St. Lucia trip report; long and comprehensive!

[Tobagoman]

Part I.

Check my gallery soon for pictures from the trip!! Enjoy.

St. Lucia Trip Report

Friday, April 22nd.
My wife and I had always wanted to visit St. Lucia, and we finally made it happen. The trip started out highly stressful and as aggravating as any trip planning can get. Air Jamaica cancelled their flights into St. Lucia but rebooked us with American Airlines. The flight times were similar (actually getting us to St. Lucia 1.5 hours earlier), but instead of arriving into Hewanorra Airport in the south, we were now landing at George F. L. Charles Airport in Castries, north and farther from where we were staying in Soufriere. The couple we were meeting, who were flying in at the same time and picking up a rental jeep (from Cool Breeze Jeep Rental ~$400.00/week) so that we could all ride to Soufriere together, were flying into Hewanorra Airport. The airport change nixed this plan and we had to make arrangements for airport transfers from Castries at a cost of a $160.00, plus we were still pitching in for the jeep that we couldn’t use that first day.

We were supposed to be flying out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport on Saturday morning at 7:10 am. The tickets hadn’t been issued yet and we were supposed to go to the Air Jamaica counter early Saturday morning so that they could be issued to us. Friday morning around 10 am I decided to call Air Jamaica and see if I could go to BWI airport that evening (about a 2 hour trip up to the airport) and get them issued instead of having to worry about it in the morning. They informed me that their hours are only from 9 am to 1 pm EVERY DAY! That means that they wouldn’t have been open Saturday morning before our flight, and that left me with less then 3 hours to get up there before they closed for the day. I was infuriated at this! I called my wife and told her to finish packing and get everything in the car, that we had to get to the airport before 1 pm if we still wanted to go on this vacation.

Well, we flew up to the airport and made it to the AJ counter with 15 minutes to spare and got our tickets issued. We decided to stay near the airport that night at the Embassy Suites (free parking while we are gone and a free booze happy hour from 5:30 to 7:30 pm). I told my wife that it can only get better from here, and that our run of bad luck is over. Boy, was I RIGHT!!

Saturday, April 23rd.
The flight down to St. Lucia on AA was comfortable and uneventful. We were a little worried after we caught our transfer flight in San Juan and flew past the Virgin Islands and the clouds moved in very thick over the Caribbean, but by the time we were passing Martinique it was clearing up nicely. We landed in a sunny and warm Castries and were through emigration and customs in less than 30 minutes. The airport in Castries is very small and antiquated, but not crowded. Our luggage all arrived intact and was met by our driver that was taking us to our accommodations in Soufriere. His name was Chester and he was a bit reserved and quiet, by island standards. He did ask if either of us got carsick, when we said “no” he hit the gas pedal a little more. All places on the island list their prices in Eastern Caribbean dollars (EC’s), the exchange rate is about 2.6-2.7 EC’s per U.S. dollar. So I will give prices in U.S. dollars for convenience.


The road from Castries to Soufriere is a very mountainous, winding affair to say the least. Hairpin turns up and down the mountains the entire way; the 45-mile trip took about one hour and 15 minutes. We passed through the small fishing villages of Anse La Ray (where they have the Friday fish fry) and Canaries. The people are your typical Caribbean populace, friendly and colorful, relaxing on a hot Saturday afternoon with neighbors, watching the cars go by. The houses range from shacks to beautiful villas, but all are colorfully painted and well tended.

We received our first view of the twin Pitons as we crested a mountain and began dropping into the valley that nestles the fishing town of Soufriere. These beautiful lush twin peaks are what St. Lucia is famous for and remind me of the island of Bora Bora in the South Pacific. They are absolutely breathtaking.

Soufriere is a bustling fishing port with crowded narrow streets, lined with pastel colored residences and businesses. There is no cruise ship facilities at this port, which keeps this end of the island more laid back and non-commercialized then up north at Castries. We would explore this town later.

Our accommodations were at the Stonefield Estate Villa Resort. This was at one time an active cocoa plantation and the property is hundreds of years old, very lush and beautiful. It sits on the backside of a hill from Soufriere and overlooks the Caribbean and the Petit Piton, an absolutely beautiful place with an exotic view.

