Into the Caribbean - St Lucia

Our American Airlines flight to St. Lucia was crowded but uneventful. Rather luckily, we appear to have the status of "TSA Pre-chk" which gives us a smoother passage through security. We don't have to take our shoes off, or remove our computers from their bags, and you even get into a priority queue. On being asked, a friendly official told us that we must have had a background check done somewhere, which we obviously passed. If this is what the US ESTA process achieves, then we are all for it!

St. Lucia (we now know it is pronounced SayntLoosha, all pretty well one word) is a mountainous land of steep narrow roads, stunning views of towns from on high as you approach them, crowded towns populated by largely friendly people.

Spectacular view of Canaries township and the Caribbean Sea, as seen from the road into town from the south.

Our Caribbean travel specialist put us up in Stonefield Estate, a boutique collection of 11 villas clinging to the side of a cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea just south of Soufriere. Almost everything on St. Lucia is clinging to the side of a cliff, especially in the southern half of the island. Our Stonefield villa was a delight, a studio with a private plunge-pool, outdoor shower and a hammock on the huge balcony. Our view was over Malgretoute Beach and of the Petit Piton, immediately next door. The pitons (Gros et Petit) are the defining features of the St. Lucia south coast and are the remnants of a volcanic cone, just like Balls Pyramid near Lord Howe Island, and just as spectacular.

Soufriere from north of the town overlooked by the Petit Piton and the Gros Piton (further).

The Petit Piton looks over our private plunge-pool at Stonefield Estate

For all but two days of our stay on St. Lucia, we had an Avis rental car. Avis delivered it to Stonefield, which was very convenient, and having it allowed us to explore the parts of the island we wanted to see without the inevitable crowds and bustle of a guided tour. Avis delivered the car to Stonefield, which was good service, but in all respects it was a totally unsuited vehicle to St. Lucian roads. It was a low slung, sporty, Mitsubishi Lancer complete with the most absurd accessories, spoilers, mudguards etc, which only lowered the car and made it more vulnerable to damage over the country's hidueous dips and bumps. Rental bureaucracy was also excessive and insisted on showing us how to drive the car! We were told we had to buy international driving permits, and were surprised when we actually had them! We were then told we had to get it "stamped" at the post office. The post office turned us away when we attempted this.

A tropical rainfall in a tropical rainforest in St Lucia.

Soufriere seems to exemplify the best and worst of all St. Lucian towns. Driving in on the main road from the south, the thoroughfare is a steep narrow street, only one and a half lanes wide, where cars travelling in opposite direction can only pass if one of them pulls into a side street or braves impossibly deep storm drains. The houses fronting the street at the drains with a footpath less than a metre wide. These footpaths are packed with people just hanging out. Midweek, the crowds dissipated somewhat as many people obviously went to work or school. The route through town requires several right angle turns, but these are totally unsignposted and unintuitive. (After a while, you get to know the way.)

The town centre abuts the waterfront and a busy spectacular harbour, crowded with small fishing boats and numerous pleasure vessels, often catamarans, which tout for tourists and take them to various swimming, snorkelling and diving destinations. The dichotomy between the crowded poverty of the town, and the tourist industry, which bustles along every day, is pretty stark.

A plaque explains that the cathedral in Soufriere was the site of multiple executions by guillotine around 1795. It was also where escaped slaves were punished.

Soufriere has a major parking problem. The town was never designed for vehicular traffic (well, neither was Sydney), and finding a safe spot to stop is pretty difficult. When you do find one, some youngster will immediately offer to watch over your car, show you around town, and show you the route out, all for modest compensation of course! Walking around town, brings all manner of touts to the fore, selling beads, offering guided tours. They are persistent, but if you keep saying "no" they don't seem to mind. You see the same guys day after day, and they wave in a friendly fashion at you, and you still give a small pile of $US1 notes away during the course of a day.

