St. Lucia

Set among the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles lies the island of St. Lucia (211 nautical miles from Antigua). This is one of Linda's bucket list stops and she has been anticipating our visit for many years. I believe we first heard about the beauty of this island when we were first traveling and staying at Sandals Resorts in Jamaica about 25 years ago. Friends had visited the Sandals in this volcanic paradise and had raved of its beauty. We soon found Mexico as our go-to land for sun and exploration, but Linda never did forget about what she had been told of this island.

We disembarked our ship at 8:30 AM and met our host, Cera, who then lead us to our driver/guide for the day, Bumpy.  Bumpy immediately helped us into the van and explained that 80% of the men on St. Lucia went by nicknames. His birth name was Benedict, but for as long as he could recall everyone knew him as Bumpy.

Our port city was called Castries and Bumpy quickly drove us south out of town where we would spend most of the day driving between beautiful overlooks to the many tourist attractions of the island.

Driving the roads on this island is not for the faint of heart. Not only are you driving on the opposite side of the vehicle and the road from the US, but the roads are narrow and windy beyond belief. There were times that I actually had to look away because the traffic was moving so fast and the roads were so tight. Bumpy was an amazing driver and though we went into, and out of, some extremely close quarters, he never seemed to be ruffled and calmly maneuvered us through.

We traveled through the towns of Anse La Raye, Canaries, and Soufriere, stopping for photos and listening to Bumpy's historical insight. One of his stories pointed out and explained the women washing their clothes in the river just south of Soufriere. Many of these women had access to clothes washers and dryers, but they continued to go to the river because it was a meeting place for gossip. As we were told, these women know what is happening, who is sleeping with who, and what is going on all the time and they get this information through this gossip network.  He told us that if we were to move to this area, the first thing that Don and I should do is to buy our wives a new washer and dryer. This way we can keep our personal business private and out of the gossip network thus keeping our marriage healthy and happy.

From the stories Bumpy related, we decided that in this country the men still feel that they are the top dogs, women are looked upon as lessers and it is not unusual for a man to have several girlfriends as well as a wife. Men prefer that the women work, do the home chores, and raise families. A good man will provide, but many prefer to be provided for. Bumpy told us that he lived in his mother's home, (she had passed away) with his Aunt whom he considered his mother now. We gathered that he had many girlfriends, but was a well respected and known driver/guide in this community.

After our long conversation dealing with gossip and laundry, we drove to the Tet Paul Nature Trail. This area has been developed because it is located between the two Pitons. The Pitons, Gros Piton (2610 ft.) and Petit Piton (2438 ft.) are must-see natural peaks. We hiked the circular trail and took photos at each platform. Our guide, Lisa, was very knowledgable of the plants and trees that we passed. The entire hike took about 45 minutes and was well worth our visit.

The nature trail was the farthest point south that we drove on the island. We drove back north and stopped at the Torialle Water Fall which is a heritage tourism site. We quickly took some photos and then were chased away by about 30 German tourists (We are not "crowd" people!).

As a bit of a surprise, Bumpy wound deep into the town of Canaries and picked up some hot bread and then continued on to another spot where he purchased cheese. He called the bread wings chicken legs and we placed the cheese in the legs and ate them warm and fresh. It was a very nice touch and absolutely delicious.


Bumpy then drove us to another overlook that gave us a magnificent view of Marigot Bay. This bay is a shelter site used when hurricanes strike the island;  it is very sheltered. It also has been the backdrop to many movies, such as Dr. Doolittle and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Our final stop was at an overlook that had the entire Port of Castries as the backdrop. Bumpy took several group shots and then drove us back to our ship. It was a wonderful way to check off one more thing on the bucket list.