We had booked in their least expensive one bedroom cottage for the first night. It did not have a view of the ocean or the piton. For the rest of our stay, when our friends were to join us, we were going to move into their least expensive 2-bedroom unit. When we arrived at Stonefield, we were met at reception by Denalia, who I had communicated with previously when booking our stay. She had one of the Estate drivers load our bags (6 total due to all of our dive gear) into a van along with another couple that had just arrived and they drove us down a short steep road to the villas, where the first couple was unloaded. Denalia informed us that she needed to put us into another villa than the one I had booked, one of the nicer units with a view. The villa is called “Flambouyant”, and sits low on the hill overlooking the Caribbean Sea below and the Petit Piton to the left, the view absolutely took our breath away. It had a very airy floor plan with one bedroom, an open-air (garden) shower, a kitchen and living room and a huge porch/patio with hammock and lounge chairs. It was absolutely fantastic! The free upgrade was a perfect start to what would be a perfect vacation.
After hanging out and absorbing the view for a while we decided to walk down to the local beach. Malgretoute beach runs along the base of the Petit Piton and is a pebble and black sand beach. It is a walk down a very steep macadam and cement road (the steepest straightest road going down a hill I have ever seen, and I am from West Virginia, so I’ve seen them steep). The beach is nice with a local restaurant on each end. The climb back up to the Villas was very taxing in the heat.

Later we left our villa for dinner and walked the short distance up to the Mango Tree restaurant and bar that is part of Stonefield. The Mango Tree sits on the side of the hill with the same view as our villa, except it includes a large pool right at the lip of the patio that makes you feel as if you are hanging above the Caribbean. The food was local and very tasty; we had Calamari (Lambi) salad and baked tuna, along with several tropical drinks. The bill was about $84.00 U.S. for the both of us. The oranges, reds, purples and greens of the multihued sunset over the Caribbean took our breath away. A local celebrity singer, Claudette, played guitar and sang in her unique voice a collection of folk and contemporary music with her own little twist. She was very good, and is at the Mango every Saturday night.

We retired back to our villa after dinner to swing in the hammock and stare at the exorbitantly abundant stars in the deep black of the Caribbean sky. It had been a decidedly decadent start to our stay; we were tired from the long day and retired early.

cont....

 

[Tobagoman]

Check my gallery soon for pictures from the trip!! Enjoy.

St. Lucia Trip Report


Sunday, April 24th.
The next morning we had breakfast at the Mango Tree, I had banana pancakes and Sue had a local omelet. It was moderately priced for just under $20.00 U.S. The sunrise behind us lit up the Piton like an erupting volcano.

Our friends arrived around 10 am and we hung out at Flambouyant to discuss the weeks plans. We had planned on diving Monday through Wednesday with a small operation called “Action Adventure Diving” at the Still Beach Resort. It was the only operation on the island that doesn’t run cattle boats, with six divers maximum on their boat. We needed to go down today and check in with them, but first we decided to check into the two-bedroom unit so we could get unpacked.

Shanna was working at the reception desk and pointed us to our new accommodations, called “Cocoa Villa”, which is an original building from the when Stonefield was a plantation. The villa was again roomy and airy, but lacked the view of both the Ocean and the Piton. We knew about this, but after staying at Flambouyant, we were now enamoured with the view and wanted something different, especially Randy and Linda, the couple that were with us. Cocoa looked out on the lush lawn and garden surrounding it, but we wanted more.

