I've heard about a couple of attractions in St Lucia - first, obviously, is the Pitons, and second is the scuba diving in the protected area adjacent to them. So, I round the south end of the island heading for the Pitons, and not surprisingly, find a sudden and complete lack of wind below the headland. I motor into Soufriere Bay, and a dinghy operated by a teenage boy approaches me at high speed offering to help me catch a mooring. When I attempt to politely decline, he says "this is what I do!" I call him over and tell him that, as a single hander, this is what *I* do, and while I am perfectly capable of catching a mooring in no wind, I am willing to pay EC$10 for him to help me do so. He says EC$15, and I say no thank you, and then we settle on EC$10. As soon as I tie up, he says "this mooring belongs to my brother, he charges EC$40 per night". I tell him that I only want to tie up for a half an hour in order to check in with customs and immigration, and he says that then it will be only EC$20, plus his fee. Welcome to St Lucia. There are some some serious economic/social issues here, but I'll get back to that later.
After clearing in, I take a mooring at the "Bat Caves", on the north end of the harbor. Anchoring is prohibited in this entire area, and the SMMA provides and administers the moorings. It would be quite problematic to anchor here anyway, due to the fact that the bottom drops off so steeply. The "rangers" come by and collect my mooring fee for one week (EC$108 - very reasonable), and here I am...
Cheers! Skål! Santé!
Keyhole Arch
The Bat Cave - I dinghied in next to this crack, and it is about 20 feet deep and 100 feet high, and it is actually filled with hundreds of chirping bats!
The next afternoon, I am walking down the road in Soufriere, and I hear country music! It draws me into the rum shop like a moth to a flame - for three months in the Grenadines, all I heard was Soca and hip hop. I am amazed that they are playing country here, and the bartender explains to me that it has a huge following here on St Lucia. And I don't mean modern "countrypolitan" music - we're talking about old, traditional country - Patsy Clune, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Hank Williams! I'm in heaven, and spend the rest of the afternoon there. She thinks it quite funny that she knows the words to all the songs even though she is a good bit younger than this Yank, but, honestly, this music was before my time. I end up meeting a local DJ who plays an hour of country music on his show every day, and I pay him EC$20 to fill up a flash drive with old country music. No one really seems to know why country is popular here, but its a nice surprise!
The following day I go scuba diving with a local dive shop run by Chester. He is a very friendly and competent divemaster, and I signed up for two dives. He picked me up at my boat, and as we were heading out, he asked me how I felt about Lionfish - I said "kill them". He's like, "right answer", and we headed back to the beach to get his spear gun (spear guns are prohibited here in the marine reserve). The first dive was interesting, since the current was so strong that at one point I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to keep up - I even had to use my arms! But, I made it, and fortunately, there was another diver who was an air hog like me, and when we flashed our low air status to Chester, he smoothly took us up to the boat and then rejoined the rest of the group.
The second dive was much more relaxing, with no current. We swam all around four pinnacles which are just off keyhole point, where my boat is anchored. There are two highlights to this dive - one is when Chester finds a large Hawksbill Turtle resting in a hole in the reef at about 40 feet, and the turtle actually allows us to pet it! It just kind of rolls it eye membranes and then goes back to sleep. Way cool. The second highlight was when Chester took a Lionfish which he had speared, and held it in front of a spotted eel he found in a hidey hole. The eel came out and sniffed the fish on the spear for a second, and then the scene exploded in a cloud of silt, and that was the end of the Lionfish!
The next day, Chester stopped by my boat and showed my eight Lionfish that he had speared on that dive...
OK, so I said that I was going to address the economic issues here. I am not an economist, nor a sociologist, but I do know that when people are begging every time you turn around, there is something wrong. Here in Soufriere, as in many places, when you leave your dinghy, there are youths (or older), who tell you that they will "watch" your dinghy. It is, quite simply, a protection racket. If you don't cough up EC$5 or more, you can expect to find a trashed dinghy when you get back. After I got used to it, I really didn't have a problem with it, but what really got to me was a three year old girl begging me for a dollar as I walked across the beach. Many of the boys who are school age spend all day just hanging around. Although school is free, parents have to pay for uniforms and books, and for many, it's out of the question. One day, as I'm scrubbing my hull, I look over at the charter cat moored next to mine and see three young local boys climbing out of the water and onto the boat. I yell at them, but it doesn't have much of an effect, and pretty soon they are running all over the deck. So I get my phone and call the SMMA "rangers" and report it. The lady thanks me, but the rangers never show up. The next day I go over and talk to the people on board, and they tell me that they are missing a snorkelling mask and some other items.
