Planning to go to St. Lucia?

by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
    
There are several things I learned from a week in St. Lucia that may help others who are planning to go.  It is a popular Caribbean destination, and St. Lucians are trying to make it known as a romantic getaway and the destination for honeymooners.  In this essay I will address the kind of dress that is appropriate, the situation regarding food, and transportation.
    
Trying to plan, in advance, for all eventualities is difficult, to say the least.  For this week’s trip to St. Lucia every member of our seven-member party decided to take carry-on baggage only: no checked luggage.  What I took worked well for me.  The “uniform” of preference on the island is a tee-shirt and bermuda shorts.  I took two or three pairs of bermudas and a couple of extra shirts.  For the purposes of traveling there and back, and also for the purpose of going to a restaurant while there, I took one pair of long pants and 3 collared, knit shirts.  I used them all.
    
The preferred type of shoe, of course, is flip flops.  But, if you’re going to do a great deal of walking or hiking, a pair of gym or tennis shoes works well.  I took one pair of each plus some low-rise white socks for the shoes (to absorb sweat).
    
There is no need for a jacket, sweater, or sweatshirt unless, of course, you will be spending time in air conditioning.  Many homes have air conditioned bedrooms only because electricity is so expensive.  Even the ventilating breezes that blow in the evening are warm — not cool or chilling in any way.
    
A swimsuit is mandatory as is sun screen.  (I used sun screen with an SPF of 50.)  If you are traveling during the insect season (we were not), you will need insect repellant or insect wipes.  Wipes are especially effective if you will be walking on the sand beaches during the summer to protect yourself from the sand fleas.  (Purchase inexpensive sun screen at Walmart, and squeeze it into a 3-ounce plastic container.  That can last you for a week of moderate use.)
    
A backpack will help you when you go shopping in the markets, for going to the beach, and for carrying extra water bottles.  We put our water bottles in the refrigerator freezer overnight and found the cold water delightful the next day.  The hot, humid temperatures do not allow it to stay frozen for too long.
    
In addition to dress, there is a concern about food.  We stayed in a house and had to purchase all our food (except the two times during the week when we ate out) at the local grocery store.  Food on St. Lucia is very expensive.  We had to plan for dinners for seven.  For breakfasts we had Cheerios along with orange juice, toast, and a banana. For lunches we had peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches along with cut-up carrots and an apple.  We bought a large bag of 16 pieces of chicken.  They were legs connected with thighs, and they served our purposes well.
    
We cooked 8 pieces that we sliced for sandwiches we had on one of our island tours.
    
We covered one set of 8 pieces with bread crumbs, cooked them in the oven, and had them with mashed potatoes (from the box), gravy from a can, and two cans of green beans.  It proved to be a great and tasty dinner everyone enjoyed.
    
For our last big meal on the island we had leftovers, and there was enough chicken left over for everyone to have a piece.
    
(For one evening meal we had macaroni and cheese along with hot dogs, for another we had spaghetti, and for yet another we had frozen Tombstone pizzas.  Along with two meals out, and one of leftovers, that covered the evening meals we had while on St. Lucia.)
    
Staples such as milk (although we had to buy Lactose-free because regular skim milk was out because deliveries were not made to the grocery store), bread, yogurt, and bananas were all available — although expensive.

Moving from dress and food to transportation, I want to discuss the problem.  First, there is no public transportation.  All transportation is private.  There are private vans moving between all the towns on the island, and the rates are controlled — and cheap.  Vans, for example, moving between Castries and Rodney Bay (a 20-30-minute trip depending on the traffic) carried passengers (about 10-14 per van) for about $2.00 EC$ or less than $1.00 U.S.
      
We had to make a decision about whether or not to rent a car.  The owner of our rental home said he would take care of transportation for us, and, in retrospect, he did.  But that made us totally dependent on him.  Also, to get us to and from the airport, and for our tour of the island, he charged us — and he wasn’t inexpensive!  It took us two vehicles to get to and from the airport and cost us $80.00 U.S. each.  To tour the island it was $80.00 per adult; there were three of us.
    
Perhaps we could have rented a car and saved money; however, it is unlikely that renting a car would have worked out well, and there are at least six reasons for this.  First, driving on the left (as the British do) makes it somewhat difficult at the outset.  It isn’t that U.S. drivers cannot or should not drive on the left, but our normal instincts and natural reflexes are the opposite; thus, in trying or stressful traffic situations, we are likely to respond in the opposite way we should.
    