We went back and talked to Shanna and expressed our concerns. She was very helpful, but informed us that the only other villa available, that had at least two bedrooms, was the actual Plantation House, but it was quite a bit more. We decided to go look at it anyway and walked up the road through the private carport of the House, past the Estate’s pet macaw “Abdul” who dutifully said “hello” and into the front yard of a large beautiful Caribbean villa. We walked through the verandah into a house from three hundred years in the island’s past. It was large, decadent and beautiful, we fell in love with it right there.
We walked around and checked out the three large bedrooms, each with its own bath and four poster queen bed surrounded by mosquito netting (none of the villas have air conditioning or glass windows, and they were not needed!). Out back was a large verandah and terrace surrounding a huge flagstone lined pool that sat above the Caribbean Sea with the Petit Piton looming above us to our left. Off to the right side was a gigantic mango tree with papaya and banana trees on the fringe. Unconditionally the most beautiful villa I have ever seen! The villa runs $700.00 a night in the high season and $500.00 a night in the low season, and we all agreed that we could not afford that.

So, down hearted we went back to the office and told Shanna that the house was gorgeous, but we could not afford it, she offered it to us at a reduced price, but still outside of what we could afford. We asked if they would consider renting it at an even lower reduced cost. Since it was not reserved for the entire week we were there; it might be easier for them to rent the two-bedroom Cocoa villa to someone else. She said she would call her manager and ask, which she did. But, alas it was to no avail. She said she would ask the Resident Manager when he got back on the island tomorrow; we thanked her and went back to the Cocoa villa.

While there, Randy laid down in their bed and found it unacceptable (I think it was more for children then adults) and we found ourselves back at reception talking to Shanna. She made a phone call and was able to get permission to put us into the Plantation House for the night at the same price as the Cocoa villa. She would talk to the RM tomorrow to see if he would let us stay there the week at the price we could afford. We were thrilled! It was like being rich and famous (even if for only one night)! Of course we didn’t unpack (much).

We drove over to the Still Beach Resort and talked to Vincent, one of the co-owners of Action Adventure dive shop and made our dive plans. We told him where we would like to dive and at what time we wanted to start. There normal morning dives start at 10 am, we decided to start at 7 am so that we could still have half the day to do other things (Randy’s wife Linda doesn’t dive, so he could spend more time doing things with her). Our plans were for three days of 2-tank morning dives and a night dive on Tuesday. The cost for the six morning dives would be $170.00 since we had our own equipment ($200.00 without) and $15.00 for the yearly marine park pass. The night dive was an extra $55.00 ($64.00 using their equipment). We had lunch at the Still resort’s restaurant, which is next door to the dive shop. We had chicken roti and the price was $15 dollars. Of course it was very tasty!

We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon snorkeling and drove over to the Jalousie Hilton beach between the twin Piton’s and tried the snorkeling there. It was a pretty nice beach and the reef was okay. There were some hydroids floating in the water and several of us were stung, but the water was warm and the sun bright, and it IS the Caribbean. The Hilton looked like a nice resort, but I heard from a worker that Hilton is selling the place. We left and went into Soufriere for supplies at one of the grocery stores, called “Eroline’s Grocery” on Church St. Lots of Rum and mixes for Pina Coladas and daiquiris, plus bread, jams and peanut butter for sandwiches. The prices were reasonable to down right cheap! The only downside of Soufriere is that there are several locals that beg incessantly for money from any tourist that they spot. That night we went back to the Still Beach Resort for dinner, and while there met Chester, the Instructor and co-owner of the dive shop and brother of Vincent, and also Migel, who is the boat skipper. All three are local islanders and we got a great feeling that we were going to have a blast diving with them. We also met one of the ScubaBoard members “Florida1” who had turned me on to this dive shop. I had Lambi (conch) for dinner and the bill was about $25.00 U.S. for a large meal and drinks, again a very good meal. That night we stayed at the Plantation House and partied and swam in the pool. We retired early because we knew that we had an early morning of diving coming!

Monday, April 25th.
We got to the dive shop at 7 am and met Chester and Migel getting everything together. The boat was a typical island fishing panga with a large outboard, pink interior and a green canvas canopy. There were only the three of us diving with AA this week, which was great! We got our gear together and put in the boat and headed out to our first dive site at the base of the Petit Piton. It took us a long 5 minutes to get out to the site and the view was wonderful, I was getting really spoiled!

