and we enjoyed our self guided tour which included a walk up to the Diamond Waterfalls and a dip in the mineral baths.

Diamond Waterfalls

We returned to  Souffrier and took a walk around the waterfront. 

Like every village and city in St. Lucia,  Souffrer has a huge Roman Catholic church in the centre of town.  In front of Souffrier’s church there is a town square/park which used to be the location of the town Guillotine.

Souffriere Town Square and Church

Souffrier, which means Sulphur is St. Lucia’s second largest city. The city is built in the crater of St. Lucia’s volcano that last erupted in the 1700’s. The crater measures 12kms across and the city today is only a few miles from the dome of the volcano.

After our visit to Souffrier we literally wound our way back to Castries and Rodney Bay,  with a stop at George’s favourite bakery where he treated us to some St. Lucian bread and a final stop over looking the city of Castries and its busy harbour.

Overlooking Castries Harbour

It was an interesting day!

We look forward to exploring more of St. Lucia in our time here.

Bob and Donna
Enjoying the St. Lucian Sun ;O)

The population of St. Lucia is 170,000 with 65,000 people living in Castries.

We are comfortable travelling on public transit here in the Caribbean and St. Lucia’s public transit is like most Caribbean islands - 14 seat mini vans.

Lin, our host here, advised us to be cautious when we were on the streets of Castries and we had got the same warning from Lorraine and Gary and others.

When we arrived at the bus stop in Castries it reminded us of St. Johns Antigua! Street vendors everywhere, people, traffic jams and run down buildings, a bit of a culture shock!

There were 2 large cruise ships in, so Castries was busy.

Although Bob didn’t feel uncomfortable in Castries I have to say I did - I think perhaps it was just the crowds of people and all the vendors trying to sell us something.

Everywhere there was someone trying to sell you something or entice you to take a tour with them. A few voodoo beads and hug in exchange for your pocket change or a ‘tip’ for directions and help to get across the street safely - even if you didn’t want the help. Directions to the library (only 2 blocks away) cost us $2.00US! and every Taxi driver we passed asked if we needed a taxi. I wish we had brought some old boat clothes to wear - that way we wouldn’t look so much like tourists!

Almost every street and street corner in Castries has outdoor vendors. Imagine Vancouver on a hot summer day with outdoor vendors under umbrella’s or blue tarp canopies in front of every store and on every street corner on Robson St, Burrard St and Georgia St., that’s Castries………

Despite my trepidation it was an interesting look at St. Lucia’s capital and we will go back again to experience more of Castries during our time here.

Donna & Bob
Looking forward to exploring St. Lucia

It was an interesting arrival!   We were greeted by army guards in camouflage gear and machine guns.  There were guards  on the tarmack, on the airport roof, and along the walkway to Immigration and Customs - we guessed there were 12 or 15 guards in all.  It was a little disconcerting to say the least.  We were told later it was a shipment of money that was being so heavily guarded.

Before leaving St. Maarten we met Lorraine and Gary from Ontario who had traveled to St. Lucia in the past couple of years. They were a wealth of information.

We booked our accommodations on their recommendation and are thrilled with it.

We took heed of their warning about traveling on LIAT airline - the LUGGAGE LEFT IN ANOTHER TOWN airline! - and made sure we packed all our essentials in our carry on.

Flying with LIAT on more than one occasion Lorraine and Gary’s experience has been that some or all of their luggage didn’t arrive with them. Unfortunately we had the same experience and our one piece of luggage didn’t arrive with us!  Thank goodness for our carry on!  We only waited 24 hours for our luggage unlike Gary and Lorraine who have waited up to 3 days…

One other interesting fact about St. Lucia is you must arrive here with booked accomodations.  A young couple in front of us had a car booked and weren’t sure where they were going to be staying.  Their passports were held by the Immigration Authority and they were directed outside to a kiosk to book hotel accomodations.  When that was done they would be given back their passports and could pick up their car.

We are staying at Cleopatra Villas - The Harbour in Villa #1- Rodney Bay.

The Harbour is a small gated complex approximately 3 years old located at the end of Rodney Bay Harbour.  There is no beach, but the complex has a boardwalk, moorings for boats and a large pool.

We have shopping less than a 3 minute walk away, beaches and restaurants a 10 minute walk and a taxi stand and public bus stop at the end of the street.

The complex has two villa’s that are free standing with the rest being in clusters of 4 to 12 units.

Villa #1 is a free standing villa  tucked away in the corner, with a small back yard and a partial view of the harbour from the top floor. The main floor has a kitchen, living room, ½ bath, laundry facilities and patio. The second floor accessed by a winding staircase of mahogany has a large master bedroom with a small covered balcony, bathroom with ‘car wash’ shower and a dressing area with lots of cupboard space.

The Rodney Bay area has many of the LARGE island resort hotels along with smaller villa’s, inn’s etc. as well as the IGY Rodney Bay Boat Yard and Marina. There are residential areas just across the main road but I would say the majority of the people in the area are tourists. This has both its advantages and disadvantages!

The weather here seems cooler than St. Maarten - maybe it’s the air conditioning.

We look forward to enjoying our time here exploring the island and relaxing by the pool.

Thanks for the great information Lorraine and Gary - you are great travel agents!

God Bless
Bob & Donna
Looking forward to exploring St. Lucia