Saturday morning - Barbados

Saturday, November 26

Just about to leave for an exploration of Barbados

We spent yesterday on and around the beautiful island of St. Lucia.  We first docked at Castries, the capital city.  This is a busy, bustling city with the sounds of cars, sirens, laughter, and loud voices.  It so reminds me of the sounds of Nevis, although Nevis is a much smaller version -- without quite so many cars.  The streets are narrow in Castries -- obviously from a time before the need to accommodate modern traffic.  The pavement is broken in many spots, and what's there is often rough and patched.  They drive on the left -- or the right, or down the middle.  The drivers squeeze their vehicles through spaces much too small to fit and pedestrians, for the most part, "go when and if they can."  We found that the best technique was to wait till a local wanted to cross and then to stick close to that person.  All in all, it was a happy adventure.  We went to a local market where we were called "darling" by all the shopkeepers.  We marvelled at their cooperation.  For example, we were looking for a second dish towel with the same design as one we were buying.  The shop lady went down several aisles looking for the right towel among all her competitors.  For the most part, their wares are simple and not very attractive, and it seemed that they would make very little in terms of a profit.  Still, they had all kinds of positive sayings posted in their stalls, and they were cheerful and friendly.

We boarded at catamaran in Castries and sailed down the west coast of the island and were thus able to get a perspective of the beauty of the land.  It is mountainous by Caribbean standards and green as can be.  Along the shore were numerous beaches nestled in at the bottom of the steep sides of the rising land.  Our catamaran pulled into a tight little intlet called Marigot Bay.   Sandy beaches, palm trees, other tropical vegetation and the brightly coloured beach chairs and umbrellas of an exclusive resort greeted us as we cruised by.  Later, we stopped at another beach were we scrambled down the steps of the catamaran into the warm, clear Caribbean waters for a swim before leaving again along the west coast of St Lucia to a little town, Soufriere.  This town is dominated by the Pitons -- two pyramid-shaped peaks that rise above the other land -- right up from the coast.  Beautiful. 

We visited a working plantation -- cocoa, coconuts, and some spices.  It's an old plantation high in the hills which is still working today.  The drive up the winding mountain road in little vans was an adventure in itself!  Once we arrived at our destination, we had a walk through the heavily planted tropical plantation.  It was unfortunate that they took such a large group, because it was difficult to hear the explanations of the various trees and flowers.  Still, it was fun and interesting.  The trip back to Soufriere was another wild drive but we arrived safely in time to meet the ship which had cruised down from Castries.  We all agreed that St Lucia is special.  How we would love to spend time exploring this island, particularly the little down of Soufriere at the foot of the well known Pitons.