cavingliz non-cave albums: Saint Lucia, Caribbean

Saturday, March 14, 2020

Saint Lucia, Caribbean

Saint Lucia was our next stop in the Caribbean after Barbados. Saint Lucia (French: Sainte-Lucie) is a sovereign island country in the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Lucia is part of the Windward Islands group, in the Lesser Antilles (archipelago). Barbados and Tobago are also in this group.

Saint Lucia is a Commonwealth country and is located northeast of St Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique.

The French were the first European settlers on the island. In 1660 they signed a treaty with the native
Carib Indians. From 1663-1667, the island was ruled by England. In ensuing years, Britain and
France engaged in wars 14 times over St Lucia, ruling over it 7 times each. The British took definitive control of Saint Lucia in 1814. Currently, St Lucia is a parliamentary monarchy and an independent (from UK) state since 1979. Country's legal system is based on both British common law and civil law.

St Lucia is the reason I got into cruising! Early 2019 I wanted to go on an organsised holiday to St
Lucia. It was expensive but I decided to treat myself, but when I tried to book I found the holiday was full. This was a blessing as whilst I was thinking of an alternative, I got an offer for a ridiculously
cheap cruise in the Caribbean. I'd never wanted to do a cruise but couldn't resist at that price. And
since that cruise, I got hoooked. The 2019 cruise didn't go to St Lucia, so I was very pleased to get
there in 2020.

The St Lucia flag is quite complex - a pale blue sheet containing a black isosceles triangle whose legs are framed with white color. This triangle shares its base with another yellow triangle whose legs are much shorter compared to the black triangle. Blue sheet, as in the case of other island states, represents the ocean that washes the shores of the island. Triangles represent the Pitons. The flag was adopted in 1979 when St. Lucia gained independence from the Great Britain.

Castries is St Lucia's capital and biggest city, and a major port. It is on the northwestern coast.
Castries cruise terminal is close to Vigie aiport. Before entering the cruise port, vessels must be first cleared by St Lucia's Airport Traffic Control Tower. This is required as the approaching liner blocks the runway. And we had to wait outside the port for an early morning plane to land -

One cruise ship was already in port, and can be seen behind the plane. Another cruise ship was following us in.

There is a bigger international airport at the southern tip of the island.

Once the clouds had lifted, it was a very pretty approach into the port -

We were lucky as we docked right by the main town, whereas the other 2 ships were docked over at the upmarket, expensive area -

I got a share taxi with some others for a tour of the island. This was US$30 each and lasted 4.5 hours. Drove through town, which burnt down in 1805 and 1813 and 1948, so all the buildings are replicas of the old style. Most of the city is on reclaimed land. The town was designed in a grid pattern.

We then headed south along the west coast although the terrain is very mountainous with steep sides so the majority of the route was winding roads and we only occasionally came down to coastal villages. The island is volcanic, unlike Barbados which is a coral island.

Our first stop was at a view point by Government House, a good view over the port with the 3 cruise ships -

Then we had a stop at Ceeshell’s bar on the hill above Marigot, and tried banana ketchup, cream liqueur, coconut cream liqueur, a spiced rum and ate a local banana.

Lesser Antillean bullfinch enjoying a banana -

Next was a view over Marigot bay, with all the yachts. A lot of films have used it as a backdrop.

We went inland a little way and through a flat area, which is mostly used for banana plantations. St Lucia exports bananas to England. Next stop was at the little fishing village of Anse La Raye with its quaint buildings.

parrot fish

needlefish

Then a winding road up in the hills. It wasn’t really the rain forest, that is further over, but it really reminded me of Frasers Hill, very green thick vegetation, and some very tall ferns. It was lovely.

Down to Canaries, another small fishing village -

Then another winding road through forested mountains and had our first view of the Pitons. These are volcanoes and are World Heritage. It was a bit cloudy/hazy. The Pitons are two volcanic spires rising side by side from the sea, Gros Piton 770 m and Petit Piton 743 m high, linked by the Piton Mitan ridge. The volcanic complex includes a geothermal field with sulphurous fumeroles and hot springs. Coral reefs cover almost 60% of the site’s marine area. Tte town of Soufriere is nearby -

The geothermal area can be seen in the upper left of this photo -

Down through Soufriere and on to the mud volcano, supposedly the world’s only drive in volcano. We had to pay $9 each and were driven up to the main area where a local guide took us around. There are 24 holes of boiling water and mud. There is only a mild smell of sulphur. The last true eruption of the Quailbo volcano was in 1766. It is 777 m high. There was no lava, just mud, as it was a steam eruption, not a magma one. Walking in the crater is no longer allowed, after a guide fell into the boiling water after jumping up and down on the crater, although he did survive.

Across the road are the mud pools used for bathing, although we didn't go in.

We had to take the same route back to Castries. We stopped for more photos of the Pitons, though the light still wasn't too good

Back through Canaries (pronounced kanawe) . I like the balconies on the buildings-

Looking back down on Canaries -

Later on we stopped at a view of a headland and a man suddenly blew a loud whistle, which was the signal for 2 men to jump off the headland. Needless to say we were expected to give a donation! You can just see one man half way down -

Back in Castries it was odd to see our ship at the end of the street!

I had a quick lunch then walked around Castries. It is small but quite interesting. It has been built many times following fires, the last big one was 1948.

These balconies somehow reminded me of buildings in small Australian towns -

There is a huge tree outside the cathedral.

I have no idea what living faith is -

I walked to the waterfront and start of the upmarket area. The 3 cruise ships in port -

I then headed back to the main town

Went past a whole street of (dodgey looking) bars.

I didn't fancy going to those, so I went to a supermarket and bought a beer and sat near the cruise terminal to drink it. Piton beer is the local St Lucia beer, brewed by the Windward and Leeward Brewery

Back on the ship I was amused to see we were moored next to a Del Monte ship, the Star Pride, a refrigerated cargo ship sailing under the flag of Singapore. The Star Pride reefer is a charter for fresh Del Monte produce. Del Monte is a north American company. In the 1980s in England Del Monte produced an advertising campaign on TV with the catchphrase "The Man from Del Monte, he says Yes!". So of course that got stuck in my mind. The ship was laden with Geest Line containers and there were more on the dockside. I guessed they were packed with St Lucia bananas bound for Liverpool in England. I wondered if they would get to the UK before us!