Being belligerent travellers (yes I know, it’s hard to imagine) means we’ll not book a tour unless it’s absolutely necessary. Walking always comes first, hire a car next and finally if neither is an option then it’s the ship’s tour. Grabbing a local taxi never happens, and as you’ve recently discovered getting a bus is almost unheard of!
Consequently we plan to climb to a nearby lookout and then wander around the area. First schoolboy error is we open a map of the area right near the cruise terminal and the get pounced upon by taxi drivers galore. Oh it’s too dangerous to walk there pipes one, come with me for only $15. Half price today only.
Dilemma ensues - sales talk of course, heard it many times, but the island is clearly poor, not beggars as such but men with nothing to do are everywhere, and the taxi touts are the worst we’ve ever seen anywhere in the world.
We set off in the direction intended, but soon notice it’s not a good area we’re walking into, after some deliberation we decide to keep it local and head back towards town. This entails passing all the touts again, and then crossing over to another cruise terminal which in turn brings a whole new crowd of taxi touts. In fact all day we never really escape the call of “taxi sir?” wherever we walk.
Finally on more comfortable ground, we’re walking alongside the runway of the Capital‘s airport, no-longer the island’s main airport. We get to the end and pass through a cemetery to get to the beach, amused to be offered some of the “island’s finest” on the way through. Can’t imagine what the chap was selling!!
We wander up the beach for ages, passing through an hotel’s beach area and get moved on by security. We obviously look like vagrants.
Once again on free-for-all beach it’s just gorgeous, and we find a great bijou waterfront residence. After a while the incoming tide makes our continuing journey difficult and finally impossible, but it’s a lovely wander, saying hello to locals, even the vicar’s wife! A chap sports fins and harpoon to go fishing, would have been interesting to see what he catches.
We head inland slightly and wander along the motorway amused that it’s the only road so far to have a proper pavement, but of course it’s not really, just to concrete top to the mighty storm-drain running alongside the road.
We pass Sandall’s huge hotel, hit more beach, and at 7.5 miles decide it’s OK to head back, which we do on a faster pathway, turning inland and seeing a few local sights along the way. We return to the administrative centre of the city, and consequently the island, looking at the law-courts, government offices and the cathedral to name a few. A lovely park dedicated to two locals who made it to Nobel standard of achievement is a fitting way to end our ten mile tour.
We deliberate the pros and cons of what we’ve done today. Sure it’s not been the most awe-inspiring tour but we have seen life gritty and real. The trips to waterfalls and beaches on offer may have been pretty, but will those participants have seen the real St Lucia up close, or just seen anodyne tourist fodder? Let’s face it, if you wanna see a waterfall, go back to Victoria or Niagara - I doubt there’s anyone onboard who hasn’t done at least one.
After fish & chips for lunch, specifically rainbow trout and truffle fries, the afternoon is divided between an hour on deck nine with amaretto poured over ice-cream and then deck five jacuzzi with rum punch. Oh and I did an hours work on the auditions too!
We head back to dress for dinner early, punctuated by a stiff G&T of course, because Robert the CD (Cruise Director) is performing his one man show before dinner this evening. Turns out he’s an accomplished singer, just like all Seabourn CDs and we thoroughly enjoy his set.
During aperitifs at the Patio Bar we have a full and frank conversation with Marco, our executive chef on this journey. It’s most enlightening!
Time for dinner in MDR again, it’s a very very good 90% this evening. Staring with chicken mousseline for both of us, then lobster pasta for Hubby and veal sweetbreads for me, the first 5% is lost with the too salty lentils. Next it’s lamb rack for Hubby (just perfect) and TK’s very pink sous vide pork fillet for me (again perfect.) We finish with parfait and chocolate chip lava cookie, which could have been perfect if it wasn’t for the star anise left in the mixed berry compote!
We enjoy digestifs as we watch the new show entitled “a touch of genius” which aims to correlate songwriting and art, it’s a very agreeable ensemble. The singers are lovely and the dancers really embrace the limited space with many styles including a couple of serious ballet moments.
Comments
Post a Comment