Day 5, Wed, January 6, 2010, St. Lucia

Lecture on St. Lucia

French for a long time and finally Brit in 1814

Capital is Castries, which, at 60K people, is a pretty big town

Francis Le Clerc, a pirate was first European.  Used Pigeon island to hid for piracy

Sugar was a established as a main crop. St Lucia became epicenter of rum and sugar

Many Africans brought in for sugar work.  Slavery abolished in 1834.

In 1979 St. Lucia became an independent country, member of Commonwealth

Regulated taxi fare

Reduit Beach is great 20 minute drive $20 each way.

Day at Jungle Reef Beach is a great tour.

The Day

We arrived without event.  The harbor was crowded with 2 large and 1 medium sized cruise ships. 

The weather was partly cloudy, with warm temps.We had a 9:15 tour- snorkeling.  Well, we got to the “holding area” and waited.  And waited.  At 10:45 the person in charge finally said that anyone that wanted to could get their money back.  We decided to stick it out and 5 minutes later the boat showed up between the ships.   We finally left on our snorkeling adventure at about 11:15.  We went down the coast toward the Petons, but didn’t actually get to a place where you could see them.  We pulled in to what was an area crowded with tourist boats. 

I snorkeled about an hour and 15.  Not even good snorkeling.  Some fish and plants.  I did see a squid- first I’ve seen.  It was about 4 inches long and translucent.  There were some schools of the usual fish, but nothing impressive.  The water bordered on a kinda rock wall, and the waves created bubbles that limited visibility.  In all, not a good tour. 

We stopped at Montego Bay (?)on the way back.  I took some pictures, below.  Just interesting.

I walked around town for a while after Chris went back to the room.  I found it interesting.  In fact, there is a large market, perhaps 6 blocks square, near the ship.  That is an exploration. 

In general, since the ship docks close to everything, there’s no need to worry about WCs.