We pondered why there are so many cars in town. There are many rattletraps of course (lots of wrecks too) but most are in pretty good condition, sedans, small four wheel drives and pick-up trucks. They are mostly parked, not driving around much - 10 cars on the street simultneously in Soufriere constitutes a traffic jam. The people who own these vehicles must have good incomes - maybe they are the same people who own or crew the tourism boats.

Our Mitsubishi Lancer happy to have found a rare parking spot in Soufriere.

Traffic in Soufriere (an other towns) is orderly and cautious. You have to avoid the pedestrians wandering everywhere, but when attempting a right-angled corner, a driver in the adjacent street will pull backwards to give you room. One driver warned us of a huge pothole ahead - it was in the town of Canaries, and just as well, it was a world record pothole!

Ramshackle houses such as this crowd the streets of Soufriere and other towns on the west coast of St Lucia.

Informal recognition of the Queen's visit in 1966.

Castries is the capital of St. Lucia, and it's 37km north of Soufriere. Doesn't seem far, but it's an epic car drive, and we effectively did it 4 times during our week on the island. It is the steepest, twistiest, narrowest road imaginable, and our best time for this short distance was 75mins. There is little traffic. There are potholes, washouts, landslides, one lane bridges, hundreds of hairpin bends, pedestrians, and two small towns on the way. A local advised us that "Saint Lucians toot the horn at blind corners". We thought most corners were blind! Luckily, not much traffic. The towns are just like smaller scale versions of Soufrier - located on the coast in a tiny valley, approached and departed via a narrow, twisty road with occasional spectacular views. The towns (Canaries and Anse La Ray) both have temporary one-lane bridges which, apparently, replace previous bridges washed away during storms.

The capital of St. Lucia, Castries, with 3 cruise ships in port. Cruise ships are a daily arrival here. We only hope the business benefits both the community and the citizens.

When shopping, credit cards are only occasionally acceptable. US$ can always be used - tills automatically calculate the exchange rate - but we found that the US notes have to be in perfect condition before they will be acepted in stores. Of course, our US currency was "well used" and to avoid rejection, we learned to pay in Eastern Caribbean Dollars (XCD). With that decision, the challenge was to find an ATM which was not "temporarily out of service"!

Cruise ships passed by Soufriere on a daily basis, together with many private yachts, some very large.

Against all normal advice and better judgement, we actually gave rides to two hitch-hikers in St. Lucia, both locals. One was when we were coming into Castries, a fellow "assisted us" by telling us to ignore a police sign forbidding entry to a particular road. He said this was for buses only. He then asked for a ride the last few km into town. His advice was good, and his route gave us a fabulous view over Castries Harbour, complete with three cruise ships. This guy said he was coming to town on his bead-making and selling business. The other was a real shyster, and he stopped us on a one-lane bridge in Soufriere, but we took him almost to Castries. He said his name was Isaac and spun a line about being a night-shift security guard at Stonefield. On discovering we were Australian, he spouted much about cricket and said he was on his way to buy balls for children's teams. He actually had a cricket ball with him. Anyway, he scammed XCD20 out of us to "help the children" and a further $US2 which would get him to his intended destination. This fellow was also a good guide, and pointed out lots of things of interest on the way. He also told us about St. Lucia's two Nobel Prize laureates.

Sunset over the Caribbean Sea at Soufriere.

Our biggest trip was to Rodney Bay, north of Castries. We had heard there were lots of resorts and good places to have lunch there. It was a Sunday, and despite three cruise ships being in town, even the touristy places were mostly closed. Thanks to some good ad placements, we did find Jacques open. Jacques, who we met, runs a jazz brunch on Sundays, and at 3pm, we were still in time for that meal! The jazz was cool (a three piece brass band) but the buffet food was pretty ordinary. We think Jacques has lowered his standards since he left France. But the ambience was nice, as was the location, by the side of the bay itself. Whilst sitting there, we saw numerous tenders from the cruise ships going by, and lots of yachts and smaller craft, jetskis etc, going by.

