‘vacation’ Category
Reflections of St. Lucia
As we’re packing up for our flight back to the cold of Virginia’s winter, we decided to summarize some of our general impressions of St. Lucia:
Weather
Currently St. Lucia is still in the rainy season so the weather changes at the drop of a hat. If it’s raining wait 5 minutes and it will be bright, sunny, and very warm. The temperature is usually between 80-85 degrees each day, but since we’re so close to the equator, the sun is a lot more intense and it feels closer to 90-95 degrees. There is a constant breeze blowing on the coast so it helps with some of the humidity. For Kathie who is almost never warm, the sun and temperature felt wonderful and she could probably live here quite comfortably (with the exception of the mosquitoes). Mike found the temperature borderline hot and appreciated the air-conditioned rooms after a while in the heat.
Food/Service
We found most of the restaurant service to be extremely relaxed. We’d get service, but it could take a while before the wait staff meandered over to our table to take our order, plus we would often wait at least 20-30 minutes for our food. This is the off-season so there were very few tourists at the restaurants so we know it wasn’t due to crowds. Since this happened at every restaurant we stopped at, we figure it’s the norm here. As in most european countries, people seem to eat much later here so some restaurants don’t even open till 7pm. Since we’re such early eaters, we were often the first one in the restaurants. The food here seems to be average and a little expensive. The food on the Brig Unicorn was quite good – the lamb and chicken, but the restaurant food wasn’t as good as we hoped.
Hotel
In general, we tend to prefer the comfort and service of a nice hotel but we got some really good experiences staying at a non-inclusive hotel. Bay Gardens is quite nice for it’s price range and the staff was very friendly and helpful. The front desk personnel helped us figure out the right bus to take, the fare for taxis, and various tour sign-ups. Bay Gardens hotel is very close to Reduit Beach and the local restaurants so it was very easy for us to walk down to the area to find food, plus the supermarket was between the hotel and beach so it was easy to get some snacks and breakfast food. Since Bay Gardens is located in Rodney Bay, we were close to all sorts of activities. A lot of the all-inclusive hotels are further away from the main city so self-exploring is more difficult and requires taking taxis.
Locals
We got mixed reactions from locals. Our first bus ride, one of the women on the bus told us where we needed to stop and told the bus driver when he passed our stop. She wished us a good time here as she left. Others would just stare at us or avoid us as we were on the bus or walking the streets. Some of the locals would wave as we passed them while others would leer. So no different from the US really. The local vendors were definitely annoying though. Random strangers would flag us down, ask our names and try to sell us something. “No, thank you” was not very effective. In main city areas where there are more tourists (ie Castries harbor where cruisers would disembark), the locals may not be as aggressive since there are so many tourists to flag down, but in the Rodney Bay area, they will continue to harass you until you walk away or buy something.
Closing Thoughts
The island is extremely beautiful with lush vegetation and flowers blooming everywhere. As all caribbean islands, the waters are warm and blue and so much nicer than the beaches on the east coast. St. Lucia seems to still be growing its tourist business and is less crowded than most caribbean countries. Most of the tourists here seem to originate from the UK and European countries. The buildings are very close together, the shops are small, and the roads are rather narrow. We would recommend taking the taxis or buses here and not renting a car. The locals drive pretty quickly and on the left side of the road. As with other Caribbean countries, we enjoyed staying here for the week but probably would not come back since we’ve seen and done most of the main sites here, and there are so many other places in the world to left to visit!
St. Lucia, Day 5
Day 5
Today was mostly dedicated to the full-day sea and land tour aboard the Brig Unicorn – a 140 ft replica of a 19th century Brig with 6,000 sq ft of sail. It has played a role in several films, most recently Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean”. After eating a light breakfast in our room, we met the shuttle which took us to Rodney Bay Marina. There were probably about 40-50 people on board, almost all non-American, something we’ve noticed through this whole vacation.
We boarded the Brig and headed out of Rodney Bay. We got to see a great view of Pigeon Island and the peaks we climbed yesterday. The day was quite beautiful with very few clouds so we got some great views of the island. We sailed south, passing Castries harbor with a cruise ship in port. Apparently Castries harbor can hold up to five cruise ships at once, but it must get really tight there, especially with the airport right by the harbor. We continued along and passed some of the larger and nicer resorts like Almond Morgan Bay and Windjammers Landing. There were several small fishing villages down the coast, and finally we reached Soufriere. As we were approaching, we had a great view of the Pitons, two volcanic spires rising side by side 2,500 feet from the sea. They were quite an awesome sight looking straight up from the harbor, and are St. Lucia’s main landmark.
