St Lucia

March 2024

I had a spare week of annual leave and we fancied something in the Caribbean. We narrowed it down to Cuba or St Lucia and found a suitable all inclusive package in each country. I had been to Cuba back in 2004 and we had spent a day in St Lucia on our wedding/honeymoon cruise back in December 2017. Unable to make a decision, we opted to toss a coin. St Lucia won.

We flew from London Heathrow Terminal 3 with Virgin Airways. The 8 hour flight was filled with movies/meals etc. Before we left, I had to fill in an online St Lucia entry application which was a first. It produced a QR code to show immigration on arrival around 5.30pm (local time). It was a small airport but planes were coming in every day. The 29’c temperatures hit the face like a hairdryer, having left the UK with 11’c.

The Rough Guide introduced St Lucia “more than lives up to the paradisal Caribbean stereotype: a glorious mix of honey sand beaches, translucent waters sheltering reefs swarming with tropical fish, lush interior rainforests….you’ll find St Lucia, a relaxed, informal and incredibly friendly place to visit.”

TUI, the holiday provider had laid on a taxi to take us the entire length of the island up to the far north to Rodney Bay. Our driver had spent 11 years living in London, met his wife there and had returned back to St Lucia. He kept up with English politics and was very vocal with his opinions. As we drove around the hills on twisty roads, it turned dark. As we entered a small village with cars parked on either side of the road, two police cars turned up and blacked the road in front of us. A number of policemen jumped out with large automatic weapons. We saw one return holding a large knife. “This is what the island needs” our taxi driver concurred “I approve of police actions like this.” When the police cars moved on, we had to wait about ten minutes for all the backed up cars to come pass us following the police.

Arriving at the Starfish Hotel, check in was slow but someone brought us a rum punch. We were shown to our ground floor room which was long with an ensuite bathroom and looked out at the swimming pool. It was a small hotel, with around 150 guests mostly English with a handful of Americans and Canadians. We had chosen it because it had a decent sized pool and the narrow sandy beach was next to it. To help Wendy recovering from her lung cancer, she would snorkel around the pool a few times a day to improve her breathing. Across the bay lay the panorama of ‘Pidgeon Island’ which was actually a peninsula.

There was also a bar in the swimming pool which opened around 10am. The music did not blare out like it did in Gran Canaria. There were around 15 cocktails to choose from and we worked our way through them, narrowing down our favourites. They were not too strong unlike the rum and cokes which were half and half in measures.

There was a shortage of sunbeds and especially umbrellas. On our first day, we found a couple of loungers without shade and were sunburnt red (probably not helped by the enticement of the pool bar). Supposedly, you were not allowed to reserve them until 7am but I noticed on the first night that people were leaving towels/books on some. So, we did the same. In the morning, the books had gone. I soon sussed out that the staff were going around in the evening removing the ‘reservations’. But if you did it after the resort shut down for the night, your stuff would be there in the morning. I would get up around 3am to reserve two loungers under an umbrella. Around day 4, we were in the pool bar chatting to a couple from Tyneside Sarah and Tony. Tony remarked, “I come out around 3am to reserve our seats and someone always beats me. I’m going to get up earlier and beat the bastard!” How we laughed when he found out it was me. From then on, we would meet around 3am with our towels and books. I concluded “So I’m on holiday and I have to get up at 3am to reserve our seats from the rest of the English. Which is ironic since there are no Germans here.”

The meals were ok. Buffett style with occasional special evenings with someone grilling meat in front of you. The woman cooking the omelettes knew my order by Day 2 “everything in it” which was about 9 different ingredients – cheese, chillis, ham etc. I laughed when I saw a label for “Harsh Browns.” The staff were very friendly and made the holiday for us. Always smiling and laughing.

We met a variety of people (usually at the pool bar) and soon identified the ‘complainers’. Three elderly couples from South London would spend hours near the pool bar. Their gripe was “they don’t have any tonic water. They said there was a shortage but we went out to the nearest supermarket and there were stacks of it.” It was like 3 gangsters and their wives who were hiding out in the Caribbean. A Welsh woman (with another 4 friends) who could never get an umbrella, complained endlessly. “People who haven’t been back to their lounger for 45 minutes should lose them.” I wanted to say – well get up at 3am and reserve your own. There was an Englishman with a loud voice who would sit at the pool bar and try and collar someone to talk to and inevitably get them onto the subject of golf. We nicknamed him “Golf Bore” and kept away until he had found a victim.

We had already seen the major sites on our 2017 visit, and we felt that the excursions were very overpriced, so we decided to just have a relaxing week. I did go scuba diving on one day to add another country to my list. The DiveSaintLucia boat took 8 of us out of our bay and around to the left and down to the Pitons (Gros and Petit), the most famous sight in St Lucia, two towering volcanic cones covered in lush green vegetation stretching nearly a kilometre up from sea level.

The first dive called ‘Superman Flying’ was a drift dive where we let the current take us down the coast. For 50 minutes, I took in the beautiful colourful hard and soft coral which was a nice surprise. I didn’t see any major fish life, just shoals of small fish darting around. The second dive called ‘Fantasia’ was more of the same in a different area. The more I dive, the more I realise that we may be the last generation to see coral. So, the variety and healthiness of the coral off St Lucia was a big bonus. By the way, the sea water temperature was 29’c. Read and weep.

Towards the end of the week, rumours started to circulate among the guests. The hotel was due to be pulled down in three weeks and replaced with a ‘Planet Hollywood’ resort complex. We couldn’t believe it. It was a lovely small intimate hotel with a breathtaking location and beautiful beach. When we asked the staff what would happen to them, they said that they had been found jobs in other hotels or service industries. It will still be a crime of corporate greed.

On the last morning, I got up just before dawn and walked along the beach and then along a track up through a forest. A series of steps allowed me to climb up which led to a track and then bare rock where ropes had been tied to allow you to pull yourself up. There were a series of 6 ropes. Around 45 minutes after setting off, and breathing heavily, I wondered when I would reach the summit and then suddenly I was there with the sun rising and a view back over the hotel and over to the capital of Castries. It seemed a fitting way to say goodbye to a lovely island and a fantastic break.