St. Lucia, West Indies

No pressure, no problem, mon

We went to St. Lucia, in the West Indies, for the week between Christmas and New Years 2003. St. Lucia is towards the end of the Caribbean island chain, and we chose it for our first foray into this area due to its mean air and water temperature (80+ degrees in December!) For complete information on the island demographics, see the CIA factbook on the island.
This is a very poor island, and when we mentioned our guilt factor for being there in a rich place while people lived in metal shacks, our guide reminded us that without tourists they would be even worse off. That made it a little better. Our resort was located just south of Castries, above Marigot Bay (we snorkeled there a lot), and just as an idea of size, it took an hour by car to go from the Hewanorra International Airport in Vieux Fort to the resort. St. Lucia is an active volcanic island, and while the active part is a popular tourist site, we passed it up (three years living on another active volcano, Mt. Etna, takes the thrill away). We did tour the rainforest, and hit a number of snorkeling spots from Marigot Bay south to Soufriere.
Pool Bar, Sandals Regency St. Lucia The Sandals Regency, St. Lucia seen from the beach. Take a look at that surf - can you believe that it was red flagged, and we weren't allowed to swim? I still think it was only because they didn't' have enough life guards available.	While on the Island, we stayed at the Sandals Regency Resort. The Sandals resort company is an all inclusive package, and they operate three different resorts on the island, as well as others throughout the Caribbean. The Regency has a golf course, and is the largest of the three, boasting multiple restaurants, pools, and bars. The other two, the Halcyon and the Grande, have much nicer beaches and a smaller, friendlier appeal. While we greatly enjoyed our stay, we cannot recommend these Sandals - for the entire week we were there our beach was closed for being too rough (complete nonsense - see the pictures below), and the "specialized" restaurants were of poor quality. Is it too much to ask that a plate of sushi actually have fish? In general, it just seemed like the resort wasn't ready - bars ran out of champagne, closed with patrons standing there, restaurants didn't have items on the menu, etc. We were required to wear live vests while snorkeling(!), and in general they really sat pretty hard on the fun factor. We were surprised that they didn't require pool volleyball participants to wear crash helmets. Sandals caters to a lot of Americans, so this might be the reason why they are overprotective (face it, Americans are a sue happy lot - like those SOB families that are actually suing the US government for 9-11!), and why they didn't offer any local cuisine. Don't take our word though, plenty of people think this place is the cats meow. We're just going to try someplace else next time around.

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	Garbo waiting at Login International Airport, 25 December 2003, 5 AM. Merry Christmas!
	Karen at the Montego Bay, Jamaica Airport
	Gate number 4 - with a nicely located Margaritaville Bar.
	The island of St. Lucia, off of the resorts, was very poor. Yes, that shack was occupied.
	Sandals Regency - these were the Sunset suites.
	Sandals Regency seen from the water.
	Driving to Castries harbor
	The inside bay of Castries Harbor
	Old English(?) fortifications, Castries
	End of the bay, Castries Harbor
	Coastal fortifications, Castries
	Castries Harbor.
	Castries Harbor.
	Castries Harbor. Look at those cruise ships. This is a natural deep water (90 foot) harbor.
	Castries
	The coast of St. Lucia
	Karen on the dive boat for an 8:20 AM snorkel trip.
	Look at that smile - . Not a bad way to spend the holidays!
	Here fishy, fishy, fishy, fish.
	The snorkeling was good!
	This was not Nemo.
	A pair of Trumpet fish, the longer one was about two feet long.
	A white spotted Moray eel.
	Not sure of the species, but his highlights were bright purple.
	Can you find the flounder?
	Lunch! This guy was about three feet long.
	The rare flying Turkey fish - who said "Hard 5"?
	Argh Matey, there be pirates about.
	Our Room in the honeymoon suites, Sandals Regency
	Headed out for some dirty dancing!
	Here is the beach at Sandals Halcyon, storm incoming. That building on the left is the pier restaurant.
	The beach at Sandals Halcyon, even with the rain it was still 85 degrees!
	The beach front at Sandals Grande Resort
	The beach at Sandals Grande
	Sun god!
	Look ma, no hands!
	Our favorite local - our main main Chris
	Rainforest Hike!
	We got there in an Island Adventures land rover
	Hiking through the rainforest. No guerillas.
	Voila!
	Rainforest fauna
	Rainforest Fauna
	Rainforest wildlife
	Rainforest Fauna
	Sandals Regency
	Sunset over the Caribbean sea.
	Sandals Regency, Sunset pool and bar.
	This view from the Sandals sunset pool reminded us of Taromina
	Nice dress!
	Karen or Sunset? I hate decisions like this, so I took both!
	It was a tough, tough life!
	This is what we had to deal with our first day back! ARGH!

 

 

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