Washing Ashore in St Lucia

On January 31, 2013 i stepped ashore in St Lucia.  New Country New Day!  While the captain cleared us through Customs and Immigration, i went down the block to the office of the St Lucia Tourism Board in Soufriere.  I was met by Ms Magdalena Frederick.  She helped me find basic accommodations at a guest house.  I preferred to be in town, so this suited me perfectly.  I cannot say how incredibly helpful the Ms Frederick was, and how welcoming.  I can only hope that visitors to Belize are greeted so hospitably.

A young man came to help carry my bag up to the Cascara Guest House.  Soufriere is built on the side of a mountain, so it’s a rather steep walk.  And then, up 68 hand made concrete steps to my room.

But then, once my bags were in the room, i turned around, and this was my view.  Totally worth it, besides, climbing the side of the mountain then all those steps has gotta be good for my butt.

I took a very very long shower, then headed out.  If you read in my past blogs, you’ll see i love churches and cemeteries.  They are both so interesting, i think both visually depict a culture.

I stumbled across the Soufreire Cemetery.   This is the first time i’d seen stones on graves.   Then there was a man painting the stones of one grave.  He greeted me warmly, and i asked if he was the caretaker of the cemetery.  He said “No, this is my adopted mother’s grave.  i come down from the village to tend to it”.  We then had a brief, but intensely personal and beautiful, conversation.  He asked me to mail him a copy of this picture, and i took his address.

The outlets in St Lucia are European, and did not have an adapter.  As i suspected, however, the main tourist hotel had an American outlet, and i had lunch and charged my iPhone, which had become my lifeline to the universe after my laptop died 2 days into my 3.5 week trip.  This was the view:

After lunch, i went for a walk, and found a spot to sit and think about the 3 weeks of sailing i’d just completed.  I found a bench, and sat for a spell.

There were only two places in Soufreire (that i found) that take credit cards.  And in keeping with the tale of any good journey, i had just enough cash to get me home, so this was important.  I was very grateful that the team at the yummy restaurant “Petit Peak” were so awesome 🙂  I felt finally ‘at home’ after all those weeks.  The Skyla and Vicky, the servers,  had the warmth and friendliness of my beloved Belize.  I ate all of my meals there for 2 days, and watched the sun go down with some beers each night.  Harvey and Mervin were my super fun drinkin’ buddies one night, and made sure i got home safely after a quick stop for water and snacks at the shop.   (ps – girls, watch out for the green flash, and think of me when you catch it!xo!)

I’ll be working on another blog about walking around in Soufriere, St Lucia…there was so much to beauty to see.