Our Stupendous 5 Day Weekend

Hello, hello!

So, wow, we had quite the weekend. These last few days have been exciting and a bit bittersweet as our time together draws to a close. =(! Before we start the waterworks let's tell you about our weekend. This week was Carnival. Ever since we have gotten here locals have been hyping up the two day event. We were told of the loud Soca music, the fantastic costumes, and all the energy. Essentially, our weekend revolved around Carnival which actually happened on Monday and Tuesday.

Carnival originally took place in February as a pre-Lent event, however it was moved to July as a way to draw more visitors and reduce the competition with Trinidad & Tobago. It is essentially a huge festival that allows Lucians and visitors to clamor through the streets. People can participate by joining a band which is an organized group. In each band there are many sections and there is an overall theme. A few themes we witnessed were Redemption and Tomas (as in the hurricane). The bands parade through the streets on both Monday and Tuesday, but Monday is judging day. Bands are judged based on their theme and how they portray the theme with their costumes and presentations. The parade begins outside of Castries and concludes in the center of town, it is a very long route.

Though the actual parade doesn't happen until Monday and Tuesday there are Carnival events beginning in early mid-July. We attended such an event on Saturday night with Jenny's nephew, Claude, and his brother and cousins. This event was the final Soca competition. It was held in the cricket stadium in Gros Islet. Performers did their best to win the crowd over and show off their unique Soca persona. We enjoyed the music but we were very tired by around 2 a.m. and decided to head up into the stands and watch from afar. We were lucky we left the open area when we did because it began to pour! It was a funny view to watch the packed stadium suddenly become a very small crowd. People ran for coverage, though a few huddled under umbrellas or simply braved the rain sans coverage. The performers were hardly unnerved by the sudden change in weather and kept on performing. We ultimately did not get home till around 3:30 a.m. It was honestly a very tiring night.

We were even more tired because earlier that day we went zip lining with Sharon and her friend in Dennery! It was a fantastic experience. We glided on 12 zip lines through the rain forest. It was exhilarating and we felt like we were flying. Another bonus was our delicious lunch at Plante's Place, a local roadside restaurant. We enjoyed some fish fry with plantains, bread fruit, rice, and salad for a mere 14 EC.

Before we went zip lining!

Sunday was an exciting day as we attended Mr. Sweeney's, who is the ex-director of CEHI and now administrator of the GEF-IWCAM project, exclusive all-inclusive pre-Carnival fete. We had a great time dancing to the current Carnival songs and enjoying some rum and delicious local food. We were able to socialize with some of our co-workers as well as other foreign friends.

When Monday morning came, we were ready for Carnival. We met up with Sharon to head into Castries where we would be joining her and her friends at their trailer set up to view the spectacle. However, getting into town was quite the endeavor. Traffic stretched throughout the island as roads had been closed for the parade. After we finally reached town, we walked to the trailer. It was hot.

Sadly, it took a very long time for the parade to actually begin so were waiting for hours. We did enjoy some interesting conversation including with a woman who was the first national female scholar of St. Lucia and who started a refugee trauma program at the U.N. When the bands began to appear it was very spaced out, apparently there had been a change in the judging station and organization so when we did see the bands they were pure chaos. However, it was still fun to see all the participants come by dancing in their extravagant costumes. It was even more fun when we saw people we knew!

On Tuesday we returned to the scene and were able to see the other bands that had not passed the day before. It was a calmer day and things moved with more speed. We were lucky and got the opportunity to actually join one of the bands with Claude! It was really fun to be part of the crowd and dance. We are determined to return one day and jump.

Our Carnival finds!

Us and Claude!

Maddie and Kusbert!

We spent Wednesday relaxing and recuperating to return to work on Thursday. Tonight is our last day together so we plan on eating out at an apparently superb Indian restaurant.