The second reason that renting a car would not have worked out well is that there are no road signs nor speed limits.  Ali Breen, our designated taxi driver, told us that the hilly, twisty, narrow roads of St. Lucia impose their own limits regarding speed.  Third, it is difficult to find your way around.  Main roads may go through the two large cities (Castries and Soufriere), but they do not flow in a straight line by any means, and with no highway numbers, without a local map, which would, perhaps, make things easier, it can be a maze that is best pursued through trial and error!
    
There are three other reasons.  The fourth is that local drivers tend to be fast and aggressive.  The deference and respect shown to other local drivers is negotiated and follows local customs — which foreign drivers don’t know.  Fifth, roads are narrow, twisty, with lots of hills.  Cars pass on hills and curves with abandon — and high risk.  It’s a wonder there aren’t more accidents, and Greg, who drove us around most of the time, said there are a lot!  The sixth reason, and the best one, is that I’m not sure I’d even like to do it.  There are far too many arguments against it!  (One argument I did not use was the cost.  It is not just expensive to rent a car or van, but the gas is expensive, too.)
    
Dress, food, and transportation are some of the factors that need to be considered if you are planning to go to St. Lucia.  We went to accompany our older daughter and her 3 kids, and it was a great choice (very expensive to get there, to rent a house, and to buy food), but we saw the island, experienced the culture, enjoyed the cuisine, swam in the water, and would want to experience another place for another time.
- - - - - - - -
The website VirtualTourist has a page called “St. Lucia Favorites” that gives numerous hints about what to see and do (and how to prepare) by people who have been there.

Visit St. Lucia: Traveler’s Essentials has a brief essay entitled “Safety in St. Lucia that is a must read for anyone planning to go there.

The website St. Lucia Guide.info discusses the seasons, when it is best to visit, and in “Time’s On Your Side,” also offers information on the events and festivals.  There is, for example, a two-week jazz festival in May of each year that is popular and well attended.
- - - - - - - -
Copyright April, 2012, by And Then Some Publishing L.L.C.


   

St. Lucia: Some observations

by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
    
For an island just 27 miFles long and only 14 miles wide (238 sq. miles), it hosts a number of extremes.  The first and most obvious (easily observable) is the geography.  The terrain is described as volcanic and mountainous with some broad  fertile valleys.  It is more mountainous than many other Caribbean islands (except, perhaps, St. Vincent) with its highest point being Mount Gimie (pronounced “Jimmy”) at 3,120 feet above sea level.  There are 90-inches of rain each year with temperatures averaging 70-90-degrees Fahrenheit, and the island hosts 2 separate rain forests that, together, cover 19,000 acres.
    
Another extreme is the road system.  We visited in March (March 20-27, 2011), just 5 months after hurricane Tomas (October 30, 2010) wreaked havoc.  There remains a great deal of highway damage to be repaired.  There are just about 500 miles of road on the island, and only half of it is paved.  If the road to Cap Point (the northern-most point on St. Lucia) is any indication, once we passed the only golf course (far north and almost at the end of the road), the dirt road was heavily rutted, rough, extremely rural, and traversed slowly.  (Many of the paved roads — especially those through neighborhoods — are full of deep pot holes.)  There is one single road across the island (from Dennery to just 3-5 miles south of Castries), and much of it is good pavement.
    
A third extreme is the climate.  For one island you can get 90+-inches of rain per year in the rain-forest areas, but in the north you have near-arid conditions with a wide variety of cacti growing wild.  Some of the modern, luxury homes overlooking the Caribbean Sea are landscaped using cacti as their main plants: beautiful to see.  Just driving down from the Tet Paul lookout (we did not go all the way up nor did we walk the Tet Paul nature trail), we drove from a heavily moist climate with lush crops to a much drier area and fields where horses and some cows grazed in pasture lands where water was available but not as plentiful as higher up.
    
There is a fourth contrast, and that is the extremes seen in the housing or, really, the difference between the rich (or middle class) and poor.  You have, of course, those venues that cater specifically to the filthy rich — gated communities or resorts where it can easily cost $1,000.00 U.S. per night to stay.  Also, the homes of the wealthy are striking with their views overlooking the towns and out onto the sea or ocean.  Even the place we are staying (Sunwest Villas) has a swimming pool and a similar view.
    
