Next stop, St. Lucia. The ship docked in Castries and we stepped directly into town from the ship terminal accompanied by the usual calls of “Want taxi? Want taxi?” Nope, not yet. We had a destination in mind for St. Lucia but wanted to check out the town first.

Castries harbor

For several blocks around the terminal, the town was filled with blocks of covered market areas. They were warrens of little booths of more knick knacks, clothing, spices, items made from coconuts, and all sorts of other stuff. In Castries, though, all the vendors call you “My love” or “Darling”. Kind of sweet at first but even that gets old quickly. If you pause to look at something for a nanosecond, you are pounced upon to see if you want to buy. But it’s all good-natured and it is clearly a big part of the economy. We still had fun wandering through all of the stalls.

Market in Castries, St. Lucia

Just liked this notice

Cute little guys, but what is that on their heads?

But our main goal in St. Lucia was to find our way to Caribelle Batik, which we had learned about before the trip and were supposed to make some lovely local batiks. It is located several miles up in the hills overlooking town, so we finally said “Yes!” to a “Want taxi?” and found Cornelius. For an agreed price he took us up into the hills to Caribelle Batik, driving along crazy, steep, windy roads that offer incredible views of the harbor and rest of the island. Saint Lucia is very hilly, unlike Barbados, and houses are built all the way up the hills, often on tall concrete pillars to protect against landslides in the rainy season.

View from up near the batik shop

St. Lucia is certainly NOT a place we would ever want to drive ourselves. Not only are the roads steep and windy, but they are very narrow with no shoulder. Getting past oncoming cars can be a tight fit. Cornelius would “beep, beep” his horn whenever he can to a sharp corner.

Contrasts

We finally arrived at Caribelle and we both had a great time looking at all the lovely clothing. We tried on several items each and those changing rooms had the best view I’ve ever had in a changing room. But it is so humid that you feel as if the clothes might just stay stuck to your body. We walked out happy people though, and Cornelius was waiting to take us back. But then we asked him if he could recommend a place for lunch and he had the perfect spot just a few miles out of town, quiet and on the beach.

Cornelius seemed to know half the people we passed, and it could be a cousin who runs the restaurant, but it was perfect as it was calm and quiet with waves lapping the beach right in front of the open doors where our table was situated. It was just a little run down, the perfect picture of a Caribbean beach shack. The menu had kingfish, a local fish, that we both had and it was delicious (Mike particularly enjoyed the very spicy jerk fish).

Deck at our lunch restaurant/beach shack

Beach stud

We had arranged that Cornelius would come back and pick us up at 2:30, and we knew he would come since we hadn’t paid him anything yet. Right at 2:30 he came for us, but he was quite upset, sweaty, limping, and saying something about a problem, then an accident. We were afraid that HE had been in an accident, but it turned out that there was an accident on the road to the restaurant, and when there is an accident no one can go anywhere until the police arrive. So traffic comes to a complete halt. Cornelius had fortunately been able to pull off the road and park, then hoofed it to the restaurant in time to meet us so we wouldn’t think he had abandoned us. Good guy.

We walked back down the road to where he had pulled off and walked past the accident site. A simple fender bender involving three cars, and the police had finally arrived, but they had many people lined up on the sidewalk, all with their papers out, and traffic was completely blocked. We were soon at his car and back on the road but what an interesting adventure! Cornelius took very good care of us but he did say that he was done for the day after he dropped us off at the terminal.

We were done with the heat and crowds as well and thought that a couple of frosty drinks on the ship’s deck would be the perfect way to contemplate the day. It had been quite a fun day but it did feel good to unwind on deck as the ship steamed away from Saint Lucia. On to Antigua.

Writer at work

Hauling supplies to the writer

Scene while sailing out

Yoga pose – “seeing the whole picture”