I decide to do a walk along roads out out Soufriere, climbing over the shoulder of Petit Piton, down to the the Jalousie Resort, in the bay between the Pitons. The resort is spectacular, as you would expect for a place which charges US$600 - US$800 per night. I hike back out, wanting to visit a restaurant called Dasheen, which is less that half a mile from the entrance to Jalousie, at the top of the pass, but would be a four mile hike around by road. I ask the guard at the gatehouse, and he tells me not to try it, because it is "blocked off". So, what do you think I do as soon as I am out of sight of the gatehouse? What else, I head straight up the ridge into the woods. Sorry Mom, that's just who I am! At first, I'm walking through a nicely manicured property with lots of papaya, bananas, mango trees, and also some flowering plants. I'm happy that I don't see any ganga plants, that would have made me nervous (although I later learn that there are some). I start following a power line which I am sure leads to the upper road where I want to go, but after a while it's no longer brushed out, so I have to pick one side or the other. I choose right, because its away from the voices I hear to my left. The ground is extremely steep, but I am able to parallel the power line for a while until I here the "tink, tink, tink" of a tool. I look about 80 feet below me and see a man tending plants. There's nothing to do but hail him. Of course, everyone in these islands carries a machete into the woods, and I am very aware that I am on his property. So, I ask him if I can pass, he replies with something I can't understand, and I tell him I'll be right down. I scramble down the steep slope and introduce myself, explaining that I am trying to find a route to the resort up the ridge. His name is Zion, and he says he'd be happy to show me the way after he finishes digging up these young banana plants. He explains that for the first three years, he needs to move them into the sun during th rainy season and then, in the dry season (now), transplant them back to the shade. Zion grew up on this plantation, and most of the trees I see were planted by him. We end up having a great conversation about the state of affairs here on St Lucia, and what the government's role should be. It saddens him greatly to hear of young girls begging. He believes that the country should put more emphasis on developing agriculture and less on tourism - the island is capable of providing so much more food than it currently produces, and it also would make for a more balanced and resilient economy. So, after he is finished digging up all the young banana plants, he hefts the sack, and I grab his grub hoe ( which has a handle cut from a sapling), and he guides me to the top of his property. At this point, I need to tell you that Zion and his family are are constantly hounded by developers wanting to purchase the property. It is situated right between two extremely high end resorts. (In fact, after I get to know Zion a bit, he tells me that his first impression was that I was yet another one coming to vex him.) He and his family could sell out for millions, but then it would be just money, and two generations from now, his family would be making beds for the rich folks down at the resort, with no other way to feed themselves. And he has no intention of going for the bling. The land provides forever... Meeting people like Zion is the best part of traveling!
The following pics are from the resort that Zion guided me to, at the top of his property:
Le Petit Piton
The pool at the resort - after paying EC$16 for a Piton beer, of course I didn't feel guilty grabbing one of their nice fluffy towels and jumping in!
The rooms at this resort exceed US$1000 per night
This is the sulphur hot springs, which I visited on my hike - a lot like Yellowstone, hot and smelly.
If you live on St Lucia and you have a land line, this could be a reason why it's not working...interesting splice technique.
The day after the previous hike, it's time to go up Le Petit Piton. Zion mentioned that he would guide me, and I'm glad it works out. I find him at his place, and he insists on bringing a bunch of fruit from his trees. The mangos aren't ripe right now, but he picks us a few soursop and lots of grapefruits. His place is very simple, but peaceful, and I enjoy chatting with his wife and their 16 month grandson while I am waiting. The little guy speaks very well for his age, and he also understands Patois, so he is growing up bilingual. (Oops, I forgot to explain that here on St Lucia, the local dialect is based on French, but has many other influences. I have worked so hard to understand island dialect in Grenada and Union, but now I am back to square one!) The little guy in diapers is insistent in following his Grandpa down the trail, and his Gramma has to scurry and grab him. Zion tells me that he'll take him up the mountain within the year, and I believe him!
Zion gathering grapefruits from his tree - they were juicy, sweet, and very refreshing on the hike.
Zion near the top - yes that is a fat spliff he is smoking, and still, he hiked my ass into the ground!
Perhaps I should explain about the hike, though. Le Petit Piton is the steepest and most unrelenting hike I have ever been on in my lifetime. It is half extremely steep hike and half scramble. There are many pitches with fixed lines (which I wasn't crazy about trusting, but they sure do make things faster). The bottom line is that you ascend 2000 vertical feet in a horizontal distance of a quarter of a mile. But Zion (who, it turns out, is exactly the same age as me) has been doing this his entire life - I don't think he even breaks a sweat. Did I mention that he hiked my ass into the ground?
Looking down on my tiny little boat
This is hard to see in the photo, but it's a whirlpool, which was at the tail end of a line between two currents. Beyond it was a line where the two currents met which extended as far as the eye could see, with large breaking waves on the south side of the line. Zion was quite excited about it, saying he'd never seen that before.
Le Grand Piton
Ouch!
The Town of Soufriere
St Lucia addendum:
I go into customs in Rodney Bay this morning in order to clear out, and I learn that they are on strike. Indefinitely. Seriously. I will not be getting an outbound clearance. Only in the Caribbean. Trying to enter a country without an outbound clearance from your previous stop can result in fines of $5000, but I really don't have much choice but to leave St Lucia, since I am on a bit of a schedule. And, I have a plan - more on that later - it seems to have worked out fine. But, I don't believe that I will be returning to St Lucia any time soon...
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