Cotton Bay Village Resort, Gros Islet, Saint Lucia
Marleen had arranged with our driver Kirtland to do a tour of the Soufriere area with stops at the Mud Baths, Botanical Garden, Water falls and restaurants recommended by our B&B hostess Simone. We started out around 9:30 am. Gabriel Charles, aka Kirtland, was our driver and de facto tour guide. He is 49 years old and 6'4" - from a family of tall people, with one sister who is 6'3". He is married with a 12 year-old son named Romeo. His mother is Catholic and wanted to baptize him as Kirtland but the priest would not accept the name because it wasn't a saint's name so the priest took Kirtland's father's name Gabriel as his baptismal. According to Kirtland the Catholic Church is still fairly powerful and has control over people's legal names through the baptism process. Even though the majority of St Lucians give Catholic as their religion, the Seventh Day Adventist Church has gained the second most members. Kirtland and his wife are vegans and their son is now leaning toward vegetarianism as well. They let him have a choice rather than imposing vegetarianism on him. I was thinking that perhaps Kirtland had switched to the Seventh Day Adventist Church. He also does not drink alcohol. We learned quite a bit about Kirtland and his life on St Lucia during the over 12 hours of our trip.
Initially the tour was to stop at a banana plantation and the rum distillery in the morning, but we preferred to postpone them since we weren't too sure we wanted the rum tasting at 10 in the morning.
Kirtland told us about St Lucia's first prime minister as an independent country. He sounded absolutely wonderful. St Lucia received its independence 41 years ago and other Caribbean islands in the Bristish Empire soon followed them. Kirtland said their first prime minister drove a truck, wore plain clothes and would jump right into his farm work at the end of his government work day. He lived in a regular house in the community and identified with the regular people. He was prime minister for 30 years. After he retired, the next prime minister turned out to be a corrupt crook surrounded by equally corrupt ministers who robbed the people. Because the people can demand an election, they got the original pm back at the age of 86 I think Kirtlan said. He put things back on track before he died in his 90's. One of the things he had instituted in his first 30 years was the banana industry. He had banana tree seedlings imported and planted so that people could grow them in the fertile volcanic soil.
Bananas had been the chief export crop until cheaper bananas from Central America took over their markets. I wasn't too sure but I think that even though bananas are still grown, they are not exported that much any more. Tourism has probably taken over as the chief contributor to GNP. Kirtland pointed out some oil storage tanks and told us that oil is relatively inexpensive on the island and it comes from Trinidad, and used to come from Venezuela as well.
On our drive down the western Caribbean coast on the windy, mountain two-lane road, we did stop at a fruit and vegetable stand where we bought some bananas and Kirtland bought two bags of tomatoes - or was it one bag of tomatoes and one bag of tangerines? We did get to have sweet, little tangerines at one point. At another roadside stand, there was a run and sauce tasting operation. We must have tasted a half dozen rums as 3-4 sauces. I ended up buying a hot sauce that I really liked and a bottle of what I thought was coconut-vanilla flavored rum that turned out to be coconut liqueur.
We then stopped at one or two overlooks where we had views of the Pitons, the iconic volcanic peaks near Soufriere. We ended up buying some coconut shell necklaces from a grey-bearded gentleman by the side of the road. Marleen, being the best bargainer, got the best deal, but I was pretty happy with my choices. Then Kirtland mentioned that, by wearing our necklaces, we could fend off more solicitations.
Somewhere along the way, we made another roadside stop where a man had a boa constrictor. Kirtland had told us how pleasant the boas are and how, as a boy, he used to play with them. He said you just have to know how to hold them. If you hold the head on one side and the tail on the other, you can keep them from squeezing you to death. So I got to pose with a boa constrictor - a small 6' one - around my shoulders. It wasn't as bad as I would have expected, but it was heavy. I now have photos from Marleen of that experience.
Since our plans changed during the course of the trip, I am not exactly sure of the order.
We had lunch at a restaurant called Boucan by Hotel Chocolat, Rabot Estate, Soufriere. We ate on the outdoor deck overlooking the Pitons. It was a sensational view and the food was excellent. I had a grilled cheese sandwich with three little sides and some kind of cocktail drink. Marleen had a giant bottle of locally brewed IPA beer. Simone's recommendations turned out to be very good. There was something Kirtland told us about Oprah Winfrey frequenting the very expensive resort at this location somewhere - maybe Jade Mountain. The rooms started at $1500 or something like that. And there was somewhere else that was Hilary Clinton's favorite - I think that was farther inland.
Kirtland stopped at the Toraille Waterfall where we changed into our bathing suits and hopped out into the natural pool at the base of the waterfall and had the pretty cool water pelt us. Kirtland took some photos of me with my camera and Marleen took some with hers - Marleen's are more flattering than Kirtland's.
