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Published: February 20th 2015
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Tuesday February 10th 2015. Castries, St Lucia,
Castries is the capital and largest city in St Lucia (pronounced Saint LOO-sha). The city is in a flood gut and is built on reclaimed land. It houses the seat of government and the head offices of many foreign and local businesses. The city is designed in a grid pattern simlar to New York but on a much smaller scale. Its sheltered harbour receives cargo vessels and fetty boats as well as cruise ships. The city was founded by the French in 1650 as Carenage which means safe anchorage when the island was purchased by the Governor of Martinique.
We approached the island passing its dramatic twin peaks the Pitons which soar 2,000 feet up from the sea sheltering magnificent rainforests and orchards of bananas coconut mango and papaya. Measuring 240 square miles St Lucia is the second largest of the windward islands. The island is believed to have been discovered by Juan de Cosa who travelled with Christopher Columbus. The first European to settle here was Francois Le Clerc, a pirate known as Jambe de Bois or Wooden Leg. The British arrived in 1605 having been blown of course on their
way to Guyana. The settlers were attacked by the Caribs and just 19 survivors were forced to flee in a canoe. The French arrived in 1651 and signed a peace agreement with the Caribs. For 150 years, disputes and hostilities meant that St Lucia was alternately British and French before it was finally ceded to the British in 1814. The French built the first sugar estates but the continuous fighting prevented the growth of large plantations. The industry on the island died in the 1960's. St Lucia became independent in 1979 and remains a member of the British Commonwealth.
As we had been here a few times before we decided to splash out and do something new. We decided to go on the Aerial Cableway through the rainforest. Roy and Pati joined us. We disembarked the ship and ran the gauntlet of the cabbies. We took a known shortcut towards Castries and made our way to the ATM we used last time. Unfortunately it was out of order. We continued on to Derek Walcott square and asked a policeman for directions to the nearest ATM. He did better than directions - he took us there. As he was so
helpful we sought him out again at Derek Walcott Square and asked if he could recommend a taxi driver. He took us to his colleague, an off duty policeman, called Ignatius. We negotiated a price for the day. Ignatius should have been on duty in the afternoon but his mate agreed to cover for him.
We drove out of Castries and headed for the hills. Deep in St Lucia's mountainous interior are 19,000 acres of rainforest and 29 miles of walking trails that run through it. We were not going to walk however. Ignatious took us to the Rainforest Adventures Entrance. Here we were asked if we had tickets (we hadn't). Luckily there was space on the last tour of the day on the Aerial Tramway or Cableway which allows you to see the rainforest from both above the canopy and below. We made use of the facilities where there was a very non politically correct sign on the disabled toilet door saying "Handicapped". M just had to take a picture of that. Our guide was called Sharon - pronounced "Sha-RON" and he (yes he) was a very good looking and knowledgeable young man. We waited awhile for an
empty tram and eventually we were all on board. There were 6 of us in the group. The ride took about 2 and a half hours. It was very pleasant and quiet (apart from the odd scream from a nearby zip-liner!). Sharon pointed out trees and birds as we drifted through the rainforest. We saw different types of humming birds and were lucky enough to see the national bird of St Lucia. Once at the top the open topped tram turned around and we started the descent. We were now above the rain-forest canopy and had fantastic views over the forest to the coast. Once we were back down we had a quick stroll around the humming bird garden before re-joining Ignatius.
We came down out of the mountains and arrived at Rodney Beach. We did a deal of $30 EC for 4 sunbeds and two parasols and arranged for Ignatius to collect us 2 hours later. We spent a pleasant couple if hours on the beach. We had great views over to the Pigeon Island National Park. Ignatius collected us and took us to a bar in Castries called the Pensioners (very appropriate). The drinks here were all
at local prices. We were joined by Linda and Pete and after it was dark we walked back to the ship.
There was a 70's deck party in the evening but we gave it a miss.
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