Around the Island

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend. The last week was adventurous and exciting. We had a pretty normal work week, though we did get stuck in a huge torrential downpour one morning that left us with soaking wet shoes and damp clothing (ah, the wonders of hurricane season). We also expanded our cooking horizons and made jerk chicken, lentils, and bolognese one night. We'll post a blog in the next few days about our culinary adventures both in and out of our kitchen.

The main event of this weekend was the "safari" on Saturday. Deborah, one of the CEHI employees, knew that we had not seen much of the island because of our car-less existence, so she organized an island tour for us and any other CEHI employee and friends. On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to Caribbean Cinemas where we were supposed to meet everyone else and the safari vehicles. Well, as we have learned, Lucians live in a different time zone, which causes them to often arrive much later than discussed. Instead of the 7:30 a.m. departure time we left about an hour or so later.

The safari vehicle!

The safari vehicles were open-top Land Rovers with little safety measures. Because many CEHI employees canceled we squeezed into one vehicle with Avril (a CEHI employee), her daughter and nieces, and Deborah and a lot of youth from her church. We first drove through Anse Le Ray (the location of the Fish Friday we previously wrote about). We stopped to snap a few photos and then continued on to a cassava bakery (http://www.plaskassav.com/).

Cassava is a root that is cultivated in many tropical regions and used to make many dishes but is commonly made into a sort of bread. Cassava is also known as tapioca (i.e., tapioca pudding). The bakery was divided into two sections. Production happened in a large room where the cassava root is soaked and prepared to be grinded and cooked. It is very important and essential to soak and cook cassava because it has toxic cyanide in it. The process in preparing the bread is a very long and complex process but the results are delicious. There were many flavors including: banana, chocolate, cinnamon, cherry & raisin, mixed fruit, saltfish, herring, original (salt, coconut), and coconut. We opted for cinnamon, cherry & raisin, and original.

The bread was very doughy, our favorite was definitely original but we also had a sampling of saltfish, which was surprisingly good. After stopping for this snack we continued on our adventure. We passed through many towns including Canaries, where a few people jumped off to buy fresh bread from the bakery. The bread was also delectable as it was very warm and soft. We also had the thrilling opportunity to hold a snake! The snake was a little heavy and definitely friendly as it wrapped itself around each of us.

From left to right: Original (coconut & salt), Cinnamon, and Cherry & Raisin

As we drove more south we learned a couple of things about the island. We learned more about Hurricane Thomas and heard people's personal experiences. In very few words it can be summed up as scary. Some of the other people on the safari are college students who were at school and had lost contact with their family. Thomas was certainly devastating and Avril and Deborah said that if there was another Thomas there would certainly be even more severe consequences.

Our first major stop in Soufriere was Tet Paul, a nature trail(http://soufrierefoundation.org/tet-paul-nature-trail). We got to see a restored antique house from around 100 years ago, as well as an organic farm. Tet Paul is located in the small farming community of Chateau Belair. We were able to see some beautiful views of the Pitons and even entered the "gateway to heaven." After the nature trail we had lunch. We had packed a simple lunch but were offered more delicious chicken and mac & cheese. Following lunch we headed to the beach. Unfortunately we were unable to go to the Sulphur Springs or water falls because of prices and time.

Our beach trip was delayed at first because the road was actually missing. During Thomas the road had been destroyed so it simply just dropped off. This is a common site in a St. Lucia as much of the infrastructure was damaged during the storm. After witnessing such damage it's hard to doubt water's power. When we finally got to the beach it was around 4. The beach was wavy and certainly refreshing. We mingled with some of the other youth. One of the girls is studying computer science in Taiwan! We were both very impressed with this.

On the way back to Castries we heard about some of the politics in St. Lucia. There seems to be a lot of corruption and even though some of the people are very upset, revolution/activism is not an option. There is a lack of motivation to try and change the political environment because their is a lack of confidence in change actually being possible.

