St. Lucia

Day 9   Monday, January 28, 2019   Castries, St. Lucia

Another independent island, St. Lucia (loo'-sha) was noted for being transferred between the French and British 14 times during its history (which happened at most the other islands too, but more so here). Our tour took us to a nearby old fort, then to the colonial home in this photo, and finally a ways south to a fishing village.

Another morning in the fitness room, coffee, breakfast at Margaritaville, and off to our tour.

Our tour was entirely on the western side. Our first two stops were just above the harbor in Castries, then we drove through Morne Fortune, then stopped briefly overlooking Marigot Bay, and finally we went south to Anse La Raye. The main visual highlight for St. Lucia is the Pitons, farther south on the west coast (see Petit and Gros Piton in bold type), but we did not drive that far.

We saw references to the Pitons everywhere, especially since their national beer, with all its advertising billboards, was Piton Beer. Fortunately, we got to see the Pitons as we sailed south at the end of the day.

Our bus is at the base of the harbor, headed for those hills in the background. Our ship is mostly hidden behind the ship on the right. Our guide explained that they got their independence in 1979, from Britain.  As with Antigua, cricket is the national sport.

Our first stop was La Toc Battery Fort, which is privately owned, and has been restored for tours only recently.

It overlooks the harbor, which is always a good location for a fort when the island was conquered back and forth between the British and French 14 times. The British took control of St. Lucia for the final time in 1814.

What you see here was completely overgrown with plants and weeds and trees, etc., prior to an American woman purchasing this area about 50 years ago. She took an interest in its history, and paid to have all the growth removed and then began the excavations. I forget her name, but she still lives on the property.

This is where a large cannon sat, and could pivot 360°. The British built this fort to protect it from attack by the United States! (not France!), due to Castries being a valuable "coaling harbor" where ships crossing the Atlantic could refuel with coal. The fort was abandoned in 1905.

The guide's story about the cannon for this gun turret was interesting: They found the old cannon for this turret down the cliff on the beach below. The owner hired a guy with a portable crane who said it would be a piece of cake to lift it up the cliff and place it in the turret. Well, it almost worked, but the whole thing tumbled back down the cliff, and there it continues to sit. Maybe another time she'll try again.

This shelter was added in 1899, but now it's a little museum of artifacts that have been uncovered. But what was most interesting is that the owner was a scuba diver, and she spent years diving in the bay, alone, discovering and recovering hundreds of bottles and other artifacts tossed overboard ships over the centuries. What a woman! I wish I could remember or find her name.

In one of the restored rooms of the fort.

A long hallway restored and painted. ??

The hoist for the heavy cannon shells from where they were stored below.

Our bus drove only a short distance to tour this old family colonial home, called St. Marks. 

 It had big porches and big views.

 Beautiful!

Various photos from the interior.

Loved this wooden statue and the stair post. See those "dinosaurs" behind the statue?

Here they are. Typewriter, adding machine, and telephone. Younger tourists probably didn't know what they were.

A wall painting showing not only the native bird, but the Pitons.

Loved this tree and background.

We drove through Morne Fortune, a hill with the remains of the major island fort (which was alternatively occupied by the British and French). The Univ of West Indies now occupies part of the site, and this old building was the powder magazine. Original fortifications and the old military buildings still stand on the summit.

We made a brief stop to get a view of Marigot Bay, where they filmed Dr. Doolittle; Rex Harrison kept coming back to vacation, and there's even a Rex Harrison restaurant of some sort there.

Janet is kissing a little angel fish folded together from a single tree blade. The vendor handed it to her, and then told her to pay him for it.

Our final stop was the fishing village of Anse La Raye.

This stop was entirely to let tourists shop at the the vending booths.

A cute home across the street, with its conch-shell wall decorations and cacti plants.

Most of the West Indies Islands homes use water-collection tanks, and here was a good example of one.

While others were tourist-shopping, I wandered and saw this nice church.

A colorful sign for the preschool. When I returned to look for Janet, I couldn't find her. Our bus driver and our guide both told me that she was not on the bus, so we all went looking for quite a long time, until Janet came to the door of the bus and said "Here I am. I've been sitting on the bus." Oops. Then the bus driver had to find the guide who was off looking for Janet. She had texted me to tell me she was on the bus, but I hadn't heard it or checked my phone. Oops.

We drove all the way back to the ship the same way we had come, pretty much. We again enjoyed the ship's departure from Deck 8 Waterfront, at the 5 o'Clock Somewhere Bar (but no photos). It was cool to see the Pitons as we sailed southward, and I was sure I took several photos, but I don't have any. Thus, I stole this one from the Internet:

This view was similar to our's, except that we were farther out to sea, and it was dusk. They are "volcanic spires," 743 and 771 feet tall. Gros Piton, the wider and slightly taller one, can be climbed without ropes or mountaineering experience, so it's a popular thing to do. Apparently, one can hike to the summit and come back down to sea level within a few hours.

 For our third night in a row, we had dinner at the Supper Club. This time, we loved the entertainment, the Flashback Four. They did Four Seasons and Beach Boys songs, among others.

We then saw three new comedians in the theater show, and loved them as well. We would later be seeing all of them in Comedy Club performances. After the theater show, we went back to the Comedy Club for our Howling at the Moon Dualing Pianos, which we really did enjoy. Janet put in a request for Redneck Woman, but without cash, so it never got played. We stayed late, until almost 10:30, and kept changing seats as people would leave and open up better chairs than what we had.

 

Here was another elephant on our bed from Jackie. Good night.