We disembarked from the Brig Unicorn and took buses to Sulphur Springs, the world’s only drive-in volcano. As we approached the park, we could already smell whiffs of the sulphur coming from the springs. This volcano is constantly venting sulphur gas and the smell once we got close was awful, like rotten eggs, and very strong. The area had several pools of violently boiling black water. Our guide warned that the steam venting from the pools was super-heated, and was over 270 degrees F. The water is black due to sulphur and iron mixing together. It’s definitely something neat to see, but probably not someplace you want to spend more than 20 minutes. By the time we left, we were really looking forward to being able to breath normally again and get away from the stink.
After Sulphur Springs, we headed to a nearby waterfall and small botanical garden. Several of the group swam in the water but we decided to wait to go swimming in the sea. The botanical garden was quite pretty with lots of lush flowers and plants. Greenery sure grows big in the Caribbean with all the rainfall. After the waterfall, we headed back to the ship for lunch. They provided some rice, lamb, chicken, potato salad, mac & cheese, etc. The food was pretty good and the drinks they provided were also quite good (rum punch, fruit juice, soda). After lunch, we anchored a few hundred feet off a nearby beach where we got to jump off the boat and go swimming in the very refreshing, very blue sea. The water felt great, but we couldn’t avoid the pushy vendors even here. Several locals were lying in wait in kayaks and paddled over to our boat to sell conch shells, wooden small boats, and more necklaces. The local vendors were most annoying during this entire vacation.
Our only disappointment in the trip was that even though the ship had sails unfurled all day, we were actually being driven by diesel engines, not the wind, which wasn’t what we expected. It appears that’s the norm, and the sails are just for show. In any case, we arrived back in Rodney Bay around 4:30pm and the bus took us back to our hotel. After a shower, we headed down to Reduit Beach area to get dinner at The Lime. Many tourists recommended the Lime as a good place for local food and cheap prices. Kathie did not like her seafood fettucini at all – they used krab (fake crab) and the rest of the seafood was tough! Mike liked his ribs, but the prices weren’t particularly cheap and the Lime didn’t seem to have much local food for dinner. To make up for Kathie’s disappointing meal, we stopped at Elenia’s ice cream shop again for dessert. Yum!
We have to pack up tomorrow morning and head out to the airport at noon. Since we’re leaving out of Hewanorra Airport in the south, it will be at least an hour and a half taxi ride to get there.
St. Lucia, Day 4
Day 4
This morning, after our improvised in-room breakfast, we were picked up by the shuttle to the Rain Forest Sky Ride. There are a few ways to experience St. Lucia’s National Rain Forest, which covers 19,000 acres of mountains and valleys. You can hike it… which would be the most immersive experience but we knew right off the bat that it was a bit more effort than we wanted to dole out while on vacation. You can fly above and through it on a zipline, which Kathie the skydiver would have loved, but which I, with my fear of heights, would probably not have enjoyed. Or, you can do what we did – the Sky Ride, which was an hour-long gondola ride through and above the rain forest canopy. We saw lots of interesting trees, plants, and birds, and our tour guide was very knowledgeable. After the ride was over, we finished with a 30 minute guided walk along a marked trail to experience the rain forest up close… which unfortunately included its mosquitoes. The forest was amazingly quiet, very pretty and offered some amazing views of the island from the top of the mountains. We did expect the rainforest to have more noise with birds and animals but it was almost completely silent. There were a lot of hummingbirds in the forest but since they zip around so quickly we had difficulty getting any good pictures.
Near the forest, we passed large groups of banana trees. Apparently banana trees only grow for 9 mos, can be harvested once and then die; however the banana tree will propagate a small sapling right next to the main trunk. After the original tree has been harvested, it is cut down to make room for the sapling and the cycle continues. To prevent insects from eating the fruit, blue bags are wrapped around the banana bunch while still on the tree. Bananas are the primary agricultural crop of St. Lucia.
Along the drive back we passed the local “car wash”, which was a shallow area in the river coming down the mountain, where someone had driven his car into the river and was washing it down with buckets of water. We also passed a tiny shack right alongside the road that was a road-side barber shop, and lots of local homes, which often were tiny and looked like they would fall down in a light breeze. We also passed quite a few random animals – goats, pigs, dogs, cows, chickens, horses, etc., either in people’s lawns, tied to trees, or wandering freely.
