Our third and final stay

We are now in Soufriere, our third location on the island. Once again we are in a room virtually on the beach, just a few steps away. We found this place, Still Beach Cottages, on airbnb, as we did our place in Laborie. Unlike the other places, this is just a room, rather than a place with separate bedroom, living room, and kitchen. We do have a refrigerator, a microwave, and a hotwater pot. It's a little less convenient but as we have been eating breakfast and lunch at home, and dinner out, at each location, it's not that much of a problem. We have been having cereal with yogurt or milk, and bananas, at each location for breakfast, and usually crackers with cheese and cucumbers and/or tomatoes for lunch, at each stop. So the lack of kitchen isn't really a problem. It's more the lack of more space, and having to wash dishes in the bathroom sink, etc. that makes it a little less pleasant. But we do have a nice porch facing the beach and the impressive Petit Piton. So it's still a great location. This is our sixth night here, and we have only one more night after tonight before heading home. There is a restaurant right below us, and many more in town which we can walk to along the beach. We ate dinner here our first night, and plan to again tonite. Tomorrow, our last night, we plan to return to the place we have liked has the best of the several restaurants we've been to. It's called JenMwen and has some tables right on the water as well as indoors and an upper level, The first night we ate there we went upstairs, not realizing they had tables on the beach. I had seafood alfredo, and asked for light on the sauce, which was delicious. It was mostly conch and octopus with some tiny shrimp. Loring had pork ribs. He had noticed a wood fired pizza oven, and we went back a couple of days later to have pizza. But it turned out that the kitchen was closed on Mondays. So we went back l1qast night and shared a delicious pizza. We ordered a vegetarian pizza with bacon and sausage. A funny order but we wanted lots of veggies as well as meat. It was fantastic. I am not a big pizza fan but thought this was delicous. Or maybe it's the environment and everything tastes wonderful. But I dont think so. Monday when JenWhen was closed, we wound up at a place we had walked by, a block back from the beach. We thought it was a small hole in the wall local place, but when we went in the only table was occupied by another foreign (ie white) couple. And it turned out there was a large room in the back and a group of white people in there, which left shortly after we arrived. I ordered conch, which they call lambi here. The only other place I can remember eating it was in the Bahamas, many years ago. It's kind of tough, and we had to pound it fiercely to tenderize it when we cooked it ourselves. When out, we ate it in the form of conch fritters. I haven't seen any evidence of conch fritters here, but cooked in sauce, usally garlic butter, or in the alfredo I'd had. That night she asked if I wanted it in the garlic butter, or in a locally made sauce that was kind of like vinegrette. I opted for the latter. Then, a bit later, she came from the kitchen to ask if it was okay with me to have chicken lasagna as one of the sides. Since I'd orderd seafood, she wanted to make sure it was okay with me to have chicken. All meals here, other than the pizza and the pasta, are served with a number of sides. These are usually rice, plantains, salad, and one or two others. That night, macaroni pie had been one of the sides. But they'd run out, and the chicken lasagna was the replacement. The meal was so plentiful that I took probably half of it home and had it for lunch the next day. I'd done that a couple of times before. Food here is much more expensive than I would have expected. The meals hover in the $20 to $26 dollar range, not that much less than at home. Tonight, a little later, we are heading to our restaurant here, a few steps away. We ate here the afirst night but have eaten elsewhere since. There's a large lunch buffet here every day, and a number of groups of tourists come here as part of their tours. But as we tend to have our large meal in the evening, we haven't tri2ed it. I did look one day, and it seems to be similar to the choices we have at dinner wherever we go. One meal we have not had is what we've read is the national dish, green figs with, I think, rice. The green figs, though, are actually some kind of banana. Bananas aare more than plentiful here. We've passed large banana farms, or plantations, not sure what they call them. And then there are plantains, which are similar to bananas but not sweet, and are served fried or sauteed as a side dish. We've had plenty of those, at most every dinner. But I hope we have a chance to try the green fig dish before we leave. *************** And now it is Thursday and our last night on the island. Most days, here and in our two previous locations in St. Lucia, we have spent much of our time on the beach and/or in the water. For Loring, that means a snorkel or swim, for me bobbing in the waves. Luckily, at all three locations, the beaches have been sandy, as has the ocean bottom, and the waves gentle. For the most of our trip, I have had my favorite water toy, my underwater mp3 player. It has lasted longer than any of my previous ones. I think this is number five, and they have usually lasted about two or three years. I use it often at the Y. It just decided to stop working yesterday, so I feel pretty lucky. Time to order a new one! The days have had a similar rhythm, breakfast on our porch, an hour or two reading, down to the beach for another hour or so of reading until it's too hot and time for a swim. Then back to the house for lunch, more reading, another beach stay, reading or rummy or writing, a rum cocktail, then dinner at that night's choice of restaurant, usually on the water. We have only gone on a couple of excursions, although there are plenty offered. Tour folks offer packages that go to several island spots all on the same day, not only from here but also from Castries, on the northern part of the island where we first stayed. We went to the jungle tram ride from there, which I've already written about and recommend. In Laborie we stayed mainly on the beach and walked around the small town. A couple of events there, but they weren't aimedd at tourists, just a gospel service at the Catholic Church and a town event rededicating the market area with lots of speeches by polititians including the prime minister. Here we've gone, yesterday, to the mud baths not far from town. They're at a volcano, where you can walk a brief trail to see the bubbling hot mud. The temperature there is boiling, and the site impressive. The baths are lower down and the water is much cooler. You soak in the pool, then plaster your body with the mud, let it dry, and then plunge back into the pool to rinse off. It was a great experience, and we are glad we got there when they opened in the morning, before the groups from the cruise ships and other tour groups arrived. We arrived before the official 9am opening and they were already open. There were folks already there, most of whom seemed locals. We were the only white people there, although once we were covered with mud we were all about the same color. By the time we left, there were more and more tourists arriving. The baths are supposedly therapeutic, and some swear that the mud takes about 10 years off your looks. I don't know but it was great fun and I highly recommend. This morning we went to another set of baths just outside of town. Both sets of baths are fed by the volcano. Again, the suppossed opening was at 10am but they were open when we got there about 930. This place is a combination of botanical garden, a beautiful waterfall, and thermal baths. No mud this time, just delightful warm water, very relaxing, and surrounded by all kinds of tropical flowers and plants. The baths were originally constructed by the French in the 1700's. Later abandoned, then bought and restored by a man in the 20th century, for his own private use. Later on, his daughter created or restored the gardens and opened the place to the public. (for a fee, as with the mud baths, which is fine.) At the mudbaths, Lucian pay a lower fee, as they should. Not sure if that is also true at the other baths, but I hope so. We'd been told we needed just 20 minutes to a half hour to visit. We realized that's because the tours just walk people thru, without using the baths. And indeed, a number of groups came thru during the latter part of our stay, and just walked past the baths. There's a short walk to the waterfall, which by the way is featured in a scene in Superman II, which I guess we'll now have to rent and watch. The groups visit the mud baths and hot baths the same day, along with several other stops, including lunch. We are awfully glad we did them the way we did, separately. But I guess if you are on a cruise ship, or a daylong tour from the north, that doesn't work. But if you visit St. Lucia, make sure to make time for both sets of baths, ideally on two different days, depending from where on the island you are coming. We've pretty much come to the end of our stay, one more dinner, one more swim after breakfast tomorrow, and then off to the airport. It's been an excellent trip.

