On St. Lucia

Does this view look familiar? Maybe it is from Fort Napoleon, overlooking Iles des Saintes? Or Fort Shirley, overlooking Simpson Bay, Domenica? Good guesses, because they are similar, but this is from Fort Rodney, overlooking Rodney Bay, at the north end of St. Lucia, where, looking north, instead of southeast, as in this photo, the Brits thought they could keep a good eye on the French fleet in Martinique. (But not at night so I'm not sure that the prior statement makes sense.

The foot of this fort, which we reached by dink, followed a morning shopping trip to a big new US style supermarket (e.g., fat free half and half) also visited by dink. Somehow we lost our dink lock at the supermarket dinghy dock and had to buy a replacement to prevent its going missing. Next you see the fort at the top, built after the Napoleonic age and used by the US in WWII as a communications post.



















In a zoomed view of the Bay, showing the marina in the Lagoon, the big boat facing right is Baccarella, last seen in North Cove, Virgin Gorda; and we are one of the tiny specks to the right. you can see the narrow passage from the Bay into the Lagoon from the right side.


















After three days at Rodney Bay, we had a delightful passage down the coast, heading toward the south end of the island to shorten the next day's longer passage to St. Vincent. We had planned to stop at Marigot Bay, a lovely, tiny, well hidden cove, but the weather was so good that we kept going to Soufriere (it means "sulfurous air"). The wind was variable but pleasant and the sun was shining.

The Pitons, mountain peaks by the sea, are St. Lucia's national symbol. A stylized depiction of them are the triangle on her national flag.


They grace her eponymous national beer label.


But as we headed south, the island is so mountainous that Lene asked: "Which ones are the Pitons?" And then it became obvious:


Here we are, on our mooring under the Petit Piton.


There us a trail to the top, and you need to take a guide, so we have an activity for the return trip.

We spent our first afternoon in Soufriere at the Hummingbird Resort, with free swimming in their pool, free shower, and free (though very balky) wifi, if you eat dinner. I had king fish (it probably has a different name in other places) in a sauce of capers, lemon and white wine and coconut pie for desert, with more coconut than custard and ice cream to smooth it down. Then came the only hard part, launching the dinghy into the surf at night -- but we did not lose our electronics in the process.

Next day we visited the volcano with its steam, boiling pools, and sulfur dioxide smell. The river Styx, perhaps.


This most active part of the volcano (it has not erupted since the mid 18th century) is in a Caldera; the basin of a volcano whose peak has collapsed, as at Santorini in the Agean. Then to the botanical garden. Is this a Jackson Pollack plant?


It has a sulfurous waterfall; notice bands of color at its sides.


The garden is not as well done as the one in Deshaies, but our guide spoke English, though this photo is of our volcano guide.


Lunch was in this authentic looking place:


While the Calaloo soup and fried yam chips were good the fish roti was not. The next photo shows men doing what men do throughout the Caribbean:


Dominoes.
We went for a snorkel near the bat caves. This involved loading a lot of stuff into the dink and rigging a line to form a foot loop to boost oneself up on one side and and hand loop from the other side to pull ones self in. But because we were the only ones there at the time, the wind was strong, and the surf was a problem, Lene decided that discretion was the better part of valor. So we returned to our boat. Unfortunately, I did not tie up the dinghy properly and while I attended to other tasks, it floated away. When I noticed, a few minutes later, a man in a fishing boat was already towing it to us and took $20EC as his reward. Lene swam from the boat, we enjoyed a good home cooked meal, pulled up the dink onto its davit bar and had a good night sleep in anticipation of the morrow's passage.

Ilene did not enjoy Soufriere and for one reason: the aggressiveness of the boat boys, taxi drivers and street vendor/beggars. Everywhere else such poor people, who one can sympathize with, accept "No". We saw evidence of the destruction of hurricane Tomas. There is a lot of unemployment. The people had worked hard to clean up the worst mudslides since the hurricane, but some trails remained closed. We felt guilty not helping much, and did help a few. Our feelings are probably typical of tourists in poor nations. It is just that here they pestered us.