Category Archives: Caribbean

Farewell Soufriere, farewell St Lucia :-(

Caribbean

We found a message from Fi yesterday evening on Facebook saying that Sulana was in the next bay and were we around. We had half a plan to squeeze a sulphur springs visit in this morning before checking out, but changed plans and are now up early and heading round to the beach in the hope of seeing her and saying goodbye. Rowan and Conny are also up for it but as they’re not leaving today they reckon they’ll probably stay on longer.

We get there by water taxi around 9am, aiming to return about 1130 with time to spare for a shower and change of clothes before heading off to the airport. Rowan and Conny investigate diving here and find it’s cheaper than the cove the other side of Soufriere who they went with yesterday and the wreck dive the want to do, these guys are going to today. Hhmm, we say our goodbyes as they won’t be back before we need to leave. We’ve had great fun with them and are all sad to say fairwell, but promise a trip to Canada sometime down the line.

It takes Fi until after 11am to get across to the beach to see us. Lots of admin held her back. Short and sweet but we do get a quick chat in before our water taxi returns. Another sad moment – we were supposed to have been spending NY with her and the others back in Rodney Bay. Oh well maybe we’ll see her in South America in a few weeks :0)

Back at the hotel showered and dressed, we check out and head for a bus with plenty of time to spare. It’s quite embarrassing. How to win over the locals! The bus driver rearranged (no joke) the whole mini bus to fit us and our bags along the back seat. As you can imagine, they weren’t that amused by that! We didn’t feel bad for too long as they were mostly all taking a short journey, guess he knew this, and we were going to the end of the line. In fact when we got to Vieux Fort, he dropped the remainder of the passengers off and then drove us the extra 3 or so miles round to the airport. What a star! Even with a bit extra added to our fare it still only cost us £10. Bargain. Quite an emotional journey. We’ve really had a great time here and pretty sure we’re going to miss it.

At check-in we discovered we hadn’t filled out the US “ESTA” form. This is required for immigration, a visa waiver kinda. If we’d been in the UK or indeed the US we’re sure we’d have been sent away to sort it out ourselves and that’d be that. Not St Lucia. Nope, the desk guy calls his colleague over who takes us out to the back office, sits us down and fills the form in online with us. Amazing!!

Arriving in Miami it’s a bit cold by comparison but still pretty mild, a long sleeve top is all we need. Immigration, as expected, is pretty tedious, although we’re not finger-printed or retina scanned as anticipated. Why? Because we’re already on file from our last visit, 10 years ago!!!

The hotel shuttle is only a few minutes wait and after checking in we decide we’re too tired to venture out. It would require a taxi (nobody walks anywhere!) and what’s the point in a budget priced hotel if we then blow a load on taxi’ing back and forth from town, especially being tired. So the hotel bar for food it is and amazingly we don’t actually get massive US portions!!!

A road trip for our last day

Caribbean

We hoped to hire a car for the day together with Rowan and Conny but the three car hire places in town don’t have anything available. Plan B, we decide to take a local bus up to Marigot Bay, have a look around and then take buses back south maybe stopping somewhere else on the way back south, possibly stopping at Anse la Raye to visit a beach Conny had spotted in a cove north of the village.

As we organised ourselves outside the hotel to get to the bus stop, we bumped into Jannelle (the local girl we met xmas eve) she’s on her way to Castries and is sure we could all get a lift with her friend at local bus rates. We don’t want to hold her up, but when we’re all finally ready she’s still around so we go for it. Her little boy, Dominic, and her two younger sisters are in the mini bus as well and we all have a great chat on the journey. The kids go to great lengths to tell us about the island and the storm damage from the hurricane etc. As before the roads are in a terrible mess with landslides and storm damage. We see where the road had been blocked when we tried to get down last week! We see where Jannelle’s jewellery stall is – at an incredible viewpoint. She has such  a lovely family and the journey is a treat. We hope to meet up with Jannelle later tonight for a farewell drink, assuming we get buses back ok :0)

At Marigot Bay we admire the yachts and have a coffee and cake. Then we head off to find a bus to the cove Conny found north of Anse la Raye. When we arrived there were only us and a couple of lads. It’s a great find! Within an hour there were about another dozen more lads aged between 8 and 14 maybe, they arrived individually or in pairs but all seem to be friends and have a competition doing front flips into the water. Conny got talking to some of them early on when he wandered off to take some photo’s. Not long afterwards him and Huw were attempting said front flips too, much to the amusement of the kids. It was all good fun. Great beach surprisingly not even signposted from the road!

