San~San Adventures

St. Lucia –

Rodney Bay Marina Complex has a Port of Entry and several restaurants, a laundry facility, marine store, boatyard and mini-market. Once in the slip we had a lot of fun washing and waxing San~San, trimming our main sheet and re-marking our anchor line. In between that there were 232 slips full of boats for our viewing pleasure, then of course there is the boatyard. GR is a professional boat oogeler and I enjoy joining him as we talk about boats that we like and why. Several men approached the Captain and asked if we needed any work done as this is a popular place for cruisers to stop and leave there boat for maintenance to be done while they go home. Spent 2 nights here and once we were finished cleaning and getting ready to go we left, onto Soufriere.

Soufriere and The Pitons

Charming creole building with gingerbread line the streets.

Soufriere is a small town in a wonderland of flora and fauna surrounded by the twin Piton mountains. The town was the set of the movie “Water” starring Michael Caine. This is a big are for those who like snorkeling and hiking. The water is a protected marine park. This am we woke up with the sound of seagulls and waves crashing against the island wall. We moored a the southern tip of St. Lucia, Right next to the great, Piton mountains. Upon exploring the island we saw chickens running wild, trees including bananas, cocoa, mangoes, nutmeg, breadfruit, soursop, and star fuirt. Ginger lily, heliconia and other flowes line the streets. I asked a gentlemen on the street about a tree I saw with what looked like coconuts onlydifferent, he told me it was a calabash and that rastafarians used them for bowls to eat out of. After checking a few of the local eateries out we decided on Hummingbird resort and restaurant.

It was by far the most elegant and charming restaurant we have visited in the Caribbean.

Walls made of pottery coal pots, hand carvings and a terrific view across the pool to the Pitons.

Snorkeled all day and after a grueling afternoon of “liming” > verb - to lime. Or chill. We trekked a whole 100 yards to the Pitons Falls and Mineral bath, this was so beautiful and quite a steep walk up hill but worth it’s weight in GOLD. The entrance is a pure green canopy of palm with bright reds. There are 3 pools to choose from; one hot tub style bath with hot steamy water rushing out a of a bamboo pipe, another two pools connected where initially the water is rushing down warm onto rocks spilling into a shallow pool and then the connecting pool is the runoff from that water.

St. Lucia has many rastas, Rastafarian, that eat out of a calabash bowl. What is a Calabash bowl you ask? Calabash is a plant native to this area, a rasta man will pick it off the tree and cut it in half the scoop out a pumpkin like consistency from the inside of the shell, then the halves are dried out for 4 or five days. I have since seen these calabash bowls sold in expensive shops with painted and made into purses, candle holders all with very ornate details. I have my very own set of calabash bowls thanks to a man named Cecil. We met Cecil when we moored at the Piton mountains. After we tied the boat off to shore (YES!) a man swam from shore to the back of our boat he introduced himself, welcomed us to the island and offered us some beautiful mangoes and some other fruits. Then he asked for $10 E.C. (East Caribbean Currency = $2.70 to U.S. $1) I was very truthful with him and told him we had been $10 E.C.’d to death everyone we meet wants $10 E.C. I chatted with him, I enjoyed talking to him because his voice was like Louis Armstrong very raspy and deep. He told us that he lived off the and and he was just trying to make a living, he informed us that his sister owned this land and he liked to stay away from the village because people there were crazy. I agreed. He left me with those delicious mangoes and something I had never seen; a cocoa fruit, it housed the bean used for making chocolate but you could suck on the pulp of the bean. Not long after our chat we parted ways and I smiled as I watched Cecil approach the next boat. It was a surprise to me after I was snorkeling to hear Cecil calling to me, I swam to shore and he was eating out of this bowl, he told me he”d get me one. So a few hours later Cecil returned with my bowl and I thanked him with some rum. I was happy I got to meet and befriend a true rasta!

San~San tied to shore every sailor’s dream!