The first dive site is called the “Piton Wall”. We back rolled into the water and dropped down onto the reef. The water was a balmy 82 degrees and a slight current was running. Visibility was about 75 feet. The reef was thick with hard corals and microorganisms. No really large fish, but an abundance of small to medium size fish and eels everywhere. There were benthic critters from scorpionfish and lizardfish to fireworms and anemones.
We reached a maximum depth of 104’ with a maximum dive time of 43 minutes, overall a good introduction to St. Lucia diving.

After a deep-water exit into the boat and a 50-minute surface interval in which we picked up new tanks, we headed back out to a site called “Grande Caille”. This site is just north of Soufriere off of Anse Chastanet and is relatively shallow. The coral here wasn’t as prolific as the Piton Wall, but was made up of large colorful coral heads. Again there was abundant micro life along with turtles and an array of colorful fish. My max depth on the dive was 52’ for 56 minutes total dive time. The vis was a little better here, around 80 feet with a water temperature of 81 degrees. We were out of the water by 10 am and back at the shop minutes later.

Cont....

 

[Tobagoman]

Check my gallery soon for pictures from the trip!! Enjoy.

St. Lucia Trip Report


After rinsing all the gear, we left it with Chester so he could have it set up for our dives the next morning, which was a nice touch. We were back to our villa by 11 am. We decided that we wanted to hike the rainforest that afternoon, so the four of us hopped in the jeep and headed up into the mountains to the Edmund Rain Forest Preserve. On the way we stopped at the “Spyke Waterfall” which is touted as being St. Lucia’s tallest. It is on private property and the landowner guides the hike to it. We parked outside of a shack right off of the road and talked to the old islander running the operation. After paying a $2.00 entry fee, he called over his grandson to take us on the hike up to the waterfall. The walk is an easy one half mile up to the base of a tall waterfall with a small volume of water flowing over it. We decided we wanted to climb up to the top of it (I guestimated about a height of 500 feet) and after much him-hawing the kid relented and led us to a steep vertical trail that led up to the top. It was quite a hike in the heat of the afternoon sun, on a very steep trail that was mainly footholds cut into the dirt hill. The view from the top was nice with a view of Soufriere valley through the jungle foliage. I led the way back down, thinking it had been worth the two bucks, but watching my wife and the other couple come back down the trail on their butts was priceless. I kept catching our guides eye and we would crack up laughing watching them descend. Being from the mountains of West Virginia, this was a walk in the park for me. We did get to see ripe nutmegs growing on a tree, which I thought was really interesting. I brought 3 nutmegs back with me that I had picked.

We finished driving up the narrow, steep, winding road to the rainforest. At the ranger shack we had to pay an entry fee of about $4.00 each and were pointed down a steep trail that supposedly heads to a waterfall and a circular trail back out. The total time, we were told, should take 3-4 hours. It was a nice hike through a mature rainforest. You could tell that the rainy season hadn’t quite started yet by the dryness of the forest floor. The waterfall was pretty, with a large volume of water spilling over several granite cuts, and large deep (~10’) pools beneath them. The water was warm and clear and great for swimming. The hike took us about 3 hours, and of course going back up was the hardest part.

That evening we decided to do dinner at a local restaurant in Soufriere called Fedo’s. It is in the house of a local lady and specializes in Caribbean food (of course). I had a large chicken roti smothered in hot sauce, with all the trimmings for about $4.00, an excellent meal. I think for all four of us the bill wasn’t more than $25.00.

Tuesday, April 26th.
The seven-minute drive from our villa to the dive shop got us there at 7 am. We had really wanted to do the deep wreck of the Koyomaru that morning, but it all depended upon the currents. We hopped into the boat where all our gear was waiting for us and we were soon underway to check out the site. After about a ten-minute boat ride we arrived at the site only to discover that the current was running extremely strong, too much so to dive the wreck. We decided instead to dive the nearby, smaller and shallower wreck of the Lesleen M, a 165 foot island freighter that was sunk upright in 1986. The wreck was nicely overgrown with colorful corals and sponges and had many resident schools of fish. We did some easy penetrations into the engine room and holds, taking lots of pictures of the microorganisms that were inhabiting the nooks and crannies of the wrecked freighter. There was only a slight current on the Lesleen M, with about 60’ visibility and a water temperature of 80 degrees at depth. My max depth on the dive was 65’ for a total bottom time of 56 minutes. It was really a nice dive.

