"These are a few of St. Lucia's things..."

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Partly cloudy, rained overnight. As long as it keeps raining overnight we'll be happy campers!

We arrived in St Lucia 8am. We had no plans today so a leisurely breakfast at 8:30 in time for a morning trivia

When we get off the ship, we are going to check if the Buggy Man is around. Not the image of most children's (and a few adults) nightmares that traditionally lives under the bed, but the man who hires out four wheel vehicles that, with their off road capability, are able to satisfy the most hyper of adrenaline junkies!!! . Prior to the trip, as part of our research we spotted a company that hire out 4-wheel buggies. There is a 5 hour tour where you're in charge of the buggy but you are taken around the island in convoy, on and off road. This looked fun if not a tad expensive but as we're unlikely to return here we had decided to book it. Unfortunately the tour was sold out for today. However, we decided to see if there are any other buggy men around.

On our way to breakfast as we entered deck 5 from the forward lift I thought Roisin had started to have a coronary. She grabbed my arm and started hyperventilated. As soon as words started to come out of her mouth, I knew it was just the excitement of what she saw before her eyes.

'The decorations, the Christmas decorations. They're going up!!' she exclaimed. ‘Look there's the tree!'

The crew had only just started this morning by the look of it but all the decorations were lying on the floor waiting to be attached to a bulkhead, pillar or elected as a centre piece. There were hundreds of boxes with decorations scattered around the ship. I wonder whose job it was to get all these down from the attic!! As we watched them work during our breakfast every wreath, garland and bauble appeared to have a designated place as if the whole thing was seamlessly rehearsed, as if well-choreographed by an invisible director.

Roisin and I decided to hang around for the early morning trivia amidst the sound of Christmas songs being piped through the speaker system on a continuous loop. Our quiz master was quick to pick up on the vibe and said: ‘There will be nothing but Christmas songs from now on so you better get used to it. We have to!!

St Lucia is part of the Lesser Antilles and lies between the Caribbean islands of St. Vincent to the south and Martinique to the north. The population is approximately 170,000 with 60,000 residing in the city of Castries, St. Lucia's capital.

It is well documented that the Arawak Indians settled in St. Lucia around 400 to 200 BC until the violent Caribs arrived and took control between 800-1000AD. As Europe began its expedition of the New World, what isn't so clear is the first Europeans to establish a settlement on the island. Here the waters remain a little murky. (Metaphorically speaking!!)

Some say Columbus first landed in 1502 but other records show he could not have been anywhere near here on that date. According to local tradition, a group of shipwrecked French sailors landed here on December 13, 1502. To add to the mystery, St. Lucia appears on a Vatican globe dated 1502. However, a pirate named Francois le Clerc officially put St. Lucia on the map. During the mid-16th century, this colourful character used the island as a base against his attacks on Spanish galleons sailing through the Caribbean. Then over a 150-year period the island changed hands 14 times being tossed back and forth between the British and the French. In fact the locals had to check on a daily basis to see if the Union flag or the Tri-Colour was flying from the town hall to decide if they could see the ‘cat' through the ‘window' or ‘le chat' through ‘la fenêtre'!! Finally the ‘cat could definitely be seen through the window as St. Lucia became an independent nation within the British Commonwealth in 1979.

We didn't really have a plan today other than to have a wander. The temperature was in the 80s so although we had decided to go for a stroll, this could easily change to finding a nice bar somewhere.

On the quay we followed the string of people through the usual array of souvenir shops to where a group of people had gathered by the water's edge. One taxi driver approached but we declined his offer for a three hour tour for the island for $60 but he was polite enough to tell us that the small group of people were waiting for the water taxi that will take you to the centre of the town. It is a 10 minute journey that costs US$5 return per person.

The ferry was a small boat that couldn't (or shouldn't) hold more than 20-30 persons. Everyone sat down on narrow bench like seats. The engines roared up and the smell of diesel filled the air but the breeze created as the boat chugged across the dock was very welcome.

We alighted on the other side of the dock to where the Royal Princess was berthed and followed the signs ‘to the centre'. This took us through a small shopping mall. Both Roisin and I had already made a mental note of the café/bar offering free wi-fi!!

