St. Lucia - Travel Caribbean

What is the earthly paradise of our visitors? sum of two units weeks without rain and a mahogany tan, and, at eve local troubadours in straw hats and floral shirts beating "Yellow Bird"' and "Banana Boat Song" to death. There is a territory wider than this - wider than the limits made by the agency of the map of an island which is the illimitable sea and what it remembers.

It is hard to believe that the effulgent rain, forests of St. Lucia are solitary an hour's flight from the powerful dried light of Antigua. Yet although they exist beneath the same day-star and sky and are washed by the agency of the same Caribbean waters, the islands' landscapes are remarkably different. While Antigua's harbors and sunbaked clime allurements one always to its coastlines, St Lucia's volcanoes, peaks and expanse of down-reaching deep greenery draw one inward, to places where the eruptions of humanity and nature can still be discovered.

The boat ride along the western coast of the island to the southern village of Soufriere takes the better part of a day. However, the journey appears much shorter, as one is held rapt through superlative rocks and cliffs, uncompromised forests, thickets of palms. lengthy before reaching the peninsula that appears to mark the extreme point of the island, one glimpses a mountain peak. Turning into the bay, this peak is revealed as the top of individual of Les Pitons, the majestic pair of mountains that stand above a half-mile high and protrude into the Caribbean. Formed by dint of lava poured from a once-active volcano, Le Pitons are fertile with volcanic topsoil and draped in their have tropical forests.

Nestl within the shadows of Le Pitons is the fishing village of Soufriere, the next to the first largest city on the island. To approach this enclave is to feast your eyes: Beneath a lush canvas of palms and other tree are splattered a strand of pastel-colored buildings that full number the palette of sea, forest and sky

After exploring the village's cobblestone roads or enjoying the region's Creole cuisine, those who would like to witness a bit of the island's history can take a tour from the village to the Soufriere Estates, a 300-year-old cocoa plantation that has been preserv to near authenticity. Here, individual can walk along the shaded pathways where coconut and sugar cane were harvested, diocese the ovens in which cocoa sperms were dried, and watch a horse walk the circular paces that turn rounded the water wheel that assisted the slaves as they smashed sugar cane from one side large, dangerous rollers.

Hutches similar to the individuals in which slaves resided are also intact, their walls plastered with ashes and limestone to interrupt infections, their roofs made of bamboo to facilitate the collection of water. Mattresses mattered with coconut husks, tables made from the boles of coconut trees, and chalices made of calabashes are all sobering reminders of the relative nature of paradise.

In Castries, St Lucia's capital, the grace and delicacy of the island's tillage is revealed. Although much of the original architecture has been replaced, there are still quite a not many old edifices that testify to the city's heritage and charm. Here, individual might take time out from enjoying the restaurants, the beaches and the ocean and the mountain views to visit Saturday's open-air market, where each imaginable foodstuff is sold, along with ceramics and other crafts.

On Friday nights, many St Lucians gather at the way festival held in the fishing town of Gro Islet. It is a party view extraordinaire. A gigantic speaker combination of parts to form a whole blasts danceable music nonstop; local vendors barbecue chicken and fish, barter sodas and beer from icefilled garbage pails, and barter for all marks of collectibles, from T-shirts to jewelry. And that is alone what can be viewed when walking along the highways Inside the area's restaurants, bars and all-purpose hangouts, to a background of soca and reggae, there's fates more jamming going on.

Sharon Fitzgerald is a freelance writer in fresh York City. Her last article for American Visions, "The Homecoming of Jacob Lawrence," appeared in the April/May 1995 issue.

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