Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Blooms & citrus




It's supposed to be the dry season in St. Lucia but so far we’ve been getting a fair amount of rain every day. It doesn’t last long but it is helping to keep all of the beautiful flowers in bloom and the plants lush. We’ve been seeing a lot of poinsettia, both red and white. They are more like a tree than the plants we are used to back home. Often they are in a hedge in a yard or hanging over a fence. The make a stunning show.



We did a bit more exploring with Gisele and Allen over the past couple of weeks. We spent one Sunday on the Eastern side of the Island where there are stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s much rougher than the Caribbean Sea on the Western Side. The huge waves and beautiful sandy beaches are tempting but it’s very dangerous to swim there. The undertow is vicious and many people have drowned. This view of the Atlantic was taken from the site of an old sugar plantation we visited.

The plantation ruins have been developed as Fond D’Or Nature Reserve and Historical Park. It’s one of several old sugar plantations on the Island. Sugar cane used to be a big crop here before it was replaced by bananas. St. Lucia still produces a lot of rum but the molasses from the sugar cane is now imported from Antigua. The photo you see is one of the old buildings on the sugar plantation. It was impressive to see the massive tree growing through it.

Travelling further south on the Eastern side of the Island we passed places with the interesting names of Malgretoute (despite all) Patience and Mon Repos (my rest). We toured Mamiku Gardens, a newer tropical garden. It’s set on 12 acres of land surrounding an old estate house. The garden specializes in orchids. They were growing in gardens but they were also growing in the crooks of trees. There was also an herb garden with plants that could cure anything from headaches to menstrual cramps and gall bladder problems, etc etc.

We’ve talked about how much we enjoy the fruit on the Island. Sometimes it’s hard to identify the fruit, even if it’s one we’re quite familiar with. In this case, Norm is holding a lemon. It’s the size of a regular grapefruit at home. It’s no surprise though considering the grapefruit we get is the size of a cantelope. We’ve had more than our share of grapefruit lately. Our cleaning lady offered Carl some grapefruit as log as he could pick them up. She comes by bus and didn’t want to carry them all the way here. Carl didn’t tell anyone about this because there’s a bit of competition going on between him and Norm over who can get the most grapefruit for the best price. Norm had been winning the competition up until now because his grapefruit lady at the market continues to give him good prices and some freebies every week. We went to the market and bought our regular five or six grapefruit only to discover when we returned that Carl had a bag with sixty grapefruits to share with the household. Needless to say, we’re getting our share of citrus these days.



And I’ve taken a fair share of ribbing over my new retired status. I officially retired from the CBC on December 31st. Allen and Carl insisted I join them at this spot in the market in Castries for a photo. It’s where the retired folks meet up to drink beer and play dominos.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Let it Snow & Sailing along

It’s been a long time. Much snow has fallen at home and the weather in St. Lucia has cooled slightly to a more comfortable level. We returned to Moncton on December 13 to spend Christmas with the kids and the dogs. But we had an unexpected delay when our flight from Newark to Moncton was cancelled because of bad weather. After a two and a half hour wait in line to talk to a customer service agent, we found out we couldn’t leave until the next direct flight 24 hours later. So we were stuck in New York without winter clothes. Norm had a short sleeved cotton shirt. I at least had a cotton jacket with long sleeves and a warm hoody that I was able to lend him. The airline refused to put us up in a hotel but “generously?” gave us two blankets and a pillow to help us sleep in the airport. We booked a hotel instead and used the blankets the next day as scarves to help us keep warm. Norm likes to say we made lemonaide with lemons. We took a shuttle into New York and then bought tickets for the double decker tour buses. They were great. We could get on and off whenever we wanted. We would sit up top to see the sights but when it got too cold we’d go downbelow to warm up. It’s amazing how much we were able to see that way. It was a lovely day but a rude introduction to colder weather.

The weather in Moncton was another shocker. We had four storms within one week…each of them between 20 to 40 centimetres. It was the week Deny and Catherine had chosen to go to the Dominican Republic with their friends so Norm had to do a lot of shovelling on his own. I helped with the walkway but at the end I could barely get the snow over the snow bank. Fortunately we had a big melt afterwards so that the snowbanks shrunk considerably.
We had a nice Christmas, spending time both at home and the cottage.

The driveway to the cottage had to be blown out twice. Norm and I had planned to meet there for supper and to spend the night after one of the storms, but the guy hadn’t had a chance to clean out the driveway. I got there first and had to hike at least 800 feet into the cottage, stomping the snow with my cross country skis. There was no question of gliding. The snow was too deep. The worst thing is that I had to carry the prime rib roast I was making for supper, along with other groceries, in a plastic bag in my hand. The dogs were very interested in that grocery bag. But I made it, despite the minus 25 degree weather, and the cottage was toasty warm by the time Norm arrived. What a lucky guy!

So we’re back in St. Lucia. Norm’s sister Gisele and her husband Allen are visiting, and enjoying everything the island has to offer. Last week we sat in on a time share presentation at the Windjammer, a resort down the road. As a thank you, they gave us a nice discount on a cruise to Soufriere, at the south of the Island.






The cruise was on a catamaran. We left at 8:30 and docked again at 5:00 pm. We cruised from the Windjammer past our house. We sailed by Castries and throughout the West Coast of the Island. We could drink all of the rum punch or beer that we wanted. The rum punch was so strong that we preferred a mix of half punch, half passion fruit juice.











Once we landed in Soufriere we were taken by mini-bus to Toraille Falls. It’s a 15 metre waterfall that we get to after walking through yet another tropical garden. It was a great place to take a quick dip. The water hits you pretty hard but it’s very refreshing.









From there, we were taken to the world’s only drive-in volcano. By drive in, they mean that the parking lot and road are actually built on top of the volcano. The Canadian government helped develop the tourist site. It is quite amazing. There is steam rising from the craters and the mud continually bubbles up. In the past, they used to let tourists walk closer to the craters. They would cook eggs in the boiling mud to prove just how hot it was. But that ended after a tour guide fell through one of the cracks. The ground can move and create new fissures. The guide was jumping up and down and a hole opened up and he fell in. He survived but was seriously injured. The volcano is active and scientists say it will erupt again, maybe as soon as 100 years from now. But they say there won’t be lava. There will be a big blast as strong as an atomic bomb and people will be killed by the poisonous gas that will be released.










Our next stop was at a working coco plantation where we were treated to a lovely buffet lunch. We had a short tour of the site and an explanation of how they process coco beans. After drying the beans in the sun on large trays for a few weeks, they pour them into a big cast iron pot where a worker polishes them by doing a coco dance. He washes his feet, adds water to the pot, hangs on to each side, and then swings his legs from side to side as the beans swish up and around him. I will never eat chocolate again without thinking of the coco dance.







There was a scheduled stop on the way home at a popular snorkelling beach. Gisele and Allen convinced me to give it a try and I am now a convert. I will never go far or go deep but in 15 minutes I saw at least a dozen different species of fish, all I water up to my neck. I felt like I was swimming in an aquarium. It was very cool.
The only unfortunately thing about a wonderful day of sailing is that Norm couldn’t be there because he was working. But it was so much fun that we’ll do it again when he can come along.
Sorry you had to wait so long for this latest blog entry. I’ll try to keep writing weekly but it’s going to be more difficult as we get more company over the next couple of months.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Heading back

For those of you wondering if we're back yet... Norm returned to St. Lucia in time to go back to school on January 7th. Gisele and Allen (Norm's sister and brother in law) arrived on Wednesday night. I return on Sunday the 13th and hope to post in the next week. Hope you all had a great Christmas.