Aaaahh, how could I have forgotten St. Lucia. I was driving today – scrolling through our trips in my head, and realized – I’d missed this one!
‘Here-Here’ to the Travel Blog, and to NOT letting memories slip through the cracks. I almost let this one go!
We go to these places and we’re like little kids (me especially). I have yet to be calm & collected, like a lady ought be. I gawk, and I giggle, and I ‘wow’ out loud! I can’t help it… and quite honestly – I hope I never can!
This is a view of Castries… The Capital City of St. Lucia, and a port of call for cargo boats,
ferries, cruise ships, and yachts. 1/3 of St. Lucia’s people cram into this crowded city – as the country relies quite heavily on the tourism that comes through.
This was a small ‘Condiment Stand’ (as if we’ve ever heard of such a thing) where I bought my Momma some Banana Ketchup… something very popular on the island – due to their major natural supply of banana plants. That’s right folks – bananas grow on PLANTS – not trees… news to me! The St. Lucian’s had to get creative when they lost ‘The Banana Wars’ in the 90’s… hence, a Condiment Stand selling Banana Ketchup! Tastes JUST like our traditional tomato Ketchup!
‘The Banana Wars’
The Banana Story – is actually pretty sad for the people of St. Lucia… and was something we heard a lot about from the locals while we were on tours and such. I didn’t really understand while we were there -but have since done some reading.
It started with Bananas in Europe…
St. Lucia didn’t become its own state until 1979. Up until then – Great Britain had control over the island as well as a few neighboring islands.
So in the 1950’s – Great Britain, seeing the island as ‘one of their own’, encouraged the island to focus on banana production. They limited imports from elsewhere, and gave the islands preferential treatment in banana growing. They took the stance that banana production was essential to the islands’ economy & social well being. In turn, the people responded by making banana growing ‘THE way’ to make a living on the island. By the 80’s 1/3 of St. Lucia’s people worked in banana plantations.
But in the early 90’s, Chiquita Banana & it’s close competitor Dole Foods, both poured money into production – and flooded the European market with bananas. With more bananas – than buyers… prices – and in turn, profits – plummeted.
Since then – St. Lucia has struggled… but has promoted tourism, and is now primarily reliant upon visitors like us!
A lot of tourism, and a little Banana Ketchup!
We took a Jeep Safari for a day – this was our educational day, and one of my favorites! The Jeep in the pic was the lead, and we followed behind – where I was busy fearing for my life. High-speed hairpin turns, overlooking cliffs of jungle – THAT was not in the brochure.
One of the Guides.
This was a guy on the side of the road where we stopped to take a dip… he was carving bird-feeders out of coconut shells. You can see his fire burning in the background… this is to keep the snakes away, while he carves!
Horseback Riding.
This was the view from our room. It was brilliant and subtle. Something I thought could only be seen in the movies… with false lighting, and staged props. But nope, it exists.
This is us golfing… FYI – Jim doesn’t like golf much – and I’m a big fan! He’s SUCH a good sport about it! One of these days he’ll get ‘the bug’!
Okay! THIS is hilarious! This is right before Jimbo does the unthinkable…
…and this is our ever-so-sweet caddy, Elijah. He’s fetching Jim’s club – shortly after it slipped from his hands on a fairway shot… we’ll just say this was a first for Elijah!
This is my face after the game of golf…
And this is Jimbo’s face after the game of golf… 
Awwww, come on – He’s good at everything else – he can handle a bad game of golf, really!
…The End