After our drop-off at the hotel, we grabbed a taxi up to Pigeon Island. This island just off the northwest coast of St Lucia was connected to the mainland recently by a causeway created by using the earth dredged during the construction of the Rodney Bay Marina. Pigeon Island was used by the British in the late 1700s to monitor the French fleet’s activities on Martinique just to the north, and to launch the British fleet in one of the most decisive sea battles in European history. St. Lucia changed hands from the British to the French and back 14 times before finally stabilizing as a British colony before becoming independent. The St. Lucians therefore almost all speak English as well as a unique creole derivative of French. On the island we had some simple but tasty sandwiches at a tiny restaurant on the beach, before hiking up the shorter of the island’s two peaks to explore the ruins of the British forts. The view was exceptional and we could see Martinique to the north, and the beautiful water of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. After exploring, we took the taxi back to the hotel to relax for the evening.
Something that’s a little hard to get used to here is the fact that Christmas is coming. Walking around the beach in 85 degree weather hearing Christmas music playing from restaurants and seeing inflatable Santas and Grinches seems very incongruous. I guess it’s no different than some southern parts of the U.S., but it’s definitely not what we’re used to — it somehow doesn’t seem like it’s really Christmas season unless it’s cold and the leaves have fallen!
St. Lucia, Day 3
Day 3
We slept in this morning, ate breakfast at the hotel, and then took the local bus south to the capital, Castries. Castries is home to a large trading market (see photos) where the St. Lucians buy and sell local fruits, vegetables, fish, and other foods. Past the local market was the tourist market, where dozens of vendors had stalls set up selling necklaces, tee-shirts, wood carvings, spices, and the like. Pretty much all of the vendors had the exact same merchandise, and pricing varied widely, so going from one vendor to the next helped figure out what a realistic price was for the merchandise. We then wandered around some more of the city and got a good sampling of the local “flavor” before heading back to the hotel on the bus.
The local bus is a great cheap way to get around St. Lucia, but you really have to know where you’re going. The buses are vans, each holding around 10-11 passengers, and they run very frequently. We never had to wait more than 15 seconds (really!) for one to come along. They will pick you up anywhere alongside the road, if you see them and wave. But, they also won’t stop and let you off unless you tell the driver to stop, so you have to know where you’re going and when to get off. The 15 minute bus to Castries from Rodney Bay was only EC$2 per person (about US$0.75). Our taxi on Thursday was US$15 for the same route.
We relaxed at the hotel for a bit, then walked back down to Reduit Beach and had lunch at Pizza Pizza. We weren’t too hungry, so we were looking for something fairly small and cheap that we could split. Not quite having the highest expectations for pizza in the Caribbean, I have to say we were pleasantly surprised. I’m from New York, and am definitely a “pizza snob”, and I really enjoyed the pizza there! We walked down the beach a bit and sat on two lounge chairs until someone came over and said we need to rent them. Since we weren’t planning on staying long, we spread our beach towels out instead and relaxed on the beach reading books for a while. Unfortunately a rain storm came in suddenly so we packed up, but saw that we had perfect timing as the hotel’s beach shuttle was nearby and saved us a mile walk in the downpour.
We decided this afternoon to head to the local supermarket and pick up some food since our hotel room has a fridge. Rather than eat a big breakfast each morning, we got some muffins, OJ, and yogurt to tide us over. It’ll also save us some time since the next two days we are getting picked up in the morning by tour operators for our rainforest tour (tomorrow) and full day sail down the coast (Monday).
St. Lucia, Day 2
Day 2
St. Lucians are pushy!
We knew we were going to stay around Rodney Bay today, but weren’t sure exactly what we were going to do. We thought we’d start out the morning with a walk to the marina, but the hotel staff suggested a taxi or a local bus. We decided to take the bus, but on our way to the street, a taxi driver approached trying to negotiate an hourly rate for giving us a tour of the island. From what I’ve read online, some of these can actually be a good deal, so we’re thinking we might try it on Tuesday since we need to get a Taxi to the other side of the island to catch our plane in the afternoon anyway. We did take the bus into town, which was US$2.50 total for both of us, but when the rest of the locals got off the bus, the bus driver tried to talk us into letting him give us a guided tour of the island. I guess his local bus route isn’t that important! We said no a few times, and finally got dropped off.
