Holiday in St. Lucia

Here it is the week before Christmas and this blog has been silent since Thanksgiving. I will fill in the details for the past couple of months in a future blog. Today, I had more to write about our holiday in St. Lucia than I could fit in a tweet. After four gloriously sunny days, rain clouds rolled in over Smugglers Cove last night bringing us intermittent downpours throughout this Friday morning. The advantages are two-fold: it encourages us to take it easy after yesterday's exhaustive and exhausting tour of land and sea (more later), and the rain also brought out the land crabs. The tunnels that house these creatures have been intriguing us since our arrival and this morning we finally found them perched at the openings of their houses along the gardens and pathways of the resort. They range in size from 2-4 inches, grayish to bright orange. The slightest movement sends them dashing underground so it took a great deal of stealth to photograph them.

Smugglers Cove Resort and Spa is on the north west end close to Castries, the largest city. It is situated on an estate of 65 acres of well-kept gardens, six pools, and is self-contained within the cove with a sheltered sandy beach including a snorkeling reef. The all-inclusive services offer bars, lounge, band and stage, a large buffet restaurant for all three meals plus three table service restaurants for dinner reservations. The fresh fruits and vegetables are in endless supply. The dinner menus have been very good - my favourite so far being the 10 spice duckling at Cafe Asia. I had anticipated a lot of shellfish, which I love, but surprisingly that is not the case. The fish is barracuda, tilapia, mahi mahi, and other meaty fish. Chicken and pork dominate the menu, and I love the spices used. The water is luxuriously warm and buoyant for swimming even when the breakers are too rough for snorkeling or small boats. The heat and sun assist the sensation of slowly melting into a healing stupor as the day passes: breakfast, walkabout, beachwear before lunch, lounge chair and reading under a tree or umbrella before a swim in the sea, stroll up to the top pool for the swim up bar and a drink by the cascade fountain as the sun declines, shower and dress for dinner, drinks and entertainments, collapse in sleep to prepare for the next taxing day. All in glorious surroundings of flowering plants, palms, and birds. Too sweet.

We have been overwhelmed by the beauty of this little island nation. The flag is blue for sky and sea, I believe, with three triangles overlapping - the smaller for Petit Piton is yellow as the sun, the next largest for Gros Piton is black, and the largest for the tallest peak Morne Gimie is white. These colours represent the St. Lucians themselves. The land is lush with indigenous and imported plants, agriculture largely bananas for export to the UK, industry the production of rum and cocoa. The shore is a convolution of cliffs, bays and coves, perfect of the development of resorts, spas and hotels for the ever increasing tourist industry. We experienced most of this during Thursday's Land and Sea Tout. We hit the highlights in Castries and two fishing villages enroute south to Soufriere. We drove through rainforests as we crossed over mountain passes, stopping at breathtaking outlooks to take photos, buy fresh coconut and souvenirs. We drove into the volcano to survey the smoking sulphurous centre, visited waterfalls, and botanical gardens. When we arrived in the harbor at Soufriere, we boarded a boat which transported us to a secluded beach. A generous and delicious lunch awaited. On to a beach between Pitons where we snorkeled and sunned for awhile. As the sun descended, we boarded again for the final leg of the tour, a boatride back up the coast to Castries. On the way, we stopped at a bat cave, Marigot Bay, and the tunnel of love used in Pirates of the Caribbean. The tour began at 9 am and we arrived back at Smugglers Cove after 7 pm! What a fabulous day.

We had hoped to see a dear friend while here, 95-year-old Betty, our Thanksgiving guest for 10 or 12 years before she moved here permanently four years ago to join her daughter's family. They are a branch of the Devaux family that stretches back to the eighteenths century. We have been privileged to meet and be hosted by Betty's granddaughters. Her daughter Pam gifted us with a book by Robert Devaux OBE, her husband, an island historian. They Called Us Brigands is the saga of the freedom fighters at the end of the 18th century who inhabited the rainforests and mountains in the interior of the island, claiming their emancipation in opposition first to the French Aristocracy and the Royalist planters and later to the British conquerors who sought to reestablish slavery. Very interesting, putting the place names and the creole language into clear context. We also came away with Pam's homemade cookies and a jar of chutney. Thank you, Robert and Pam! Well, that was Tuesday at Gayle and Carlos' lovely home and clinic, where we met granddaughter Tracy as well as a number of great grandchildren and other family and friends. Gayle and Carlos are naturopaths who also produce in house the NatMed line of natural treatments and the Caribbean Blue Naturals cosmetic products. I am looking forward to trying the lovely soaps they gave us. On Saturday, we are invited to cocktail hour at Maran and Richard's where we hope that Betty will be able to join us. If not, I will print out and send the pictures I brought for her on my iPad and be happy with having met most of her wonderful family. Otherwise, this week is one to kick back and relax.

I did a bit of a spa day on Wednesday with a back and foot massage and facial. And tonight we plan a trip into Gros Islet for the Friday night street party that has been ongoing for 21 years or more. It is reputed to be a blast. I will have to work on staying alert long enough to get there. We leave Sunday morning, to arrive back in TO on Christmas Day at about 6 pm. Fortunately, the usual dinner bunch are occupied elsewhere this year. We are ordering in Thai for them on the 27th this time around. We will be at the big family gathering at Mom's on Boxing Day, thankful that we do not have to deal with jet lag after this trip. In the meantime, we wish all of you the best of Seasons Greetings whatever your mid-winter celebrations, and of course, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.