Castries, St. Lucia

Friday, 12 Jan 2018 – This morning our ship, the Insignia, pulled into the harbor at St. Lucia, within view of two other much larger cruise ships, the Celebrity Eclipse and the Norwegian Dawn.  However, this time we were not within “hollering distance” of either of the other ships because the harbor was circular and large.

The tour (mostly panoramic) which we took today was on a small bus filled to capacity with 20 passengers, plus the guide (Delicia) and the driver (Raymond).  In November, 2008 we were in St. Lucia; that time, we sailed on a catamaran.  This time, our bus drove by the more important buildings in the capital city of Castries and soon on out into the scenic countryside.

We visited an old colonial style house called St. Mark’s, which is placed high up in the hills.  From here, we could truly appreciate the deep blue sea of the harbor with a green backdrop, while enjoying a treat of rum punch.

Our next stop was La Toc Battery, an authentic 19th century British fort built to defend the island against foreign invasion of the vital coaling stations of St. Lucia.  La Toc offers a fabulous representation of the British military of that time period. The French and British fought back and forth for control of the island.

Traveling on, we saw banana plantations.  We stopped at a market where “banana catsup” was sold, as well as other products using bananas.  Jesse was given a sample, which he said tasted like tomato catsup.

St. Lucia is similar in many respects to the other islands we have visited in the past few days.  Education and economic problems are similar.  Vehicles drive on the left side of the road.  One major difference in St. Lucia is that French is spoken here.  Our guide asserted that 92 percent of the island’s population prefers the French people to the British, mainly because the French fought with the slaves against the British.  (Slavery was abolished here in 1863 – two years before the American Civil War ended.)

At the Beach behind the Shopping Area

Agriculture used to be San Lucia’s primary industry, with bananas being the most important product.  Bananas are still grown (we passed groves of banana trees), but not as many as previously, and tourism has become the most important industry.  We saw tanks of crude oil, which is shipped in from Saudi Arabia and then stored here, before being shipped to other locations for refinement.  San Lucia uses fuel obtained from Venezuela.  Before returning to the ship, we made a stop at a shopping area with several booths selling souvenirs.

Although today was sunny, we could see a few dark clouds gathering.  And it did rain later in the day, after we were onboard the ship.  Our guide told us about a freak storm that devastated St. Lucia and other nearby islands in 1983 on Christmas Eve.  The storm was like nothing ever seen in this part of the Caribbean, especially considering that the rainy season officially ended nearly a month earlier.  Virtually non-stop lightening and crackling thunder, along with incessant heavy rain continued for between 24 and 48 hours.  Several people died.  This event forced many to give serious thought to the implications of climate change and the increasingly erratic nature of global weather.  After returning to the ship and enjoying lunch, we swam.

Tonight, we danced in the Horizons Lounge, during which time the Insignia left St. Lucia harbor.  This was the last night aboard for those who will disembark in Barbados after the first segment of this “Round the World” cruise.

For dinner, Sally decided to enjoy lobster tail again (for the seventh time), but she also had Wienerschnitzel.  Jesse decided to forego dessert, which was an unhappy experience for him!