St. Lucia: where banana fields are plentiful and experiences are no coincidence.

ST. LUCIA: (1.24.11), I took two different trips out to the Caribbean, spending two days in Turks & Caicos and two days in St. Lucia. They were quick trips, but they were still cultural nonetheless.  Turks & Caicos was less cultural, flat-as-pancake islands…like little frisbees floating on water.. just a short flight from Florida, right to the east of Cuba.  I’ve heard really great things about their beaches, but I didn’t see the beach.  Upon arriving at the airport to pick up my rental car, I discovered there’s a national law stating you must be at least 25 years old to rent a car.  Being 23, I had to taxi around to my destinations, but I didn’t have far to go.  The cab dude took me to my hotel to sleep, and then I went to my one hardware account appointment in the morning before heading back to the airport.  I had ample time to kill in the airport café, so I had their homemade conch chowder and worked on my computer.  Conch (pronounced ‘konk’)  is a shell common to many Caribbean islands and prepared as conch chowder, conch fritters, or ceviche.  A nice surprise was that this hole-in-the-wall café had WiFi, which is extremely hard to find in public places on many islands.  I caught up on some work e-mails and of course squeezed in a tiny bit of Facebook time.  That’s really all that happened in Turks & Caicos.  I’ll be back down in a month for a weekend grand re-opening of the hardware store that carries Milwaukee Tools, but until it becomes more cultural, Turks & Caicos was probably my least favorite trip.

Now is where y’all tune in: St. Lucia!  WOW! This was the most BEAUTIFUL island I’ve been to thus far.  St. Lucia is in the south Caribbean, just north of Barbados (which is just north of South America), and is a long island that stretches about 30 miles from north to south.  I really feel like I’m being protected from above, that God’s Hand is truly in everything, keeping me safe with these new, unchartered (by Anna and Milwaukee Tool standards) adventures.  And here’s an example of why: I was in the customs line after exiting the plane in St. Lucia, and the older lady in front of me was a bit flustered about which papers to get prepared for the customs officer at the desks.  In the midst of her struggling, her big ole suitcase fell backwards, and the handle hit me right below the navel…right where it would have really hurt if I was a male.  My nose was in my Blackberry, so I was caught off-guard and honestly a little annoyed...not because of the suitcase handle, but the constant  line-waiting, travel, delays, etc.  can just get to you.  I told the woman she just needed her passport and customs form out for the officer at the desk.  We got to talking, and she told me she was from Alaska and had been traveling alone for the past 36 hours to meet her daughter and son-in-law and grandchildren on a Catamaran that they were sailing through the Caribbean for a year.  I told her I had a college friend from Anchorage, Alaska (shout-out to Ashley!), and that someday I was gonna get up there.  We parted when she was called to one of the customs desk, and I told her that I had my international cell phone, and if she needed to call her daughter when we were outside, she could.  We didn’t even get outside and she approached me.  Because she didn’t know the name of the port her daughter’s catamaran was docking at, they confiscated her passport and wouldn’t let her go!  We made a call and located her son-in-law right outside the airport, and they let the poor woman go after, through all of that chaos, feeling the need to check her luggage again.  Well, then it was my turn to be overwhelmed and need assistance.  I got outside and, just as I feared, you have to be 25 to rent a car in St. Lucia, and this wasn’t just a short visit to the hotel and one appointment—this was a bigger island with hardware accounts on both ends.  This woman, Dorine, introduced me to her son-in-law, who told me there’s no way I should drive here…they drive crazy and you wind through mountains on pothole-filled roads.  He said to be aware of which cab (they are all unmarked) you choose, and that I should find a reputable company who will rent me a cab driver for a day at a predetermined rate.  He had one lined up who he knew was good and safe, so I hopped in the cab with him and Dorine, and once we dropped them off at the harbor, I could have the cab for the afternoon.  I am so fortunate, and this is why I say God’s Hand is in everything.  If for some reason they would have rented me a car, I would have taken it, and I would have been in for a long, stressful 2 days of driving.  It wasn’t that the drivers were that crazy, it was just the terrain and change of altitude and leanness of the road, many times of which was almost completely washed out from a recent hurricane.  And, if it wasn’t for the suitcase handle hitting me, and meeting Dorine and her son-in-law, I would not have been introduced to the great, legitimate, safe taxi service.  I said my goodbyes to Dorine and her son-in-law, and they invited me to extend my stay to sail with them that weekend up to St. Vincent, a neighboring island, and fly home to Florida from there.  It sounded awesome, but I had to get back by Friday night and go work in Orlando for something on Sunday, so I said “maybe a rain-check.”  He e-mailed me this morning and invited me to meet them in Grenada or St. Maarten in the next couple of weeks.  I’m not sure it’s feasible, but if nothing else Dorine said when I got to Alaska someday, I should look her up.  The cab driver took us to exchange the car for another car, a Lexus, which was more reliable for the journey from the south to the north of St. Lucia.  I met the owner of this cab company, and we exchanged info so that the next time I came, I could use them.  To give my mother peace-of-mind up in Wisconsin, it ended up being a great experience with this cab company and driver, where I felt completely safe, they didn’t overcharge me for the 2 days, and since the company does island tours for tourists all the time, I got to hear some pretty cool facts about St. Lucia from Lolly, the driver, and I have some of the most breathtaking pictures thus far.  Even though it was a very hectic 2 days for work, we made it around the whole island – taking the east (Atlantic) side up north on Day 1, and taking the west (Caribbean) side back down on Day 2.  I have amazing photos, all of me in my Milwaukee red polo.  (Rest assured that while there are a lot of pictures you might see on here and on Facebook of me with beaches and beautiful views, I have taken at least triple that many photos of tools and hardware stores on these islands.  I DO actually work and I can prove it by the lack of tan I have after 2.5 months of this.)  Just driving to and from hardware stores from the south to the north of St. Lucia and back, I saw the sun set over the Caribbean up by the St. Lucia lighthouse (2^nd tallest in the world, according to Lolly), drove through the rainforest in the north, saw the beautiful Piton mountains in the west, stopped for lunch on Day 2 in Marigot Bay (BEAUTIFUL haven where movies have been filmed), and even saw a banana field! A field of banana trees!  Yes, to answer your thoughts, OF COURSE I stopped so that Lolly could take a picture of Anna Banana by a banana tree!  Bananas are St. Lucia’s most crucial export, and as of this trip, Anna Banana is St. Lucia’s most crucial tool sales representative.

Thanks for reading!! I have to figure out how to post pictures still.  I’ll post again soon about my sugarcane-tasting experience in St. Kitts and much more. J