When we returned to Castries we took the bus home and then headed to the Bay Gardens Resort for our second stay. Yesterday, we spent a lazy Sunday lounging in the sun and recharging for the coming week. It's hard to believe but our time here is ending. Elektra has only 11 days left and Maddie has another 18! Time has passed us by but we have been having the time of our lives. The next 2 weeks are going to be filled with even more adventures as we plan on attending an ex-Pat get-together, going ziplining, and attending a pre-Carnival fete and Carnival.

P.S. Funny moment of the weekend. Whenever we told Lucians our age they were surprised to find out we were 19. When asked what age we looked like we got the following ages: 21-22, 24-25, and the best of all, 28-29. While we thought everyone here looks younger than their age, we apparently look older...much older.

Pigeon Adventure

Sorry about the lack of updates! Our last week was hectic so we had to put a hold on blog posts while we caught up on sleep and work. So to recap, two weekends ago we had a very pleasant and active adventure!

During the week we decided that we wanted to go on a hike and explore Pigeon Island, which is located in the northern part of the island in Gros Islet. Pigeon Island is an islet that was joined with the mainland of Saint Lucia in 1972. Today, this historic site is a national landmark that visitors can visit for some exercise and relaxation. There are two famous peaks on the island and numerous forts. The two peaks are forts that were used by the British during the 18th Century to spy on the French on the neighboring island of Martinique.

Before recounting our adventure, we just want to include a bit of St. Lucian history. Saint Lucia was first "discovered" by Europeans in either 1492 or 1502. In 1643, Frances established a permanent settlement followed by a contract with the local Caribs in 1660. However, the British gained control of the island in 1763 after the ending of the Seven Years War between Great Britain and the Spanish and French. But it wasn't until 1814 that British firmly secured the island and it became part of the British Windwards Colony. St. Lucia gained full independence in 1979 and has remained a commonwealth realm, meaning that Queen Elizabeth II is actually the Head of State of the country. The British-Franco influence is quite visible on the island. Locals speak Creole, though the official language is English and the currency, the Eastern Caribbean, has images of Queen Elizabeth II. All right, now back to us.

We began our adventure on Saturday morning between 9-10. We stopped by Rodney Bay to pick up some supplies: water and a bananas. We then hopped on the bus but we realized that though we relatively knew the location of Pigeon Island, we had no idea where to get off the bus exactly. We just had been told that we would have to walk inland a bit to reach the park entrance. After asking some locals for advice we exited the bus and began to walk north as indicated by a sign that said "1.5 miles to Pigeon Island."

And...we walked. We walked, we walked, we walked. We assumed that since there were not anymore signs that straight must be our best bet. We eventually entered Cap Estate, the most expensive and safe area to live on St. Lucia. It was very pretty and we could certainly tell that we had entered a different realm of wealth. However, after walking for some time, sweaty and a little confused, we decided that maybe, just maybe, we were lost. We ended up asking a truck driver who was exiting a resort where Pigeon Island was and how far away we were. He laughed at us. Turns out we should have turned left ages ago. After learning our mistake, we turned around and retraced our steps.

When we got closer to where we began we could see how close Pigeon Island appeared and laughed at our mistake. Though, it was great because we got a great workout! After asking for more directions we finally ended up at the entrance. We even managed to convince the park's employee that we were residents so we paid the local fee which was MUCH cheaper than the tourist fee.

We finally made it!

Upon entering, we were amazed by the beauty. It was serene and peaceful. There was a wedding going on too! We decided that after our long hike that we should probably replenish before attempting to climb up the peaks. We ate a small little restaurant recommended to us by Donna, Maddie's direct boss. It was a little bohemian-esque with an array of mismatched wooden furniture looking on to the water. We both enjoyed a delicious fish filet on a baguette.

Satisfied with our meal, we began our ascent. While heading up to Fort Rodney we encountered a U.S. Military Base! Neither of us had known that during WWII the U.S. had a communication base in St. Lucia. There's also a theory that the U.S. Army's presence facilitated the St. Lucian people's odd enjoyment of country music. We often find that when walking around we hear a lot of St. Lucians strangely listening to old country western music instead of a typical Caribbean beat.

