Mud, Chefs & Chicken

Imagine being covered with thick black goo and actually enjoying the experience. That’s what our daughter Elyse and her fiancé Daniel did on their last day in St. Lucia. On the way to the airport we stopped at the sulphur springs near the drive in volcano. They say covering yourself up with mud is very healthy for the skin. They even sell sulphur soap and sulphur powder at the tourist
Kiosk nearby.






Who knows whether there are long term benefits. But for the short term, Elyse and Daniel enjoyed it and Elyse said it made her skin feel really soft. But admittedly, it took awhile to wash the mud off. A very kind St. Lucian woman helped Elyse wash it off (I guess she thought Daniel wasn’t doing his job or something)








Earlier in the week they went off on their own to do the rainforest canopy tour where you go up into the hills of the rainforest on gondolas and come back down on zip lines.






Later that day we did the Pigeon Island walk. It takes about an hour and a half and includes a good 20 minute hike up a steep hill. But the view from the top (and the cool breeze) makes it all worthwhile.











On the way from Pigeon Island we discovered what happens during break time at the nearby Sandals resort. We saw this image of the cooks and couldn’t resist asking them for permission to take their picture. They kindly obliged.










There is little waste when you buy a whole chicken in St. Lucia. Not only do you get the innards, you also get the feet. In fact, you can buy a package of chicken feet, or claws, or whatever they’re called. I think they make good soup. They create a lot of gelatine.

Waiting for the plane

Elyse and her fiance Daniel have come to visit this week. It was a stressful time for them leading up to the trip. They weren’t able to confirm their flights until Thursday night. This when they were hoping to fly out on Westjet on Sunday. But they got their flights and arrived on time Sunday afternoon. They flew into the Hewanorra airport in Vieux Fort at the southern end of the Island. It’s not far but it still takes up to an hour and a half to get there. We left early in case there were traffic problems and went to the beach next to the airport to wait for them. What a beautiful wait.



Many people at this end of the Island have horses. And it’s not unusual to see people on horseback on the beach. They ride without a saddle. In this case the rider took his horse in the water to cool him off.







You can’t go anywhere in St. Lucia without seeing animals. There are always dogs of course as well as goats and chickens. But we got a chuckle seeing this cow walking along the airport fence. She was tethered at one point and must have broken free. After we picked up Elyse and Daniel there were six cows walking along the fence, one behind the other. They must have been looking for the first one.



There are many beautiful trees between the road and the beach area. They grow fairly flat and close to the ground. It's a perfect spot to sit an watch the planes come in.


















We took Elyse and Daniel to the beach to show them the paradise they’re visiting. They didn’t swim but they got their feet wet. I’ll add a picture of them when I get access to Elyse’s camera.





One of the new vegetables we’ve discovered that we really enjoy is christophena.
We cook it the same way we cook potatoes, peeled and boiled. But it’s quite runny. So sometimes after we boil it, we drain it, add cheese and bake it in the oven. You can also boil it in the peel, take the inside out, mash it and add it back to the peel to broil in the oven. It’s yummy.


And here’s that recipe for Coconut Squares that I mentioned in an earlier post. Everyone in the house really likes them. But be warned...they're rich.










Heat in a saucepan or microwave
½ cup butter
2 cup brown sugar

Remove from heat to cool and then add
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 ½ cup desiccated coconut
2 tsp vanilla
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until firm

The Road to Dauphin

One day this week when Norm was teaching and Wanda was busy entertaining her company (two couples are visiting Dale & Wanda) Carl and I went off on one of our fieldtrips. We use these little trips to discover a new part of the Island and more often than not, to try out the beer at a new bar. Our destination this time was Dauphin…a small village and beach on the northeast corner of the Island.


Going on one of these adventures may seem simple to the uninitiated. Just follow the map and go, right? Not so easy. We haven’t been able to find a good map. There are no road signs, nor in many cases, are there signs announcing which town or village we’re driving through. So if we don’t stop to ask, (and we haven’t yet) we just head in the direction of the ocean or the mountain peak and hope for the best.


We went through several little villages on fairly decent roads before the pavement gave way to a dirt road. It’s where we decided to turn back last week when we were driving with Gisele and Allen. But Carl has a four wheel drive and his vehicle is able to make it in places where our car can’t. We drove along for a few kilometres, dodging rocks and potholes, until we reached the village of Dauphin. The houses were small and in some cases primitive. On the left the houses were built into the hillside above our heads and on the right the houses were below us. A woman washed her clothes in a bucket in front of a huge water tank in the center of town. Each house had a black water tank either in front of or behind the house. It turns out that they are unable to pump water up to the town so that a tanker truck regularly delivers water to fill up the water tanks. The area seemed quite impoverished but the people smiled and waved as we drove by. The dirt track became narrower as we drove and we saw many piles of horse manure. We concluded that the road is used more often by horses than cars. After about 5 kilometres of driving through a beautiful valley, we finally reached Dauphin Beach. The sand was almost black. There was a tall cliff on one side covered with cactus and aloe vera plants. The beach was littered with debris brought in by the waves. It’s not a beach used for swimming so it doesn’t get a regular beach clean up. But all in all, a beautiful spot.




On our way back through town, we were stopped by a woman walking down the road carrying her son. Her name is Nadia. Her two year old son is named Austin. She asked if she could get a ride into Castries. She had to go the pharmacy to pick up nose drops for Austin who was sick with a bad head cold. As we drove the 20 minutes or so into Castries, she named every town and village we drove through. She rolled the window down and yelled hello to at least 20 people along the way, including two guys riding in the back of a pickup truck on the roundabout. They were all her cousins she said. She has a heck of a lot of cousins. She answered her cell phone and told the caller “I’m in a car with some white people, showing them around”. She gave us her number and said she was available any time to be a tour guide or to do hair braiding.





We had an interesting time at the market last week. A good part of the market is outdoors with vendors selling their produce under big umbrellas. The umbrellas did little to protect them on Saturday when there was a huge downpour. Usually the rain lasts only 5 minutes or so but this storm went on for at least twenty minutes. All of the customers who were outside ran into the covered part of the market and hovered in the crowded stalls waiting out the rain. The selling stopped. People just chatted with each other and waited for the rain to pass. It’s the way of the Caribbean. Relax. Wait it out. It will pass. It was interesting to listen in on the discussions, although we don’t understand most of the patois that is spoken.


We won’t be buying any peppers at the market over the next few weeks. Our balcony garden is starting to bear fruit. We’ve got beautiful orange & red peppers, eggplant, parsley and basil. Our cucumber plants didn’t make it and while the tomato plants are producing, the tomatoes have a disease that is very common in St. Lucia. It’s apparently impossible to avoid if you grow tomatoes here. So we’ll be sticking to peppers, eggplant and fresh herbs.


Next entry I’ll tell you about a new vegetable we’ve been enjoying and I’ll share a new recipe for Coconut Squares that I got from one of the parents at the school. It’s absolutely yummy!