A Short Trip to Paradise

Rick Brown

I’ve been waiting for the perfect day to write down my thoughts about St. Lucia. That’s where my wife Yvonne decided we should go to celebrate her 50th birthday. Today is the perfect day. Earlier this morning it snowed…not much mind you…just enough to remind me how I promised myself not to complain about the 90-degree heat while lying on a beach in the West Indies. Sometimes life is difficult.

St. Lucia is a small island formed long ago by volcanoes…about 250 square miles…located close to Granada, St. Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago…closer to South than North America. It takes some time to get there. Since our pooch Henri was staying with his “cousin” Rigley in the Cleveland area we flew from there to Philadelphia to Barbados to…well that was our first adventure. Once on the flat, desert island of Barbados we sweated our way through the customs line and were told to wait for the announcement of our departure. Our plane was delayed and finally when we were told which gate to walk to, three different people told us the wrong gate. We missed our plane…not a good start to a trip to paradise. I was angry…and that’s nothing most people who know me haven’t already seen. But Yvonne was livid!! And that’s a rare occurrence. We were whisked…and I mean whisked…on to another flight that took us to the island of St. Vincent and then to St. Lucia…where being only 90 minutes or so behind schedule…we found our luggage waiting for us in the tiny…and I mean tiny terminal. Our collective moods improved immediately.

I always find it…not quite disconcerting…but a tad strange…arriving in a place one’s never been once the sun has set. You really have to wait until morning to get a good look at where you are. But once we took a cab north to the Rodney Bay area (on the ride I decided against renting a car since the traffic was on the left hand side of the road and busier than I anticipated) and checked into our suite at Harmony Suites (http://www.harmonysuites.com/) we found the beer cold and the people friendly. The hotel’s bartender…and soon to be friend…Bernard helped us find our room and the weeklong birthday celebration was off and running. Our suite included a small kitchen, dining area, bedroom, bath and living area with cable TV. It was modest but quite comfortable and had enough amenities to make us relax immediately.

Rodney Bay has several hotels and an impressive number of good restaurants…plus a little Americana. There are plenty of KFCs which locals claim aren’t so appealing to American tourists because they serve free-range chicken. And within walking distance were a Dominos and a Hooters. I have no idea what kind of person would travel to a foreign land…a paradise really…and eat at Hooters. Actually I do have a good idea who that might be and I most certainly do not want to be in their vicinity while on vacation…or any other time for that matter. Of course there was the myriad of seafood eateries as well as Indian, Italian and Chinese cuisines. Neither of us was disappointed in the quality of dining in St. Lucia…and Yvonne and I are picky. The vegetables are fresh as is the fish and meat…all locally grown and delivered daily.

The weather…despite the fact it was the tail end of hurricane season…was great…in the 90’s every day. So it was HOT! HOT! HOT! That’s why you travel to the Equator right? It did rain profusely one day…Sunday. But much to my delight…when I settled in front of the TV with a Piton Beer in hand and decided to watch whatever NFL game was being shown…was the Cleveland Browns game!! I couldn’t believe it! And, of course, they lost and played horribly. It was easier to take while on vacation. Another big plus traveling during this off-season was the sparseness of other tourists.

Yvonne and I spent most of our time hanging at Reduit Beach…which is about a 200-yard walk from Harmony Suites… at the hotel pool with some Brits we became friendly with…or at the hotel bar on the water of Gros Islet chatting with our new friend Bernard. Later in the week we hitched a ride on the dive boat with a few divers…most notably our buddies from Manchester, England Alan and Andy…and snorkeled while they explored a shipwreck. There is a rainforest that we considered hiking but once I found out there were Boa Constrictors I thought better of it. I’ll swim with the sharks and eels rather than walk amongst Boas. The snorkeling was quite good that day and seeing the island from offshore was a real treat.

One of our last days there we hired a cabbie by the name of Monrose. Bernard had recommended him to us and promised if he didn’t treat us right he would punch him out. After meeting Mr. Monrose personally, I doubted the number of guys who could punch out this imposing figure. But the size of his heart matched and we spent an entire day being escorted around the west side of St. Lucia. Monrose proved to be much more than a cabbie. He was more a chauffer/guide not merely stopping at the tourist places but showing us how the people of the island lived. Bernard tagged along for the ride and the four of us had a splendid day trip, not just taking in the breathtaking scenery like the glorious Pitons situated at the base of St. Lucia, but getting a close up view of Creole life in small fishing villages and listening to those reciting the history of whatever site we were admiring. Monrose not only took us to see the majesty of the Pitons close to the very expensive Hilton where the four of us enjoyed lunch together. He also made a point of showing us the back streets of fishing towns. Shantytowns. Real life.

Like most Caribbean Islands the locals sell jewelry, sculpture, local art…whatever they make. But unlike say…Jamaica…where I grew annoyed with people’s persistence…the people of St. Lucia merely want to make a little cash. If you are not interested they are polite and leave you be. At one point Monrose stopped his van at a small rural bakery that made the native cassava bread. What seemed to be dozens of schoolgirls there are on trip to learn about their Creole heritage, swarmed around me to get their picture taken. Their exuberance was delightful and after the first shot several more giggling girls rushed over to get in the next photograph. For a minute or so I felt like a National Geographic photographer.

The week went by all too quickly. The rugged beauty of the volcanic mountains…the calm, clear water…the palm trees…the wonderful food. Theses are things I will never forget about our birthday celebration in St. Lucia. But it’s the people that made the excursion unique and most interesting. Their warm smiles and quiet demeanor are qualities we all should embrace. This place is a sort of paradise. Yet it is still obviously a third world country. “The rich live up high and the poor down below” is a refrain I heard more than once. There are few…if any…in the middle. Most Creoles live in a shanty or in a small place in a city like Castries. Some fish. Some sell jewelry. Some drive cabs. Or wait tables or cook or carry bags. But many of these gentle folks felt like friends by the time we had to say good-bye…especially Bernard and Monrose. And if we ever go back…and we are most certainly planning on it…we will surely look for our friends again because they helped reaffirm my faith in humankind…if only for 7 days.