We traveled (as we drove from Castries to Soufriere) through several small fishing villages and the extremes in housing are immediately noticeable and stark.  Those who inhabit these little fishing villages live in weathered, run-down, ramshackle huts, with a single, old, wood door, windows of solid wood that are propped open for ventilation, but with no screens.  People in these fishing villages scurry around (as worker bees in an active bee hive), with children sometimes in tow, and just a cursory view from the main highway reveals numerous bars, little restaurants where people congregate, mothers twisting their daughter’s hair into corn rows on their small porches, and even naked children.  It is a grim, poor, dirty existence — and each town often has a Catholic cathedral at its center or nearby.  “Roman Catholics form roughly a two-thirds majority (67.5%) of the island's population,” says Wikipedia.
    
Most of the homes we see from our porch (veranda) are pastel colored (cream, green, yellow — some white) most with red asphalt or tile roofs.  It reminds me a bit of Bermuda, but there the houses are more brightly colored.
    
Let’s shift our focus now from extremes to the local cuisine.  There are 2 local foods to which Greg introduced us on our tour of the island.  The first is deep-fried plantains (like bananas) that are thinly sliced, covered lightly with flour, deep-fried then lightly salted.  They were $1.00 U.S. per small bag, and like potato chips, it is hard to eat just one!
    
Where we bought the plantains, Greg identified a number of local fruits that were for sale: breadfruit, soursop, guava, papaya, tamarin, calabash, passion fruit, and a number of others.  I saw no sea grapes, kenips, nor carembola (star fruit) there.
    
Along the highway there was a small wooden building that sold cassava cakes.  Cassava is a staple of St. Lucian tradition.  The cakes are made with raw grated cassava, sugar, egg, vanilla extract, flour, milk, baking powder, grated coconut, butter, and a few grains of salt.  They are flavored with ginger, tamarind, coconut, or other fruits and are baked at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.  For $3.00 U.S. each, we bought one with cinnamon, and one with apples and raisins.  Not only were they delicious, they were filling.
    
Perhaps our best introduction to local cuisine was in the evening.  Ali Breen, our designated taxi driver, took us to the Triangle in downtown Rodney Bay.  We had barbecued chicken (curried chicken, and barbecued pork were our choices) a spaghetti-vegetable stir fry, baked potato with cheese, and a tossed salad for about $8.00 U.S.  We had a low picnic table outside (where only two of about a dozen other tables were occupied), and we were entertained throughout our meal by two mating cats.
    
There is another aspect of local culture that is interesting but not surprising.  This was our 7th visit to the Caribbean, so, for us, it was “business as usual.”  The Caribbean artifacts for sale are all similar.  Whether it is at roadside stands, at the scenic vistas where you stop to take pictures, in the local vendor’s markets and arcades, or at the small souvenir stores at the airport, the jewelry, carvings, scarves, dolls, and toys are similar wherever you go — and wherever you go in the Caribbean as well!
    
I looked for an embroidered tee-shirt and could not find one anywhere on St. Lucia.  Why?  One vendor told me they are too expensive, and if vendors don’t sell them, they are stuck with the expensive shirts.
    
We have enjoyed St. Lucia because of its history, geography, climate, local food, culture, and overall ambiance.  It is one of the most outstanding of the Caribbean islands because everyone speaks English (the locals chat with each other in Patois, which is a blend of African-Caribbean language, heavily laden with French), they cater to tourists, it has irrefutable beauty, and it is easy to get around.  It has been a fun, relaxing, pleasant week — despite the heat and humidity.  That said, it is unlikely we would ever need or want to come back.  We have seen in St. Lucia all we need or want to see; we prefer going to places we have never been before, and that is why we came to St. Lucia in the first place.  There are so many elements that harmonize to make St. Lucia a true destination in the Caribbean especially for those who have never been to a Caribbean island.
- - - - - - - -
At Visit St. Lucia, the essay, “About St. Lucia: A look at our past - From Settlement and Colonization to Independence,” offers some great information about the history and background of the island.

At Caribbean Breeze there are several great photographs from St. Lucia.
- - - - - - - - -
Copyright April, 2012, by And Then Some Publishing L.L.C.