Day 21 Soufriere

Day 21 Soufriere
We had intended to get an early start for our trip to Soufriere, but we had stayed out longer than we expected to last night so we slept in a bit. We took a bus to Castries, and then got on another to Soufriere; we must have just missed one because there was only one other passenger waiting onboard. It took about 40 minutes for the bus to fill up; the time was spent listening to a man and woman debate religion in the row in front of us, it was pretty funny and kept us entertained as we waited. The ride to Soufriere is very picturesque, the view varies from the forest to the sea, it’s amazing how lush the countryside is for this time of the year. Once we arrived in town we stopped at the supermarket to pickup some water for the day, I also grabbed a couple fish cakes from the woman that sells them outside of Sandy’s bar. The fish cakes were different than any I had before; each one had a small whole fish cooked into them, very tasty. We made our way over to the beach by the Hummingbird; this is one of my favorite spots to spend a lazy day on the beach.

Enjoying a swim with Petit Piton in the background

There were three ships in Castries today and the tour boats stopped at the beach to let off the day trippers, the guys that jump from the cliff were out in force putting on a show each time another boat arrived. The sand here is darker than on other beaches and heats up under the full sun making for a hurried walk from the towel to the water. The water gets deep quickly so you only have to go a little way out to swim, the point seems to breakup any swell and the swimming is usually easy here. I phoned Boomer when we arrived, he’s recovered from the injury he suffered last month and was in Castries visiting his mom, he said he would be leaving soon and would meet us in town. Around mid afternoon, Kim had gotten enough sun so we decided to grab some lunch in town.

With Boomer in Soufriere

Boomer’s bus had arrived just as we were leaving the beach so we met up and went to Archies, my perennial favorite, for something to eat. We each had the chicken meal which was stewed in a very flavorful Creole sauce and accompanied by the full array of sides. There was a broadcast going on at the small waterfront park, they showcase St. Lucian talent and Boomer signed up to sing a couple of his original songs. I had purchased his CDs before, but the recording quality wasn’t the best, I think he just sings into his computer microphone, but I had never heard him perform live; we were pleasantly surprised as he has a good voice and the songs were well written.

Entertaining the crowd

I stopped for and ice cream cone, chocolate and seamoss, then we walked over to The Image Tree to pick up some gifts for the grandchildren. Kim had already gotten some black coral necklaces for the older kids and just needed to get something for the two young ones, we though tee shirts would be best so she picked a couple out and we were on our way. The bus ride back to Castries always gives me a little anxiety; they go down the road at breakneck speed and come into the curves so fast that you know you are only one blown tire (tyre) away from the whole bus going over one of the many cliffs along the coast road. Once back in Castries, we shopped at the market for some local hot sauce to take home; my luggage is usually full of rum and hot sauce whenever I leave the islands. Hot sauce and mangos in hand we got on the Gros Islet-Castries bus and headed back to the hotel. Tonight was the manager’s party at the hotel, so we stopped in for some rum punches and then walked over to Trendy and Vicky’s house to sit around and have a few drinks with them.

The manager's party at the Bay Gardens Hotel
I was tired from our long day so we didn’t stay too long, when we left we walked down to the chicken truck by the marina for some wings and fries to go. Being from Buffalo we are picky about our wings, but these are very good, they don’t have the Buffalo type sauce on them but are covered in a slightly sweet and spicy sauce that remind me of the special “Abbey” sauce one of our local bars has; of course I kick it up a notch with some West Indian hot sauce, but that’s just me. We enjoyed our wings on the balcony of our room it was a beautiful night and the breeze blowing through felt good, it’s times like these I wish we never had to leave.