S. Lucia

Ruggedly beautiful and lushly tropical, St. Lucia has average temperate of 85, is 14 miles wide, 27 long with a population of 165,000. It is the 2^nd largest of the Lesser Antilles’ Windward Islands. It was originally occupied by the ferocious Carib Indians and changed hands 14 times before becoming a British Crown Colony by the Treaty of Paris in 1814 and gained full independence in 1979. The French influences have remained with the Creole culture and many speak a French patois.
We docked in Castries, the capital, which is actually a harbour within the flooded crater of an extinct volcano. The morning market is active selling papayas, breadfruit, cloves, bananas and local fishing boats selling their fresh catches.
We toured the island with our guide Candy, who was born and raised here, has never been off the island, and is a direct descendant of the ferocious Carib Indians who were cannibals. TJ, our driver, was raised in a family of 16 children, had breadfruit and coconuts as their main food, went to school barefoot with dishes of food for lunch wrapped in cloth on their head. Coconut is known as the ‘gift of life’. They used it as food and drink, filled their pillows and mattresses with the husks which he said became hard as concrete with time and used the shells as bowls, etc. The French influence remains here with the Creole culture and many people speaking patois or Papiamento. His parents only speak this to this day. He drove like a mad fool, on the left side of the road and Ron kept flinching on corners on the cliff side of the hills. We went to Bradshaw’s Silkscreen Studio where we saw how this was done and then off to a wood carving studio. Beautiful craftsmanship. We had a tour of La Toc Battery where you see Ron in colonial dress. It was restored by Mrs. Bradshaw, an avid diver, who gathered thousands of glass bottles and artifacts from the bottom of the harbour, now here on display, depicting life in the early 1800’s when her ancestors lived. Next we drove down to a small fishing village, Anise de Raye with colorful houses and charming children. This little girl, probably 4 years old, was so charming and literally grabbed my $1 US which I had to pay her to use the washroom, but I couldn't get her to stop posing.We had a delightful day and I think this is my favorite so far although every island is fascinating.