Knowing that the last buses back to Soufriere leave Castries around five and not wanting to leave it too late in case they were all full on their way past, we left the beach around 330pm and walked into the village of Anse la Raye to have a look around and hopefully catch a bus. There were lots of locals out on the street, just sitting on their steps or on a chair, chatting and watching the world go by. Some selling fruit but mostly just enjoying the sun and without exception they greet us with big hellos as we pass. We get to the end of the main road and are told where to wait on a bus. Three go past and but they’re all full. Something we suspected might happen. A local guy makes himself very friendly and trying to be helpful he even goes and asks a friend (possibly) to act as a taxi and drive us back to Soufriere. At US rates! We made it plain we were waiting on a bus and couldn’t afford such extravagance.  The driver claims we have no chance as they’d all come through full.

A chance we are willing to take, for now. The guy that instigated it felt guilty then – at assuming we had money to burn, assuming all tourist had money to burn. (a bus will cost us around $16-20 local, thats less than $10 US. Taxi rate offered is $200 US!!!!). That said we did think we might have shot ourselves in the foot as it gets dark around five thirty and it was now after four. Maybe we should have haggled!  How long might we have to wait. We still needed to travel 16 km. Hhmmm…..

Being confident (yeh right) paid off. Eventually a bus comes through that is carrying goods and it also has the back two rows free. The driver stops but apologises for all the stuff saying it might be a bit tricky. We were all happy to climb in the back over the seat. So relieved, to have a lift we persuade him and all loaded onto the bus via the boot, we set off and we made it back to Soufriere without having to shell out for an expensive taxi. Hurrah!!!

Back at base we turn in for an hour or so for showers etc. We decided as it’s our last night we’d go to a creole restaurant on the front that Jannelle had recommended the first night we spoke to her, but Rowan and Conny don’t fancy it. It was probably the best food we’ve had in Soufriere. We think it’s just called ‘Creole’. Afterwards we give them a shout and we all head to the bar we’d all went to the first night to meet Jannelle for the farewell drink. Jannelle brought Dominic along too. That was nice. It was good to thank them for today and to say goodbye. Jannelle brought Bernice one of her handmade necklaces and she very proudly put it on. Thanks Jannelle. Remember to keep in touch, especially if you visit the UK again :0)

Another beach and more snorkelling

Caribbean
Dithering about how to spend the day today, the others had told us there was a beach you could walk to in the opposite direction to where we went yesterday. We’re thinking we might go do that at a leisurely pace. Rowan calls our room to say they are going there too and if we were ready we could walk together. They’re going diving. We have only done a trial dive and aren’t here long enough to do any more but we join them to the beach and Huw does some snorkelling there. The first beach is pretty busy but the further one is deserted. Nice….

The high tide we told you about last week that meant the road was flooded back to our hotel up at Rodney Bay, it washed a lot of the decorative stones away on this beach, they’d been built up round the coconut palms. There was a half dozen guys busy rebuilding them.
Mid Afternoon we head back to Soufriere, leaving the guys doing a second dive. An ice cream on the way and dodging the rain we make it back, grab some chips for a late lunch with which we try the local “banana ketchup”!!! Yes banana ketchup! (it was far too expensive to eat at the beach as it was a posh resort, so double priced!!!) then a siesta and later a Chinese takeaway.

A trip to the beach and creole food

Caribbean
We meet up with the other two couples we’ve met – Conny & Rowan from Canada and Adam & Monika from the US – around 8am to take a water taxi to the beach in the next cove. It’s a posh all inclusive resort but we can still go sit on their beach and snorkel there. The plan is to head back at noon as Adam & Monika are flying home today. The beach is lovely but totally fake – they have obviously shipped in white sand.  

