St Lucia Independence Day – Reflections and Departures … Thurs 22nd – Fri 23rd Feb 2018

St Lucia Independence Day – Reflections and Departures   …   Thurs 22^nd – Fri 23^rd Feb 2018

Castries harbor felt like a mill pond compared to many of the other anchorages we have visited over the past month, but it is strange to spend the night in such an urban environment. On Thursday morning, St Lucia Independence Day, we took the dinghy ashore just in time to see a military parade with marching band and then spent a couple of hours wandering around town. There were two cruise ships docked in town and we ended up in the restricted shopping area where passengers can get spend their money and see absolutely nothing that represents the real local town. We were accosted by countless taxi drivers offering us tours, but the magic words “we aren’t on the cruise ship” seemed to dispel any interest in us. There were a few celebrations underway in town, including a biker’s convention, but on the whole it was fairly quiet and most of the market was closed.

It’s been 39 years since St Lucia became independent. The major sources of income now are tourism followed by bananas, which are mostly sold to the UK. Fishing seems to be important locally but I can’t imagine there is much export. We feel we have spent long enough here to see most of the attractions and get a pretty good sense of the place. It’s a very colorful island with a lot of beautiful scenery, including the interior that is mostly rain forest. There are some fancy resorts and more developed areas, but most of the towns and villages but are down-to-earth, bustling places focused on local life. There must be nearly as many bars as there are people on this island! The food is tasty and filling, but a little lacking in variety. What is absolutely striking is how friendly the people are, and it’s remarkable that there isn’t more resentment towards the wealthy visitors. Whilst we view ourselves as different from the owners of the many super-yachts you see down here, (they are wealthy but we are not), that’s a distinction that would be lost on many of the locals we met. At times the towns can seem a little “sketchy” and intimidating and in Castries we were actually warned away from one area by the local police. But whenever we got talking to the local people they were always friendly, interesting and helpful, and this is what I will remember most about St Lucia.

We departed Castries after lunch and motored up the short distance back to Rodney Bay and took a slip at the marina. We’ll spend a couple of days here sorting out a few boat jobs and preparing for the next month of our trip. It also gave us a few hours on Thursday evening and Friday morning to hang out and relax with Paige and Stew before they jumped in a taxi and headed back to the airport and home to Massachusetts. It has been great having them on board and we hope that it lived up to their expectations. We’ll look forward to seeing them and the rest of their family (Susan and Evan) again in the summer.

Mike

Marching Band Castries - St Lucia Independence Day

Band Leader

A fishing Captain - Castries fishing port - a great example of the lovely friendly people of St Lucia. This guy was a scream!

Fishing boat - partial B&W

Cruise liner - Castries

I can't picture this sign appearing in Quincy Market, Boston ... but it's clear and to the point! Note - Stew declined to have his portrait taken in front of this wall!