Frog Under Glass

Every Saturday morning, we take our regular trip to the market. We haven't missed a Saturday, except when we were out of town.

As we finish up our market shopping we always pick up two newspapers, the Star and the Voice. There are others but we limit ourselves to these two. They have different takes on stories and between the two of them, we get a good idea of what’s happening in St. Lucia. The vendor knows us now. He's a young man in a wheelchair. He often has his two young daughter with him. When he sees us coming, he rolls up the two papers together and wraps them with an elastic.

An amusing section to read is the Classifieds. Many St. Lucian’s are quite superstitious by nature and that probably explains why there are so many ads under astrology. Here are some examples of what these ads promise.

Rev. Mother Kingston
Spiritual Healer
Stops Break-ups, Divorce
Reunites separated
Restores lost nature
Removes jealousy
Calls enemies by name
Grants desires
Results 7 hours

Sister Lindsey
Free Same Reading
God Gifted Spiritualist
Solves all problems
Relieves depression
Returns lovers
Clears bad luck
Guaranteed results

High Powered Spiritualist Healer
Specializes in all problems
Removes all bad luck
Succeeds where others failed
Contact this gift lady for help tomorrow






One of the first things visitors notice during their first night in St. Lucia (besides the heat) is the sound of the tree frogs. The males chirp loudly at night to attract the females. They remind us of the peepers at home. But these critters are louder, they sing all night, and they're also very small. It's unusual to see them but one of them decided to hang around our deck. We brought him inside so that Milan could take some pictures.







He used a regular sized wine glass so you can get a sense of the size of the frog. After a few pics, we let him go to resume his singing. The frogs keep some people awake but you get used to them very quickly.









They say the coconut tree is known as the tree of life because you can survive eating jut coconut and drinking the coconut water. It's very popular here for people to buy fresh coconuts. Sometimes they just want the juice. Zuzka and Milan got their first sampling of coconut water.








Then the vendor cut the coconut open with his machete and took out what he called the coconut gel. It's basicly very soft coconut. The coconut water takes some getting used to but the coconut gel is yummy. It costs about 60 cents Canadian for a coconut...or 1.50 Eastern Caribbean Dollars. But if you're in a resort, the locals will try to sell one to you for $5.00 U.S.












We were on our way to a beach this past weekend when we came across this little shack at the side of the road.


















We didn't really get the reasoning behind the air freshener...but we thought it was kind of funny.

Thanks to Milan for alot of pictures this week.
It's nice to have more to choose from.