St Lucia
St Lucia has it all. Beaches, volcanoes, birdwatching, waterfalls, ravines, markets, rainforest, chocolate!!! It`s very green - is about 75% rainforest and you can take some amazing adventures there including ziplining and even eight-seater gondolas travelling over the forest canopy observing the countryside and wildlife (like epiphytes,orchids and humming birds) if you are a bit less adventurous. If you are even less inclined, or able - there`s always the botanic gardens. And then there are the markets in the capital - Castries. The outdooor one is predominately fresh produce like fruits, vegetables and fish. The indoor one is more for general sales to locals plus some `toutist tat` for the visitors that pour off the quayside cruise boats in look of momentoes. In there you will find cinnamon rolls, local craft items, bags of other spices and even cocoa sticks for making hot chocolate drinks. Both markets feature in the 3 pages of pictures below. There is also a couple of standard duty free shops for the day visitors so that there is no excuse for not taking hom a nice bottle of Caribbean rum on an isalnd specific T-shirt (yes I do have a nice one from St Lucia!)
On both our recent visits to St Lucia after we had hit the markets we found ourselves a local taxi (always negotiate the price before setting off!!) and headed up the coast to the Rodney Bay area where there are hotels and shops and great beaches (and during our visits very heavy but brief rain). Sitting just offshore is Pigeon Island which since a causeway was built is no longer actually an island but contains a wonderful national park encompassing the Fort Rodney ruins - a defencive fort built by the British in the 18th century to fend off the French (St Lucia changed hands 14 times during this era!). Oh and of course the ex-island also has so splendid beaches. We lunched looking out over the beach/sea in one of the waterfront hotels and watched (and video recorded) recorded fantastic humming birds working the blossoms in one of the trees in the hotel garden.
Then there are the volcanoes, Petit Piton and Gros Piton on the southwest corner of the island giving rise to silvery - almost black volcanic sand beaches and also in that southwest volcanic region is the Soufrier volcano. Technically Soufrier is dormant as it has not erupted since the 1700s but it still has sulphur `springs` which eminate from a weakness in the volcanic crater which you can drive up to (yes - it`s a drive-in volcano)! There are hot thermal springs and you can even soak in a hot mud bath if you can handle the bad eggs smell which is associated with suphurous fumes. And then there is the Rabot Estate which is owned by the UK chain Hotel Chocolat. There they are working to produce fine chcolate by developing better quality cocoa pods and in increasing yields. You can indulge your senses by taking one of their tours which will take you all the way through the process from the initial grafting to propagate one specific variety of cocoa bean tree right through to the production of the final product. Look out for the "Tree To Bar Experience" if this is your scene.
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Browse through the picture galleries below relating to this page and you will get a much better idea than just reading my words! Each page has it`s own set of relevant images - where possible taken by us.