Laborie and off to Soufriere

Now it is Tuesday. We’ve just had lunch, on our expansive porch. The other family, four from Toronto, have left, and we expect there will be others arriving later today. The folks in both apartments share the porch and infinity pool, although it is right outside the owners’ apt, now ours. So we just have to step outside our living room to be on the porch. There are lounge chairs as well as a couple of tables and chairs. That’s where I am sitting and writing now. As of this morning the fridge in the downstairs apt where we were originally has not been fixed. Hopefully for the owner they will have it fixed by Friday, when we leave. But for the new occupants, it might be better if they don’t fix it, then they, like we, will have the bigger and nicer apartment. Loring has just gone out to get a few more grocery supplies. He has already been out for one swim this morning, and will no doubt go for another one later this afternoon. He gets fidgety if he sits around for too long. I, on the other hand, can sit on the porch, here and also at home, for great portions of the day. We haven’t done too much here, aside from walk around the little town, walk down the beach, go in the ocean, go in the pool, play rummy, read, and for me, write. And that’s just fine. We did have an interesting experience the day we arrived here. It was a service, or at least a gathering, at the Catholic Church just a couple of blocks from here. The only way we knew about it was because of a chance connection between an old friend from the Bronx (who I have only been in touch with thru fb, and very sporadically) and a friend of his. He saw my first fb post saying that I was in St. Lucia, and wrote that he had friends who spent several months here every year and were involved in the music scene. He contacted them and found out that they are in Laborie right now. I don’t know if we will actually meet up with them. But the woman, Neti, wrote that there was a gospel event at the church the day we arrived. Indeed there was. We’d been told the event began at 6pm, so we headed there after dinner at Mama Tillie’s. But things were already in full swing. There was a man, an mc of sorts, who spoke and sang and had the audience singing and chanting and dancing with him. If he was a Catholic priest, he was certainly not like any priest I’ve ever come across. I am guessing that it wasn’t a Catholic event, per se, but just using the church, but who knows. It was certainly a religious event, with Jesus being invoked frequently. Neti, the friend of our NY friend, had said that there really wasn’t much of a music scene, and what there was was mostly at the resorts. So it’s uncertain whether we will come across any more live music. Meanwhile, we’ve got reggae blasting from some locals on the beach right in front of our porch. Accompanied, appropriately, by the strong smell of weed. And yesterday when we were on the beach there was obnoxoiusly loud recorded music coming from a house down the beach, which we could estill hear from our porch when we got back here. We’ve eaten breakfast and lunch here, and supper out every night, so far at Mama Tillie’s. We do want to go to Mama Rosa’s, hopefully tonite. She has only been open for breakfast and lunch since we arrived, but is supposed to be open for dinner tonight. Now to decide – back to the pool, or off to the beach? Tough choice. Actually, no bad choice. And we will certainly do both this afternoon.