St Lucia, Windward Islands, West Indies

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Sunday 14th December, 2014. St Lucia, Windward Islands, West Indies

We awoke to find ourselves docked at the Pointe Seraphine Cruise Terminal in Castries, St Lucia. St Lucia is the second largest of the 4 islands which make up the Windward Group in the West Indies. It has a mountainous backbone with Mount Gimie at 3,117 feet being the highest point. The island is said to have been discovered by Christopher Columbus during his fourth voyage on St Lucy's day, December 13th 1502. He did not land here though and it is now thought that the first Europeans to land were unknown Spanish explorers. The British made the first attempt at a settlement when the ship "Olive Blossom" called here in 1605 but they were either killed or driven off by the native Carib Indians. Possession of this island was a cause of constant dispute, war and bloodshed between the French and the British for nearly 150 years. In 1650 the island was purchased from the French (along with Grenada and Martinique) for £1600 (what a bargain!). From then on until 1814 the island changed hands 14 times between Britain and France. Battle sites and treaties litter the history of St Lucia! Since 1979 the Island has been fully independent but remains a member of the Commonwealth.

We had been to this island a couple of times before but had never been and explored the capital city of Castries. We decided to rectify this and ambled into the city which stands at the head of the bay with the hill of Morne Fortue on one side and the Vigie Peninsular on the other. Very few old buildings remain although it is still very quaint with brightly painted wooden buildings. Unfortunately it was a Sunday and absolutely everything was closed except for the Roman Catholic Cathedral! This is the Cathedral of the Imaculate Conception, a 19th century structure with wooden columns and bright Caribbean roof paintings. We watched a service in progress and took some photos of the outside and a sneaky shot of the inside which contained some fantastic murals.

After the church we crossed the road and strolled around Derek Walcott Square which is named in honour of the 1992 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. This is overlooked by the Carnegie Library. We had a beer (Pitons) in a street where there was a lively market and then returned to the ship passing the Statue of Sir John George Melvin Compton (St Lucia's first PM) on the way. It was unfortunate that it was a Sunday.

We had lunch and then explored the vast Azura some more. Dress code tonight was formal so we had to put on our glad rags. After dinner we went to see Tom O'Connor who was quite funny and very clean (there are cildren on board!). We retired late looking forward to tomorrow which is a new destination for both of us.

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