We headed back to the shop for new tanks and then motored to our next site; called “Fairyland” After 34 minutes of surface intervalling we back rolled down into the warm turquoise water of the Caribbean. The current was rolling, so what normally is a meandering self-propelled dive became a fun drift dive. Fairyland is a very profuse fringe reef that starts shallow and slopes down to a steep wall that drops into the depths. It was the most colorful and critter loaded dive of the four dives thus far. Iridescent vase sponges filled with colorful crinoids and basketstars were everywhere, with cleaning shrimp hanging out near the abundant anemones, waiting for any of the multitude of fish to stop by for its free daily service. It was truly a beautiful and spectacular dive, the best so far! The visibility was around 75 feet and the water temperature a balmy 82 degrees. I reached a max depth of 72 feet with a max bottom time of 51 minutes. We got back to the shop and rinsed our gear and told Chester that we would see him that night around 7pm for the night dive.

We decided that we would do something local for the afternoon, since we had the night dive to do. We ate lunch at a local restaurant on Malgretoute beach below Stonefield Estates. The name of the restaurant was Anse Mitan and again it also doubled as a residence. We had a wonderful meal consisting of pumpkin soup, and baked fresh tuna steaks and garlic bread for about $11.00.

Nearby is what is advertised as the world’s only drive-in volcano. So we headed up the road for the 3-minute trip to this site. Now, Soufriere means sulfur, and during our stay here, every once in a while we would catch a whiff of the volcano and understand where this name came from. Actually the entire area of Soufriere, including where the actual volcano is located, is part of an ancient caldera. We paid our $2.00 to get into the site and drove up to a nice shack where a guide was assigned to us. Samantha, who was to be our guide, took us up a short path to the edge of the smoking, bubbling and boiling active caldera. At one time you could actually go down into the caldera, but about 10 years ago a guide named Gabriel fell in and burned himself severely and since then the area has been closed to all. The volcano is actually about a 1000 square yard barren landscape of bubbling black pools and sulfuric steam. The bubbling pools are filled with a boiling solution of iron sulfide that is heated by a magma pool deep below the surface. There is a lava dome in the center of the caldera and puffs of steam escape constantly from it. It is wild looking, but not a scent I would want clinging to me. We were also shown a nearby tree that was covered in fruit. On the ends of the fruit were the nuts, which looks like, and turns out to be, a cashew. No wonder they are so expensive with only the small amount of nuts one tree produces. Near the volcano, where the iron sulfide solution exits is the mineral spring where spring water mixes and cools (relatively) the volcanic solution. It is trapped in steaming pools where you can take a dip and (supposedly) benefit from the therapeutic qualities of the minerals in the solution. We soaked our legs in the hot pools, but didn’t get all the way in so as not to have to be wearing sulfur infused clothing back to the villas. It did feel great though!

With still much of the afternoon left, we headed down to Malgretoute beach to snorkel. At the Piton side of the beach it is rocky and wind swept, but some of the best snorkeling I have encountered. Many juvenile sea critters take refuge in the spaces between the many size boulders and rocks. Several yards from shore the reef overgrows the rocks so that they are indistinguishable from each other.