On return after lunch and goodbyes are said the rest of us go for a walk to the outskirts of town to the Diamond botanical gardens and waterfall. It’s a lovely rainforest park with a waterfall at the back. There’s evidence here to of hurricane Thomas, as paths are closed and landslips are visible.
We grab a refreshment just at the right time as the heavens open and we get a massive downpour. It doesn’t last for long though.
On return we did some laundry in our room, chilled for a bit then Rowan & Conny joined us for a rum cocktail before we all went out and sampled some local food in ‘Archies’. Conny had a beef roti which was like a beef stew wrapped in a thin pancake (like you get for crispy duck back home). Rowan had a fish meal and we both had a chicken meal, these were basically accompanied by macaroni pie, potato pie, coleslaw, root vegetables of dareem, yam and rice. Very nice but way too much food.

Christmas in the Caribbean

Caribbean
We wake up around 0730 have brekkie but don’t feel like hurrying to meet up with the other guys as we should really skype home today (arranged one call for 0830 already) and if we head out for the day with the other guys we met last night that won’t happen. We decide instead to stick with our original plan of a chilled day of not very much. After brekkie and skype with Huw’s family, we reckon it’s a good time to take photo’s of the town as everyone will be at home busy with family stuff so the streets will be pretty clear. Wandering about taking pictures, the only people we encounter seem to be the hobo’s. That is till a couple of little boys start asking us if we want to give them some money as they never got anything for Xmas … What can you say, do? You give them money, they think it’s ok to beg, you don’t give them money you feel really guilty and add to the “them and us”. We tried to explain we never got anything for Xmas either as Santa didn’t know where we were. But our Xmas was spending time in they’re town by their lovely sea view.

….
On returning to the hotel we had lunch and rum punch – it is Xmas afterall. Skype some more with Liz, Jaq and Keith plus Steve and Emma and Kylie and Sunil who happen to be online. Then in need of a siesta (lunch time beer!) and the fact it’s raining outside we snooze and read for most of the rest of the afternoon.
Showers and out for dinner. The restaurant on the front we checked out on arrival. There are some other customers though it’s not busy. We order and then realise they probably don’t take cards. And we don’t have enough money on us, oops!! As there were a few suspect characters (to our eyes anyway!!) about we decide rather than go to the cash machine on his own in the dark (it’s opposite the hotel) Huw would just return to the hotel for some US dollars. We’d pay a bit more but we were more comfortable doing this. It wouldn’t be getting the cash that would be the issue, it would be walking back to the restaurant that might be an issue after being spotted going for cash. That said there’s a lot of teenagers out tonight. The locals are really friendly on the whole and totally non-threatening. It’s just the down’n’outs, you wonder how desperate they are, seems to be drugs on the whole, but you think it could be circumstance too – the hurricane taking everything from them, you just don’t know. Mostly we’ve found them harmless but there’s no point pushing your luck. When the locals warn you off them you know to do just that  There’s no street lights here, not sure if as a result of the hurricane or it’s just how it is.
Our meal is really good, although a tad salty for our tastebuds. Has the chef overdone it or is it how they like it here, replenishing salts from the heat of the day. It’s the 1st we’ve noticed.