Outside the mall, on Jeremie Street a taxi driver stepped out in front of me blocking my way to the zebra crossing that would take us to safety. So close only 2 yards…and yet.

‘Taxi?'

‘No thanks. We just want to wander.'

To you, good price. 1 hour – US$20.'

‘How's that good? I thought. It's the same price as the other taxi only shorter!!

‘Maybe later', I found myself saying which in taxi driver speak must mean ‘Not interested. Now piss off!! Because it worked and the path was clear.

I studied the map that I picked up at the tourist information on the quayside but there didn't seem to be anything of interest marked. The cathedral was shown as was a small park so we headed in that general direction.

We turned right down Paynier Street and within a few minutes were facing the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. I'm not too sure what the characteristics are to qualify a building to be called a cathedral but not wanting to offend the local I nodded my head in appreciation. However, the ‘not wanting to offend locals' didn't last very long because adjacent to the Cathedral is Derek Walcott Park. I asked a local in which era he played cricket for the West Indies only to be informed that he is one of St. Lucia's greatest literary figures winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1992!!

There didn't seem to be much more of interest and the café/bar was becoming more appealing in this heat. We had come full circle and were facing the mall from which we had exited less than ½ hour ago!! Our taxi driver came rushing across the road and once again turned on the charm offensive. We now know his friends call him ‘Smiler'. I asked him if they were being ironic. Either he didn't understand or he just chose to ignore my remark he continued by saying that he would take us to a vantage point to see across the town and the rugged coastline. That sounds to me like the last island we were on!! We once again declined his (generous) offer and headed across to Chef Robbies for a well-deserved beer or two and some sweet potato fries.

Our one disappointment was that we never got to see the Pitons. These are majestic twin peaks that seem to rise straight from the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea. Each mount, created from hardened lava, towers over 2,000 feet in the air. However, unbeknown to us, this very characteristic coast line can only be seen from the south of the island. We thought that we may have got lucky when we departed from St. Lucia at 6pm but by then it was raining, almost dark and, when the captain made his announcement five minutes before departure to explain the next course of the journey, he explained that we will pass the pitons at about 8:30pm but will be six miles off shore, it will be dark and probably still raining. However, this Captain is definitely a ‘glass half full' kind of guy as he apologised for the passing showers today and referred to all the rain we have had so far a ‘Caribbean liquid sunshine'!!

We met Alan and Cathy from Blackpool in the evening together with Rosemary and Charlie for a 50^th anniversary Sound of Music quiz. This iconic film was released in the same year that Princess Cruises was founded. Alan and Cathy had told us about their experience on an organised excursion today. The roads in St Lucia are very poor. If the suspension of the vehicle you are riding in is also dodgy you're in for a rough ride. Even if the suspension of the bus or car is in top shape, the ride would still be a bone shaker in many places.

They visited a drive through volcano' which could have been any tunnel in the world except for small bubbling pools of mud and a strong smell of sulphur. Some of the colour in the flowers and fauna were breath- taking AND they got to see the Pitons!! They said of the 5 hour tour, they seemed to spend most of their time on the bus. They sensed much poverty through the island from what they saw. More so than in Antigua. The journey back took almost 1 ½ hours due to the traffic coming in to Castries. For seasoned travellers, this hadn't been the best tour they had been on.

So back to the trivia. We won the Sound of Music quiz. Well, I shouldn't be admitting this really but we scored 24/27. Luckily we had two SoM aficionados in Rosemary and Cathy who between them knew the five animals in My Favourite Things and could name all seven von Trapp Children. We even got the bonus point for naming them in order of their age.

I contributed with ‘Name the actor who played Captain von Trapp'. OK I got it half right!! I said Christopher Walken!!!

We won another bottle of cheap ‘ship' champagne as the crew refer to it. As Roisin and I already have one and Cathy and Alan don't drink we gave it to Rosemary and Charlie who promised to bring it to another trivia when we can all share in our latest victory.

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Comments

[Ragnhild Sorin]

You are having a good time. Great picture