We ate dinner again at Fedo’s again because of the value and the great food, then headed on down to the dive shop for our night dive. We quickly got our equipment set up, I had my HID wreck light attached to my tank with the lamp head clipped to my BC, I think it was the first HID light Chester had seen, and he was impressed by its output. It was very dark when we loaded our stuff into the boat and motored away from Soufriere. We planned on diving fairyland that night, but the currents were ripping through there (the marker buoy was under water from the current drag), so we diverted to Grand Caille. There was a current here also, but not as bad as fairyland. We quickly kitted up and back rolled into the water and dropped down to depth. The current caught us immediately and whisked us on our way. Because of all the plankton in the water that evening, the visibility was only about 65 feet, but still great for a night dive. One of the first things that I spotted was about a two foot long critter swimming very quickly right on the bottom and heading for a coral boulder. It was a purplish-gray with catfish like barbells all around the lateral parameter of its body. It swam with the undulating motion of an eel or fish and quickly vanished under the coral head. I got down into the sand with my light and searched under the coral for it, and although I could catch glimpses of it, I could not get a picture of it. What ever it was I was mystified. We continued on with the drift dive, sometimes being moved through the water column very fast, sometimes slowly. There were lots of nighttime critters out that my camera captured and the colors were spectacular. It was an exhausting dive due to the current, but well worth it! The water temperature was a steady 80 degrees and we reached a maximum depth of 52’ for a total bottom time of 47 minutes. After surfacing I mentioned the weird critter I had seen (and Randy had seen at the same time) and was told it is something that is seen here occasionally on night dives and is referred to as “the thing”.

Cont....

 

[Tobagoman]

Check my gallery soon for pictures from the trip!! Enjoy.

St. Lucia Trip Report


Wednesday, April 27th.
Today was a little overcast and rainy at first, but it quickly dissipated as the sun came up. It had rained hard that night while we slept. I guess it was to be expected at the start of the rainy season. This was to be our last day of diving while in St. Lucia, and I was a bit sad, but we had some big topside plans for later in the week. We had been hounding Chester as to what he thought the best dive on the island was, someplace special that not very many people go to. He smiled knowingly and said yes, he has such a place. It is deep and out a bit, so no one else dives it, he said it has a spectacular reef. So that morning we planned on doing the first dive on a site that Chester calls “Deep Glory”.

The problem was finding it. Chester had his brother, Vincent, bring out a depth sounder so that they could try and locate the reef. It has been over a year since Chester last dived this reef, so it was a toss up as to whether we would locate it. After about 15 minutes of searching Chester thought we were over the spot. We were showing about 104 feet on the sounder. We quickly geared up and back rolled into the water and began our descent into the depths. There was a slight current running into our face as we descended down to the bottom, I expected an ultimate reef to begin to appear, but quickly realized that that is not going to be the case. At a depth of about 29 feet I could see 75 feet to the bottom and it was sand with very little relief. Chester continued to swim into the current heading almost due west, and we followed him. Soon, pieces of a reef began to materialize on the ocean floor and within minutes we were over a spectacular spur and groove reef. My depth gauge read 112’. One of the first things we saw was a huge turtle gliding over the reef and an abundance of large fish. The reef corals were vibrant and prolific, even if the colors were a little muted from the depth, truly a spectacular reef. Unfortunately, due to the depth and time to get to it, our stay was short. We slowly ascended in the water column to 15 feet for a five-minute safety stop before surfacing. The water temperature was a chilly 79 degrees on the bottom and 82 mid column. I was under for a total of 28 minutes with a maximum depth of 112 feet. If we had dropped right down on top of it like Chester had tried to do, we would have seen a lot more, but the time we had was well worth it!
After our deep-water exit into the boat, we exchanged tanks at the shop and headed back out to our last dive site of the trip. A place called “Superman’s Flight”. We found out that it was named such from the movie Superman II which had parts of it filmed here, and also from the commonly strong current along this wall that let you fly along past the reef. The site is at the base of the Petit Piton, and starts just off of Malgretoute Beach. It was hands down the best reef of this dive vacation, and probably one of the top ten reefs I have dove on. It was overflowing with corals, sponges, fish, crustaceans, mollusks, annelid worms, bryozoans and everything else you expect to see on a healthy diverse reef system. An absolutely fabulous dive, I guess Chester was saving the best for last! The visibility was 90 to 100 feet and the temperature was 82 degrees. My max depth was 52’ and bottom time was 58 minutes. Unfortunately the current was not running strong like it normally does so we didn’t get the flying effect, but for my camera and me it was perfect! Back at the dive shop we rinsed and loaded up our gear tipped Chester generously (to be distributed among him, Migel and Vincent) and said our good-byes. We made plans with Migel to meet us in the morning at the base of the Petit Piton; he would guide us up its extremely steep slopes to the top (for a fee of course).