We made a couple of visits to a resort near to Stonefield. The 3km between Stonefield and Sugar Beach is literally the steepest road we have ever been on, terrifying driving on a concrete surface which has been deliberately roughened to minimise skidding. Sugar Beach Resort is jammed tight between the two pitons. One of our visits was for a swim (the other for a meal) - here we encounter that nasty situation that Australians can never accept - the concept of a private beach. Non resident guests at Sugar Beach are confined to a stretch of the beach about 20m wide! Residents have about 100m of beach. Frankly, the whole 120m of beach is not worth the trouble of getting into the water. We suspect that the worst Australian sandy beach is better than any St. Lucian beach. We pretended that we didn't know of the rule (well, actually, we didn't) and made use of the whole beach, but we were soon scooted off. Despite all this, the beach is visited by wave after wave of small boats from Soufriere, each with up to a dozen tourists equipped with flippers and snorkels. The rules are clearly explained to these tourists before they arrive, because they don't stray. We discovered that it is possible to widen your horizons at Sugar Beach, by buying a meal or a drink. Anyway, the tourists provided us with entertainment, because most of them have obviously never snorkelled before, and watching them get ready was pretty hilarious. Clare stood at the edge and gave them instructions!

A boatload of tourists arrive for a swim and a snorkel at Sugar Beach.

Poor non-resident guests at Sugar Beach are confined to this tiny part of the beach, but they can use any hand-me-down furniture they can find! The steep wall of the Petit Piton plunges into the water immediately on the right of this beach.

Wanting a "good local" meal outside of any resort, we asked staff at Stonefield for their recommendation. Several told us about Martha's Tables, so we tried it. The restaurant was a lean-to attached to a house, and the creole food was delicious (in fact, better than anything we had anywhere), but the whole thing was run like a hobby, not a business. As we received the menus, we were told that about half the items were not available, and "no cocktails and no bread". The local beer, Piton, was luckily available. Knowing you can buy bread easily in town, we asked why no bread? The answer was "Mama didn't buy any today"!

This Pink Torch Ginger in the Botanic Garden near Soufriere reminded us of a NSW Waratah.

Maybe our saddest visit was to Marigot Bay. This tiny inlet was said by James Michener to be "the most beautiful bay in the Caribbean". It has a nice palm lined beach, but poor Marigot Bay has been devastated by overdevelopment without regard to aesthetics of the environment. It is surrounded by some beautiful houses but is serviced by hideous roads. It is crowded with luxury yachts but the mangroves around the bay stink of rot, grot and sewerage. Litter is everywhere, and the waterside infrastructure is rotting. Locals are trying to maintain businesses - we saw restaurants well set up and preparing for an evening rush, but we didn't hang around.

This pleasant beach is on a spit which protrudes into Marigot Bay. The best access to it is via ferry.

Our whole Caribbean itinerary was targeted at avoiding cruises ships, but one day they found us and provided great entertainment. We had walked about 100m from Stonefield to look over Soufriere Harbour at dusk from a lookout which, by day, is full of trinket-sellers (who we grew friendly with, without ever buying anything). Lo, there were two cruise ships anchored. A huge queue of passengers were lined up on the Soufriere pier waiting for tenders to ferry them "home". We were only at the lookout a minute, enjoying the solitude, when a succession of about 10 minibuses came by, offloaded their cargo to take photos of the ships. These harried passengers were given only 30 seconds to take their pic until they were bustled back on the bus, to be taken down to join the long queue. The passengers pushed us aside, and managed to leave litter behind! This little country is in enough trouble without rich cruise ship passengers adding to the mess here. We asked a guide, who told us that Holland America are the only company to run bus tours from Castries and finishing here in Soufriere. Once back on board, the ships are positioned so that the passengers can see the Pitons at sunset, a spectacular sight.

This unidentified 5 masted tall ship sailed right past our room at Stonefield with the sun directly behind it!

In summary, we fear for St. Lucia. It seems to be a country being devoured by the 21st Century. Its proud citizens are equipped with iPhones and internet connections, but they are suffering appalling roads and, apparently, nothing is being recycled. Tourism is obviously a major source of wealth, but we wonder how well the income is distributed. We hope those cruise ships are paying a lot for the privilege of pulling up here.