In Rodney Bay we thought we’d walk around checking out tourist sites and scheduling excursions at the tour establishments, but it turns out we were not really in the right area to do that. After walking a while and giving up, we decided to walk to Reduit Beach, not realizing how far it was. What appeared to be a bus/taxi driver saw us and convinced us to let him take us to the beach for EC$15 which is around $5.60US. When we got near the beach he headed down an abandoned looking dirt road, dropping us off next to his friend who was holding a large machete and small knife. A moment (or two) of panic set in before the new person started telling us that he is responsible for getting people beach chairs and umbrellas for this part of the beach (which sounds a little fishy)… which we told him we weren’t interested in doing, at which point he started trying to sell us volcanic rock necklaces which he said he made himself. After a while we were able to extract ourselves without buying anything and wandered back to the more populated part of the beach. I never did figure out what the machete was for… coconuts perhaps? Not surprisingly, every place we’ve gone since has had pushy locals selling the exact same necklaces after telling you their life’s stories.
After a walk down the length of the beach, being offered more chairs and umbrellas, necklaces, boats and other watersports, taxis, etc. we decided to walk back to the hotel along the main road, now that we’d gotten our bearings and realized that the hotel was only about a mile from the beach. The only thing we were offered on the way back was a wooden carving which we politely refused.
Introducing guest blogger Kathie:
Back at the hotel we made arrangements for a 2-hour horseback ride with Trim’s Riding Academy. I guess they weren’t too busy that day since we were able to make a reservation for the 2-4pm slot and we ended up being the only people going for the ride. They picked us up from the hotel and brought us to the stables. They fitted us with helmets and sent us on our way with our horses, Larry (mine) and Spunky (Mike’s) and Sport (our guide’s). The scenery wasn’t much, a dirt trail with a lot of brush. We ended up on the north side of the island by the Atlantic Ocean. The view was great and the water looked inviting. We stopped here for a break, coincidentally where there were more vendors selling necklaces and carvings. We need to become much more firm about avoiding them before they start their hard-sell, or shooing them off quickly. They don’t respond to a polite “no thank you” or even five. After the break, we were allowed to take the horses into the water up to their necks. The water felt really good and warm and the horses just walked around. Riding bareback was rather difficult though since the horses have rather substantial spines you’re sitting on. We kept slipping to the sides of the horse. After the horse swim, we just took a nice swim by ourselves. Very small waves (rocks further out broke the waves) and overall calm, clean, and warm. While we’ve enjoyed horseback riding in the caribbean islands before, we weren’t too crazy about this one. The trail wasn’t picturesque and having the vendors bother us was annoying. The ocean swim was a neat novelty though. Both our horses were tough to control. I think both of them wanted to run instead of plod along so they were both chomping the bit. Spunky definitely lived up to his name!
We got back to the stable in time to see the next group of six or eight tourists in their early 20s getting their horses. Boy, we thought we were novices, I don’t think any of this group (I think they were all together) had ever ridden horses before. It was entertaining to watch them as they mounted the horses and tried to control them. :-)
As in most developing countries we’ve been to, we saw lots of wandering cats and dogs. There were these cute little cats/kittens at the stables that were begging for attention. As soon as you stopped petting, they’d start yowling and rubbing around you. There are also several stray dogs we saw on the trail. Unsure whether the dogs are owned by anyone or if they just wander around for food. None of them seemed aggressive or feral but for the better, Mike wouldn’t let me get near any of them.
After we got back to the hotel and cleaned up, we hung around and rested until dinnertime. People eat dinner here later than we’re used to and most restaurants don’t open until 7pm. We went to Charthouse (not the chain restaurant) in Rodney Bay for dinner. It’s come highly recommended by critics and a lot of tourists. Mike had the teriyaki steak and I had the red snapper (fish of the day). The steak didn’t live up to the reviews, but my fish was pretty good and the rice was also good. Charthouse is and we weren’t as impressed as we thought we’d be. I don’t think we’d recommend it for anyone else – you can probably get almost-as-good food for half the price at the other restaurants in the area. Ice cream at Elena’s Italian Ice Cream & Coffee shop however is a definite repeat for us. Their ice cream is very sweet, creamy and rich and worth getting again.
All in all we probably walked 4-5 miles today, which on top of the horseback riding, swimming, and hot sun has us feeling pretty tired. Tomorrow we’re going to take a bus or taxi down to St. Lucia’s capital, Castries, and explore the area.