ConchyJoe
Contributor
My wife Laurie and I traveled to St. Lucia for a well deserved break from life and family. Our goal was to DIVE DIVE DIVE! We booked our rooms at Anse Chastanet with Vincentia, who did a wonderful job of accommodating us. We requested to be on the beach, and near the Dive Shop. We were booked into room 10D, and it was perfect for us. We came to dive and relax, so the view was unimportant. There are some incredible views though. The first person we met, was Octavia, our room attendant. She took great care of us, and our room was spotless. As we headed to the dive shop to meet the people we would spend most of our time with, we were encouraged by 100% of the staff saying hello to us. Everyone was friendly, and most went out of their way to make sure we were taken care of. Some of those people were Michaelina, who served us breakfast, Glenn, Troy, and Peter, who kept us well fed at lunch, and ALWAYS had an ice cold Piton ready when we walked up to the bar. And Isaiah, who kept us happy when we were lounging on the beach. When we left, I was hugged no less than 10 times. The dive staff at Scuba St. Lucia were friendly, professional and loved their work. There was Nicole, and Gar and Victor(ask him how long he has been diving! He is in the Guiness Book of World Records.), and Terry, and Monti, and Ponti, and James Bond(Keither, the island version!), the boss man Bernd, and many names I have already forgot. I want to note that you CANNOT dive without a divemaster. I dont know if it is shop policy, or Marine Park policy. We dove Supermans Flight, Coral Gardens, Leslie M, Anse-La-Ray, Chastanet Reef, Piton Reef, Fairyland, and many others. I highly recommend you dive Nitrox, as well as have a dive computer. There are no shallow dives, and most will carry you from 45-80 feet, and you will eventually bump up against limits very quickly on air if you dive two tanks a day. They ran 31-32% so 111 ft. limit is no problem, and it was only $5 extra a dive. The food, especially dinner, was excellent. We did the MAP three days, and normally ate lunch at the bar after diving. There is quite a variety of items on the lunch menu, and you should try everything but the normal stuff you eat at home. After all, you are in St. Lucia! Even the crab or tuna cheese melts were great. We had Jungle take us to Soufriere for a few hours. There is not much to see, other than a really old Catholic Church (95% of St. Lucians are Catholic), and Debbies Place, which has Batik, t-shirts, and trinkets. We also went to Fish Friday in Anse-La-Ray, which is a cant miss event. It is a street party with lots of local flavor and food. Alvin or one of his crew will take you there and bring you back by boat, but DO NOT pay more than $30US per person roundtrip, and negotiate it up front. If you are looking for more shops and such, you will have to go to Marigot or Castries. In closing, if you are looking for a quiet, friendly, out of the way, no frills, beach resort with EXCELLENT service, and you want to dive, or learn to dive, I recommend Anse Chastanet. But remember, this IS the Caribbean, and island time prevails here, so relax, and everything will happen in due time.
My UW pictures are located at:
Diving\ Photos
My UW pictures are located at:
Diving\ Photos
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