11/22/03

Today's special guest writer--Chad

Before leaving for St. Lucia I was watching the weather forecast rather closely because it looked like it would be raining everyday I was there. Luckily by the time I arrived, the bad weather had passed and the sun was out every day. I arrived on Thursday afternoon rather than Wednesday night, because my flight was delayed out of O’Hare.

Once there, our first stop was Caroline’s apartment. My first impression was, "Is she really in the Peace Corps?" If she is, then the Peace Corps really needs to look into opening a branch in Chicago because her place has got to be at least three times the size of my first place. I was also wondering what Caroline was doing on the side to make ends meet? Anyways, the neighborhood was a little nicer than I had expected. Not only does Caroline have a Baptist revival down the road EVERY NIGHT, but also a country/western bar is within walking distance. Can it get any better? I don’t think so either.

One of the first days there we took a boat ride from Rodney Bay south to Soufriere. Along with us came Caroline’s friend Deb and her visitor Karen. Those two were with us for many of the adventures of this trip. The boat ride was very calm and the views of the island were great. Once we made it to Soufriere, we went to the nearest store that was open. Surprisingly it was the bar. We all grabbed a handful of beers and jumped in the back of a pickup to get a quick tour of the island. I can’t think of a better way of seeing the city. After the tour of town was over we got back on the boat and headed back north. On the way we stopped to go swimming. We anchored in a bay, where Caroline and Deb knew people on the boat anchored next to us. Caroline and Deb decided it would be more fun to abandon our original ship and head back with their friends instead. For some reason they both run into people they know all over the island. On the way back we stopped in Marigot Bay. Marigot Bay turned out to be a perfect place to stop and have a drink while the sun set. Apparently others thought the same because we got there and many other boats were anchored and docked in the bay. After watching the sunset we headed north to Rodney Bay. Despite it being dark out, the stars and glowing lights from Martinique gave us enough to look at for the trip back.

On Monday Caroline stopped in at work and let me hit the town of Castries myself. While there I walked around and saw Wolcott Square and a church nearby. Other than that, the Duty Free Shop and market across the street bring in the tourists from the cruise ships. Unfortunately, with all the tourists coming into port I spent a lot of time trying to avoid the cabbies asking me if I want a taxi to go to the beach and the dealers asking me if I wanted any reefer. Really, Castries was the only place I encountered much of that. Rodney Bay, and the area Caroline lives in, doesn’t have that, and it’s too bad the tourists see that part of St. Lucia. I spent a couple hours wandering around Castries, and once I was finished with that I conveniently found a bar open in the duty free shopping mall. It was a nice place to relax and look at the ships in port.

Castries was also the town we went to see an open mic night. Similar to open mics here in the states there were some good singers, some bad singers, and the drunken guy who feels his dancing is a necessary part of the show. Of course I was the one that had to talk to him. Caroline spent enough time talking to people she didn’t want to talk to so I guess I let her take a break. She needed it.

On Tuesday, Caroline, Deb, Karen and I rented a car and drove to Anse Chastanet to go snorkeling. The roads were extremely steep and curvy on the way there, particularly the one lane gravel road to the beach. It was a great place to go snorkeling because the water was calm, and the water was shallow enough to see everything, but deep enough to dive in. We stayed there for a while, and then went to a hot water spring afterwards.

Other than the side trips, the beach was a common destination. That was fine with me considering I do enough running around at home. I really could use some time to relax. Now I’m hoping that if Caroline doesn’t end up in Japan she’ll end up at another warm tropical island.