We had lunch at the Mango Tree Restaurant at Stonefield. Sue and I both had the flying fish sandwich, which was served on a large toasted hoagie type roll and was excellent and filling. The price for the sandwich was only $8.50. After lunch we loaded into the jeep and drove out to Castries so Linda and Randy could do some shopping in the tourist district. The market was overflowing with local venders, selling everything from island art, vegetables and local produce, to fish. We purchased the ingredients to make cocoa tea, a local favorite, and some fruit and were out of there within an hour. Castries was a little too “busy” for us. On the way back we stopped at the local rum (called “Bounty Rum”) distillery which is named “Rythum of Rum” for a tour and tasting. We were informed that there is no tour this entire week do to some renovations, but we were welcome to sample the rum. That was fine with me, I was ready to get toasted. We paid a $2.00 tasting fee and the lady at the counter led us to an outdoor bar that had about 15 rums lined up on the counter, and she said have at it, then left. So the four of us were left there to sample as much rum as we wanted, unfettered! And sample we did! My favorite was the peanut butter rum and the cocoa rum, which I mixed to call a “Resees Peanut Butter Cup”. I was getting exceptionally inebriated and having a hilarious time. We made some purchases (peanut butter rum and cocoa rum of course) and headed back onto the road. We stopped for a short visit to Marigot Bay, a natural and beautiful hurricane harbour, then finished the very harrowing trip back to Soufriere.

That night we were to eat at a bed and breakfast that Randy and Linda had stayed at on their first night on the island. It was called the “Talk To Me” and is run by two jovial locals, Michael and Andrea. We had made reservations to eat there that night. The meal was a set price of $20.00 and cooked by Andrea and served on the Verandah overlooking Soufriere from their hilltop B&B. It was a fabulous meal of garlic shrimp, curried fish, chicken Creole and fish fritters washed down with the local “Piton” beer. The meal’s spices were accented by the soca music drifting up from the town below us, while Michael regaled us with tidbits of his life on the island, we had a wonderful time.


Cont....

 

[Tobagoman]

Check my gallery soon for pictures from the trip!! Enjoy.

St. Lucia Trip Report


Thursday, April 28th.
The alarm clock woke us up early the next morning so we could meet Migel at the base of the Petit Piton at 6:30. In the background you could hear roosters crowing and cows lowing. It was a beautiful morning, with an abundance of clouds rolling over the twin peaks, we wanted the shade of the clouds, but hoped the rain would hold off. We met up with Migel at the entrance to a local waterfall park; he had his younger brother, Miles, with him for his first climb of the peak. We had spent many evenings sitting by our pool looking at this peak and wondering how the trail went up, since the side we were facing was so shear. When we had drove around to the other side and discovered that it to was nearly vertical, we were dumbfounded on how we would get up this peak without advanced climbing gear. Both the Petit Piton, which is just over 2400’ tall, and the Gros Piton, which is 2600’ tall can be climbed, but the Petit Piton is much steeper and more challenging. Much fewer tourists attempt this peak, and even fewer complete the climb.

We had agreed on a set price of $25.00 a piece for Migel to guide us up to the top, which was a better price than anyone else had offered. And after meeting up with him, we started off up an overgrown jungle trail. Within minutes the trail turned incredibly steep as it worked its way up the face that looked out over our villa. The sides of the Piton are overgrown with small trees and tropical plants, and this is the secret to the climb. We used the abundance of roots and branches to slowly pull our way up the mountain. At two thirds of the way up the piton we came out onto a prominent shoulder that has a fantastic view of the Caribbean Sea and the island towards Soufriere, It had taken us over an hour to get to that point and we were dusty and sweaty. The rain had held off so far, which is good, because footing would have been treacherous with mud and slick rocks, but the clouds were thickening and some raindrops had started to fall.