Rain nearly stops play

Caribbean
Huw is up and doing some more photo sorting quite early. Bernice opts for a long lie – our strategy for dealing with mosi’s eating her is that she stays away from the hotel PC terminal.
After our last brekkie in the hotel, we pack and check out. It’s torrential outside again but luckily we get a window that allows us to get to the shopping mall without getting too wet.
But thats as far as we manage, we’ve been stood in the entrance to the carpark for nearly an hour now, and there’s no sign of it stopping again. The bus stop is a meagre 100m away but we’d be drenched by the time a bus turns up.
Oops, as we wait we realise we still have our room key. A call to the hotel and they suggest somebody to give it to in a shop. That was lucky, seem to remember a hefty fine if you took it with you.
…… Some time much later…..
We decide to put our waterproofs on and head for the bus stop. We get soaked crossing the road and as luck was on our side a bus decides just at that moment to detour through the carpark realising people were hiding here out of the rain. Toptastic. So a bus journey to the capital city Castries where we hope to easily change buses and head south. It’s a very slow journey through the rain and the traffic is pretty hectic. There’s only one road really and from what we can gather it’s always bumper to bumper.
On the outskirts of the city the driver diverts to avoid the traffic, across what was obviously a road but now just looks like dammed up rubble where a road used to be – hurricane damage.  In Castries we get even wetter as we walk the short distance to the next bus stop. It’s still really hot and most people are in summer clothes with brollies or just bags on their heads to keep off the rain :0)
We find the bus and get on. The driver waits till it’s full and says he’ll take the fares now (usually you pay as you get off) as he’s not planning on stopping.
All the locals seem fine with this so we go with it.
We leave town and about 15 min into journey the driver gets a call telling him the road is blocked ahead. There is only one other way to get to Soufriere, that’s by going up over the mountains, down onto the east coast and along the bottom and back up. Ouch!!! No one bats an eye lid at this news so off we go. On the upside we get a tour of the island – even though it’s pouring down with rain still and the visibility is pretty poor, it’s an awesome journey – and not only that we have half the bus (all buses here are mini buses) singing creole rap ALL the way, now a two hour journey instead of forty mins.
There’s quite a lot of places where the road is either completely washed away or partly and down to passing only.
The south of the island hasn’t had much rain but we drive back into it as we head back up the west coast. But it does stop thankfully not long after we arrive in Soufriere.
We book into our hotel which is central and go for a walk to see what, if any, restaurants might be open tomorrow so we can have dinner on Xmas day. We’re in luck, the first place we check out is so we can relax and go buy some supplies for brekkie and lunch.
There seems to be a fiesta starting up in the square opposite, when we ask about it we find out it’s a prizegiving ceremony. The twelve days of xmas. The towns people and especially the kids are receiving awards for achievements and good deeds they’ve done throughout the year. There’s music and BBQ and it’s pretty busy.
Back in the hotel we bump into another two couples (one from Canada, the other from Boston). We arrange to meet up for drinks and go to a local bar before going to the fiesta for BBQ just as they’re packing away.
We get talking to a local who’s working on the BBQ stall and four of us go back to the bar and she joins us for a drink. Her mate turns up a while later, she’s from High Wycombe. Small world!!!
We turn in before pumpkin time having arranged with the other guys to meet at 9 in the morning to get a water taxi round to the next cove. Oh yeh and it’s Santa time zzzzzzzz……

Is it really only two days till xmas??!

Caribbean
OMG! It’s hard to comprehend that xmas really is just round the corner. Can we just say happy xmas to everyone and we miss you all loads. Take care and have a good one!
We’re currently sat in a nice beach cafe in Rodney bay, having been for our walk on pigeon island – a place on the northern tip of the island (just the other side of the bay) that’s steeped in the history of where St Lucia is today. It seems like just a tug of war between France and the UK all the way. Till we granted it independence in 1979.  It’s our last day this side of the island. What’s hard to get is that all the tourists here – Brits, US etc … nearly all flew in for a xmas holiday and haven’t sailed all the way down like we did. Look at us in our little bubble!
We got approached by yet another local, just outside the nature reserve. Claiming to be psychic. He pretended to read our palms with comedy effect and gave us some magic beads, then demanded some cash :0). Some people certainly would find this threatening but in perspective you have to see how poor these guys are. A lot of damage was done by hurricane Thomas in late October. They’re still picking up the pieces. Then there’s the weed. It’s free flowing over here and this old boy wasn’t immune. Five minutes later, after we’d had a beer he starts his routine again. We’re like – you just spoke to us. He had no clue. Funny though he was, it’s sad too.  We hope we don’t sound patronising, it’s not how we mean to be.
Earlier in the day, as we’d managed to acquire a box yesterday, we packed and posted our unwanted gear home. Let’s see (a) if it gets there and (b) how long it takes….
This is a result and means we are easily down to just a rucsac each.
After lots of soaking up the sun and internet time in the cafe we headed back to the mall and bought some supplies for dinner – hot cooked Cajun chicken, salad, bread and beer. What more could we ask for. Then a nice chilled evening back at the hotel for us.
On the way back the road was flooded – high sea water – the sea is about 300m away!!! Only one thing for it, wade across. Then a good foot scrub when we got in, just to be safe.