He likes taking photos. He told us that he would love to become a professional photographer or at least an active amateur upon retiring. He did a nice job with some other photos of us. Then he added the Tet Paul Nature Trail. We walked up the trail to a Piton overlook - said to be the million-dollar view. It was pretty spectacular! On the trail, we had a young man guide who showed us an example of a typical St Lucian house with a single room, partitioned for two very small bedrooms - extra kids slept on the floor. There was some kitchen equipment and the old local clay pots that were used to cook food over a charcoal fire. I just remembered the story behind Tet Paul (Paul's head). This man Paul had no children or heirs to leave his estate to so he willed that anyone could build a house there and live but they could never sell their houses or any part of the land. The young man showed us various vegetables that were being grown there - all organically - and told us about plans to expand their crop production.
Kirtland had also told us about his 5 acres or so where he grows lots of vegetables and fruit. He even collects seaweed to use as fertilizer. I am forgetting what he uses as an organic pesticide, but whatever it was, he soaks it and ferments it and strains it, dilutes it and then sprays it on his crops. I wish I could remember what it is. We got to the viewing platform where we could see both Pitons - Gros et Petit - and we had our photos taken with some trick shots by the young man as well as group shots by Kirtland.
By now it was nearing 5 pm when the Diamond Botanical Garden closed, but, if you made it in before 5, you could stay for awhile. We had maybe close to an hour in there with Kirtland giving us a tour. I don't think it was that big and I think we saw most of it. I might have stayed there longer to take photos if I were on my own, but I was satisfied with what we saw, especially since we had Kirtland to explain things to us. It was tightly packed with vegetation -- almost jungly with paved paths looping around. Near the gate house there was a bread nut tree that Kirtland showed us. We saw quite a few tropical flowereing plants and the typical tropical plants that we have in our homes as house plants were growing lush by the side of the path. At the far end of the loop was the Diamond Waterfalls. This one we could not go and splash around in. It was scenic with its orange-stained rock and lianas hanging down beside the falls.
We passed some tables with fruits and spices exhibited on them that Kirtland identified for us. Toward the end we passed some cacao trees where Kirtlan pulled off one of the pods, opened it and gave us some of the seeds to eat the sweet covering off. We also saw the mineral bath area, but it was closed because it was so late. When we left the Gardens, the guard gave him a bag full of bread nuts. He was quite excited because his son and wife both loved to eat them.
By this time it was too late for a Piton sunset viewing, so we headed off to the Mud Baths in the drive-in volcano. Even though the mud baths were open until 11 pm, the drive-in part of the volcano was closed. Kirtland said I could check it out up to a bridge where I did see some sulphurous fumes coming out but the angles for photos were not so good and I didn'[t get any good shots. I made my way into the second hottest of the 4 hot spring pools. I thought there was grass or something on the bottom but Grace and Marleen said it was the mud from people rinsing off their mud in the baths.
We spent maybe 5 minutes in the pool and then came out for our mud applications. There was a very watery white mud slip that we spread over our selves and let dry. We were waving our arms around to speed the process but that only made me a little cold. Finally the mud dried and we could feel the tightening and then Kirtland applied designs with the black mud. We had pretty much identical designs created by his dabbing finger prints. Then we posed as angry cats with clawed fingers as he took photos of us. I think the photos were fun and turned out pretty well! Now I only need to get them on the computer. For some reason, I could not transfer them from Marleen's messages to the computer because they did not show up when I plugged in the phone to transfer them. Another item for my to-do list. Anyway, we then rinsed off our mud in the pool, but Kirtland said we should not take a shower until the next morning so that we can get the full therapeutic effects of the hot springs and mud treatment.
We debated whether to have dinner at the Hummingbird Beach Resort recommended by Simone as planned or head back to Cotton Bay because it was late by now, but Kirtland was agreeable to our having dinner. He is such a sweetheart! The food was good, but the service was not so good. Marleen asked if it were possible to have separate checks and the waitress was visibly disturbed by the request. They seemed to ignore us for quite a while after that. We finally got served. I can't remember if we got everything we ordered, but when it came to get the check, it took ages and ages. We were worried about delaying Kirtland so long. In the turmoil, we entirely forgot about going down to see the black sand beach. Oh, well.
I think we still had to make a stop to get some needed groceries at the convenience store before getting back to our apartment around 10:30 pm. We felt bad for Kirtland. He had gotten a call from his wife and told her to go to bed without him, but she said she couldn't. He said even though they have been married for 13 years, it is as if they had just met. How romantic!
2025-05-22