St Lucia

There is enough to feed and drink permanently and I can see a very necessary diet ahead in the coming weeks! Still for now….just enjoy, life is indeed too short to worry………..…..remember all those ladies on the Titanic who kept refusing the sweet trolley!!!!!!!

It is really exciting to approach a new place from the sea and see the island as it emerges into view, the distant horizon and an outline becoming detail with geographical features, interspersed by man made structures  giving a feel, an impression  for what might lie ahead?

St Lucia is indeed tropical and extremely beautiful from afar. The rainforest covers the land in view and I can’t begin to imagine what it might have been like for explorers hundreds of years ago………..totally unknown vegetation and peoples, friendly or otherwise, where was the next meal coming from?

 
Fully replete we disembarked to be met by a “gaggle of people” touting for our business re available tours.  


A young black man took our fancy  and having introduced us to John we opted to share a taxi with an Indian couple to journey to the south west coast of the island and visit “The Pitons”, on my bucket list since an eleven year old  girl in my first year secondary  when I saw photographs in The National Geographic Magazine.

John was very informative and knowledgeable about the history, geography  and culture of the island. He created an atmosphere which allowed us to ask questions  and eventually we discovered he had been a teacher but decided it was too hard and gave it up.  

He hadn’t finished his Masters and later on we discovered he only worked a couple of days a month now that the cruise ships only came to the island twice per month. He also worked in a voluntary capacity but recent storms had hit the island hard and folks had been killed in horrendous landslides. 

The economy is so dependent on tourism, no tourists like us……no income! There is no work for young men nor for older men like him………….It seems so incongruous and I feel so powerless to do anything to help.

It is in such sharp contrast to opportunities available for young people in Australia! We drove through excrutiatingly poor villages where folks lived in nothing bigger than a garden shed, a falling down one at that. They only went inside at night to sleep. Having seen this however we also discovered that folk live to a ripe old age………..eg John quoted known folks to be 104 years old!!!!!

 
 The contrast between the rich and poor is so evident but I must add that the beauty of the island was just startling even although folks are merely existing and scraping a living by whatever means? 

The photographs need no words just filed into my memory albums forever. I do want to return ……….maybe one day?