A trip to the doctors

Caribbean

Oops we forgot to mention that the acquiring of malaria tabs was also proving difficult yesterday. In the end we decided to visit the local med centre and see the doc. She was great and within 30 min we were both sorted and happily packing away our supplies. We had a biggish lunch and decided that snacks and rum were the way forward for dinner – especially if the rain didn’t hold off, like last night.
We collected our laundry but didn’t get to go on our hillwalk – up pigeon island as the weather has been pretty threatening. It’s amazing how quick the day has flown in, it’s dark around 1730 which seems really early. Some Movie time – Inkcart (about a father who, when he reads aloud summons characters out of books, downside – someone always goes in to replace them) and V for vengeance (seem, got, but still great). A nice relaxing night in.
We did get accommodation sorted today too. In Soufriere which is south of here. We plan to leave here xmas eve rather than xmas day, thinking transport and food options might be a bit tricky otherwise. Soufriere is reputedly the place to be for all the sport action choices, whereas Rodney Bay is where the nightlife and tourist shops are.
We’ll keep you posted on that one!

Admin day

Caribbean
Had a really shocking nights sleep. Bernice got eaten loads by mosi’s and her skin reacts bad to them. On top of that it was stifling hot in our cabin. The only good to ease the drain is that today we leave Paul and New Dawn for a hotel/b&b – which hopefully won’t have the same issues. That said we’re both really sad to go. We’ve really enjoyed the trip, the experience and the company – Paul, Adam and Will. Who knows we may meet again pacific side :0).

It’s still raining here when we get up, although there is some respite when we want to go ashore with our bags. Firstly Huw drives around the Marina emptying the water out of the tender, it’s pretty full from the rain! We make our farewells and close the chapter on New Dawn, for now. Wishing Paul a safe trip home for xmas and seasons greetings to him and his family x
Ashore we have brekkie and try sort accommodation out. Yep you’ve got it, we’re that organised that we still have it to do!!! We try quite a few more original places with character, within our budget but they’re all full, surprise surprise!! Including the recommendation from Cuthbert. In the end as the stress levels peak and lunchtime is looming we settle for a nearby flash (supposedly) place that has discounted rooms – £42 per night instead of £125. We have to book over the Internet to get the rate and book 5 nights. Well at least tonights sorted. Problem is it takes us to Xmas day, and we don’t really want to be moving that day, do we????!!!
The dilemma is, that we are trying at the same time to book flights to Panama to arrive there around the 3/4th Jan which is proving expensive …. In the end we decide to go to Panama before new year. Radical, we know, but it halves the price! It means a night stop over in Miami which we could do with out, but hey Ho! We go ahead and book, so we’ll leave here on the 29th. Loosing out on spending NY with Will, Adam, Skyelark or Fiona… That now also means we need to sort accommodation out between 25th-29th Dec. Easy street!!!!
But enough for now, we both agree on a break from it. If worst comes to worst we can probably just extend the hotel we have booked already, can’t we?!!
After lunch we nab a taxi to the hotel, it’s not far but we’ve accumulated a lot of ‘stuff’ and the rain is still threatening.
One of the things we want to do is investigate the cost to send our wet weather sailing gear home. The earliest we’ll need them now is June, after Tahiti. That said if we want to get to RWC in NZ (a bit of a joke originally, but now a madcap plan) we may have to resort to flying the last leg. Sailing is weather dependent and we’ve learnt that the earliest you can sail there is prob late Oct early Nov. Which would mean missing the RWC. Also the last leg Fuji to NZ would be cold, wet and windy…. Not something to worry about right now. We just know there’s no point lugging our oilles and wellies around for the next 6 months “just in case”.
After check in and a little Internet time (its out in the courtyard of the hotel but tucked away in a damp dark corner – prime mosi feeding ground. Bernice fairs even more badly!!!) we think about going back round to the Marina to hook up with Matt and Kyle but they’re tired and so are we. So it’s a lazy afternoon with some investigative work on accommodation and flights and then an early night.
We catch the UK weather on the tv. Wah! It’s a tad cold over there….
We now have a decent connection, most of the time on our phones and keep an eye on skype to see if anyones about for a chat. We catch up with Huw’s parents and Bernice’s brov Kenny. Nice.
Just so’s you all know, we’re 4 hours behind over here :0)

