Day 13 St Lucia

St Lucia is the second largest of the Windward Islands with a population of some 170,000 with 30,000 of them living  in Castries, the main town, it is one of the more populated islands that we have visited.  Although independent since 1979, St Lucia remains a member of the British Commonwealth.   Like many other islands, tourism has taken over from sugar production as the islands main source of income. However, bananas are still an important export.  When we were last here in Nov 2010, just after the last major hurricane had swept through, the banana plantations were decimated, but they have now returned to full production. 

 We were awake around 7.20 this morning, but there was little to see of the ship entering St Lucia as the rain was sheeting down making for very poor visibility, so we stayed in bed until the ship had berthed, just before 08.00.

After the customary breakfast we were unsure as to what to do as we had done island tours before on our previous visit.  However, by the time breakfast was over the sun was shining and as we departed from the ship we decided to take a tour.  As luck would have it, the lady and her friend from Scunthorpe were on our tour, so we knew it would be fun.  The other 6 passengers were also full of beans, not the baked variety I’m pleased to say.  We couldn’t have had a better driver either and this was surely one, if not, the best tour we’ve done from the ship.  Our driver was an ex St Lucian policeman and had also been a policeman in America.  Better still, his minibus worked properly, was very clean and best of all the air conditioning worked.  Unlike yesterdays where the a/c was an open window and not all those functioned.

After leaving Castries, we followed the coast along past the new oil terminal and across the first of many banana plantations, which was just a pile of fallen plants and leaves on our last visit.  We stopped and the driver gave us a crash course on how bananas are grown. We knew that banana plants only bear one lot of fruit, but were not aware that a single plant can bear 150 or more bananas.  No wonder the poor plant only gives one lot of fruit.

From the plantation we carried on down the west side of the island and through the fishing village of Anse La Raye.  The island is like Antigua in that it is volcanic, so there are lots of steep mountainous roads, with continuous hairpin bends.  The vegetation is very lush and as we pass through Canaries, on the coast, we head inland and through the rainforests, gaining our first views of the tip of one of the famous Pitons.  As we dropped down into Soufriére we got a spectacular view of the town and the two pitons.  Our driver, Jean Baptiste, knew his stuff and stopped at every Kodak spot on the tour.  Just the other side of Soufriére we stopped at the botanical gardens and Diamond Falls.  On our last visit, the gardens and falls were closed, so this was our first chance to look around.  Fortunately at this time of the year the flowers are all in bloom, so the gardens were quite beautiful.  Unlike in Madeira, where the gardens were drab, as the flowers were not in bloom.  We had a guide to take us around and again he was pretty knowledgeable, but his Caribbean accent took some understanding.  Back in the minibus, it was not long before we stopped at some roadside vendor for local made biscuits which the driver paid for.  Then just a short hop back to the beachfront at Soufriére for a glass of rum punch dispensed from the back of a friends minibus. 

Because of the geography of the island we pretty much retraced our steps from this morning except we stopped at a lookout point over Marigot Bay, a stunning little inlet on the coast, made famous in Dr Doolittle.  From then on it was downhill and back along the coast before entering Castries and returning to the ship around 3pm.  Definitely one of our better trips, especially as we had pretty much decided not to bother, having done it before.

Back on board it was time for afternoon tea before popping up to the sundeck for a quick read before setting sail just about 5.45.  Captain Carr from Wigan was seen without his satisfaction beads today as there were a few passengers who tested his patience by not arriving back on board by 5.30.  It’s only a short hop to Grenada, our next stop, so I doubt that he was pushed for time as he would be on other occasions.  However, lateness on board  did feature in his pre-departure speech and his tone was definitely frosty.

It’s Caribbean evening dress code this evening, so time to break out the shirt I bought in St Marten last time round. Maureen will be in the designer number she picked up in Tortola.  Only problem is we don’t know who designed it!

At 7.30pm we have travelled some 15nm from Castries in St Lucia and just 116nm to go before arriving in St Georges, Grenada.  We are currently cruising at just 10.5 knots with a temperature of  27 Deg C.  The wind is a respectable 12  knots.

Another fantastic dinner this evening, but we’re convinced that Glyn is sickening for something as he only ordered one lamb shank for dinner and no ice cream on the golden syrup & lemon pudding!  We were again serenaded by our waiter Vincent from Goa.  Both he and his assistant have been fantastic and their attention to detail has made dinner most enjoyable and no doubt will continue to do so.

Entertainment in the main theatre was supplied by a singing, impersonating, comedian, who’s best talent was impersonations and in particular; Billy Connolly. There was also a party up on the sun deck this evening, but we decided that bed was beckoning.