Blogs from Saint Lucia, Central America Caribbean

St Lucia is one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean. While I have been here a few times already, at the beginning of this year I finally got the chance to explore beyond the port area and learned a bit more about the customs and culture of the island. I signed up for a tour to that gave us the opportunity to try ourselves in the art of chocolate making. From the port in Castries it was only a short drive to Howelton Estate. When we arrived they gave us a short introduction into their batik clothing making and then we moved on to their chocolate making process. First we were shown all the ingredients, how these were sourced locally and the steps from raw product to the chocolate bar. Everyone received a small ... read more

Yesterday, Saturday, we arrived at Saint Martin to bright blue skies and a temperature of 85. There are five vessels in port including us and I am delighted to see that the island is busy. The last time I was here it was recovering from a major hurricane. Then Covid hit. It has been tough times for the island travel industry. My day is much like all the others. Coffee on the verandah, lunch at the Lido, reading stretched out on a couch by the Seaview pool, nap time, Happy Hour and trivia then dinner. Tonight I had watermelon with feta and it was a yummy combo. The Mahi Mahi was done perfectly and I was pleasantly full. Sunday Saint Lucia port is rainy. The sun is trying to shine and I hope it clears up ... read more

Our last couple of days were quiet, mainly because the weather turned to warm, very windy and cloudy. Also because Steve had a problem with his foot (suspected Gout - very painful) and that put the kibosh on a planned rainforest walk. Still we were able to get some interesting things done: Friday night is street party night in Gros Islet, with lots of street food, street bars and VERY LOUD music. We travelled by local bus, had a cocktail, surveyEd the long queues for food and, as we had done previously at Shirley Heights, decided to go elsewhere to eat. The elsewhere was Rodney Bay Marina, only a walk from our hotel and home to several very attractive restaurants. We have eaten well in St Lucia but English Harbour was better.... On Saturday we had ... read more

Our last night in Antigua involved a return visit to Restaurant Incanto....fabulous food in a delightful setting, although it was a bit blowy that night. Our hostess in Antigua let us check out late which was great as we were able to have a full day before our evening flight to St. Lucia. This was interesting on a small 50 seater aircraft. We flew at about 18:00 heading south and looking west. As we flew the sky turned redder and redder finally fading to black as we landed. Spectacular but not really photographable. So, all good except that the taxi we ordered to pick us up failed to materialise so we had to find a cab and got into our new hotel later than planned. We’ve moved from a small B&B in the Antiguan hills to ... read more

November in Calgary can be drab and dreary; cold and snowy waiting for the ski hills to open, so we headed south to Saint Lucia. We have a small suite in a private residential area of Gros Islet at the very north end of the island, Lime Tree Cottage. We have a small private garden with our own coconut tree. Yesterday a lineman from the power company came to trim the branches and cut two coconuts for us to try. He cut the tops off with his machete and we drank the coconut water straight from the shell. Doesn’t come any fresher! Even the local birds, that resemble colourful pigeons like to drink coconut water straight from the shell. We walked to the remnants of the fort at the top of Pigeon Island where Rodney, the ... read more