We leave New Dawn behind and start the next chapter…

Caribbean
Had a really shocking nights sleep. Bernice got eaten loads by mosi’s and her skin reacts bad to them. On top of that it was stifling hot in our cabin. The only good to ease the drain is that today we leave Paul and New Dawn for a hotel/b&b – which hopefully won’t have the same issues. That said we’re both really sad to go. We’ve really enjoyed the trip, the experience and the company – Paul, Adam and Will. Who knows we may meet again pacific side :0).

It’s still raining here when we get up, although there is some respite when we want to go ashore with our bags. Firstly Huw drives around the Marina emptying the water out of the tender, it’s pretty full from the rain! We make our farewells and close the chapter on New Dawn, for now. Wishing Paul a safe trip home for xmas and seasons greetings to him and his family x
Ashore we have brekkie and try sort accommodation out. Yep you’ve got it, we’re that organised that we still have it to do!!! We try quite a few more original places with character, within our budget but they’re all full, surprise surprise!! Including the recommendation from Cuthbert. In the end as the stress levels peak and lunchtime is looming we settle for a nearby flash (supposedly) place that has discounted rooms – £42 per night instead of £125. We have to book over the Internet to get the rate and book 5 nights. Well at least tonights sorted. Problem is it takes us to Xmas day, and we don’t really want to be moving that day, do we????!!!
The dilemma is, that we are trying at the same time to book flights to Panama to arrive there around the 3/4th Jan which is proving expensive …. In the end we decide to go to Panama before new year. Radical, we know, but it halves the price! It means a night stop over in Miami which we could do with out, but hey Ho! We go ahead and book, so we’ll leave here on the 29th. Loosing out on spending NY with Will, Adam, Skyelark or Fiona… That now also means we need to sort accommodation out between 25th-29th Dec. Easy street!!!!
But enough for now, we both agree on a break from it. If worst comes to worst we can probably just extend the hotel we have booked already, can’t we?!!
After lunch we nab a taxi to the hotel, it’s not far but we’ve accumulated a lot of ‘stuff’ and the rain is still threatening.
One of the things we want to do is investigate the cost to send our wet weather sailing gear home. The earliest we’ll need them now is June, after Tahiti. That said if we want to get to RWC in NZ (a bit of a joke originally, but now a madcap plan) we may have to resort to flying the last leg. Sailing is weather dependent and we’ve learnt that the earliest you can sail there is prob late Oct early Nov. Which would mean missing the RWC. Also the last leg Fuji to NZ would be cold, wet and windy…. Not something to worry about right now. We just know there’s no point lugging our oilles and wellies around for the next 6 months “just in case”.
After check in and a little Internet time (its out in the courtyard of the hotel but tucked away in a damp dark corner – prime mosi feeding ground. Bernice fairs even more badly!!!) we think about going back round to the Marina to hook up with Matt and Kyle but they’re tired and so are we. So it’s a lazy afternoon with some investigative work on accommodation and flights and then an early night.
We catch the UK weather on the tv. Wah! It’s a tad cold over there….
We now have a decent connection, most of the time on our phones and keep an eye on skype to see if anyones about for a chat. We catch up with Huw’s parents and Bernice’s brov Kenny. Nice.
Just so’s you all know, we’re 4 hours behind over here :0)