Migel said we had about another hour of climbing to go and we were reaching the more difficult portion of the climb. It had started to drizzle and the trail was getting slick and treacherous. We continued on our way slowly pulling ourselves up the slope and then we came to our first major hurdle. A large rock face that had some old ropes hanging down its shear steepness. Migel grabbed a rope and began hauling himself up, hand over hand. It was about a forty-foot climb that brought you to a small ledge on the rocks. I went next and hung at the halfway point so I could help Linda and my wife with the climb. Linda came next and with an effort, me pulling, and Randy pushing, we got her up to the ledge. Thank god she is a small petit person. My wife came next, and even though she is in great shape, she has about nine inches on Linda and probably thirty-five pounds. With no toeholds it was a losing proposition trying to get her up the cliff face, and we had to leave her there to wait for our return. I helped Randy get up and Miles elected to stay and keep Sue company. The rest of us continued the climb. There were several more spots, some even more difficult, where ropes had to be used, and at one spot Linda was ready to give up also, but with much pushing and pulling by all three of us we got her up the cliff and soon we were on the summit.

We were in the clouds and a light drizzle was falling along with a light breeze that felt good on our overheated skin. Even though the view was partly obscured by clouds, we were thrilled that we had made it to the top. There was actually more room on the peak than I would have thought, judging from the view from below. As this was a World Heritage Site, a UNESCO flag on a bamboo pole had been mounted on the peak, and we all gathered around this for pictures. Miraculously the clouds suddenly burned off and the view became spectacularly breathtaking with a rainbow out over the sea. After taking bunches of pictures, we began our descent down the rainsoaked cliff. The climb back down was relatively uneventful, and four and one half-hours after starting the climb we were back to the trailhead, scraped, bruised and sore, but elated!

We had lunch at the Mango Tree again and all of us had the flying fish sandwiches, which would be our routine for the remainder of our time on the island. Afterwards we drove over to Anse Chastenet to snorkel their reefs. Anse Chastenet is an upscale resort that is located on the north side of Soufriere and tucked into its own little cove nestled between two hills. Most of the better reefs are right off its beach; so snorkeling and beach diving is exceptional here. We spent the afternoon snorkeling at both ends of their main beach and it was a great reef, although we all agreed that we like the snorkeling at Malgretoute Beach better. The main highlight was the octopus that I discovered on the north end. On the way back we stopped in Soufriere at a small shop at the corner of Sir Author Lewis St. and Bridge St and purchased some local crafts. A friendly lady named Debbie ran the Shop.

That evening we headed to a small restaurant that we had seen on our way to hike the Piton, called “Martha’s Table”. The sign at the restaurant/home said reservations needed, but we decided to try our luck anyway. We arrived and found her patio bustling with other customers and the smell of cooking Creole food. This place looked like it had the perfect mix of ambiance and good food. Martha was able to fit us in and her daughter, Lisa, waited our table. We were informed that since we had no reservations, we would have to eat what was available, and that was pumpkin soup, cheese bread and Fresh Creole Mahi Mahi. That sounded great to us and when it was finally brought out (nothing is fast on this island) it was one of the best meals we had eaten yet, if ever! Sue and I made reservations to come back at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday night. We washed the meal down with Piton beer and paid the $11.00 bill apiece and headed back to the Plantation House to relax and drink tropical “boat drinks”.

Friday, April 29th.
Randy and Linda were to fly out a day earlier than Sue and I, so Friday was their last full day on the island. We decided to just relax by the pool and party all day, and then head to Anse La Ray for the Friday night fish fry festival around 7 p.m.
Randy and I did head back to Malgretoute Beach for an hour and a half of snorkeling before sunset, which was really nice. I wish we could have done a night snorkel. The Anse La Ray Fish Fry happens every Friday night and is put on for the tourists. They close down the waterfront and venders set up in the street, cooking and selling all types of local seafood. Jazz played over a stereo system at one end of the street and the deliciously overwhelming smell of cooking seafood hung heavily in the air. It took us about 45 minutes to drive to Anse La Ray and we stayed for about an hour. A local man named Body had a stand at the end of the street and was cooking broiled Red Snapper. We elected to try this and it was delicious, steamed in his secret recipe. The price was about $7.00. We also had some large reef snails and stuffed crab from another vender and then left.



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