After leaving our bit of U.S. history, we climbed to the top of Fort Rodney. There was an amazing view from the top where a few cannons were also scattered about. Fort Rodney was built by the British Admiral George Rodney in 1778. Visitors can also see the water filtration system used during the time as well.

We descended Fort Rodney and pursued the higher peak, Signal Hill. Admiral Rodney used this point to observe the French naval base on Martinique. This was a slightly more challenging climb as there were many loose rocks and a lack of anything to help stabilize us. When we finally did make it to the top we had an even more incredible view of the Gros Islet area. We were able to see many of the locations we had visited. We spent some time relaxing at the top and recharging ourselves before heading back down.

We ended our visit to Pigeon Island with a walk back to Gros Islet where we caught a bus to do some grocery shopping. We later enjoyed a calm and quiet evening.

The next day, Donna picked us up and took us to the northern tip of the island to two different beaches. As we drove through Cap Estate we recounted our adventure from the previous day and realized really how far we had managed to walk. The first beach we visited was Cas En Bas. This beach borders on the Atlantic Ocean which creates a much more wavier environment. It's also known to be filled with horses and windsurfers on a sunny day. Unfortunately, Sunday was a cloudy and slightly rainy day so it was mostly empty.

After we left Cas En Bas, we visited Smuggler's Cove. To reach the secluded cove we had to climb down many steep stairs, but it was worth it. We were able to have a nice swim and experience the wavy Atlantic Ocean, which was much colder than the usual Caribbean Sea. When we returned home, we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon napping and lounging about.

This was all followed by an evening of food and company when we cooked chicken curry and invited over our friend Simon who is a British optometrist. Simon has only been here for a few weeks but will actually be living in St. Lucia for one year. Overall, it was a fun-filled but definitely exhausting weekend. We'll follow with a few more posts in the next days! Happy 4th of July everyone!

Resort Life

This Saturday we treated ourselves to one night at the Bay Gardens Beach Resort (the resort we always steal pool time at). We found a deal on Jetsetter for a very inexpensive night in a “deluxe garden view room” (the cheapest room). We expected to have a room in the back, which was fine because we planned on spending our time at the beach, and by the pool.

Thanks Bay Gardens!

We arrived at the hotel around 10:30 and were greeted with complimentary rum and punches. Not a bad way to start off the day! The bellhop showed us to our room and when he opened the door we could not contain our excitement. A “deluxe garden view room,” in fact, means a beautifully decorated room with a lanai that looks out over the ocean. In the folds of the towels, pillows, and toilet paper fresh flowers were placed. The shower had two heads, as well as two jets.

View from the Lanai

Tigers in the Shower

As much as we were in love with the room, we headed down to sit by the pool. We much prefer the comfortable lawn chairs by the pool opposed to the painful ones on the beach. And in this day and age we feel more comfortable keeping our ‘much needed’ electronics out of the sand.

1. kindles
2. ipods
3. cameras


However when it comes to cooling off, you’ll bet we are in the sea. As we swam around we noticed two of the neon polo boys were also in the water- thankfully they left the shirts at home. They were obviously trying to throw their ball just a little too far into our swimming zone, and after a while of watching this interesting human ritual… we took the hint and fetched one of their “overthrows.” After talking to them we learned they were of similar age and in St. Lucia for two weeks partying and playing cricket. There are 21 of them and they are all from Sheffield “Uni” as they call it.

Obviously, enthralled by their british accents we left it at “maybe we’ll see you out tonight.”

2 for 1!

We decided we wanted to enjoy the sunset with a fruity-girly beverage. Elektra ordered a piano colada and Maddie a mango margarita. Although, when they brought the drinks out there was a total of four! Little did we know that at Happy Hour you got two for the price of one! Yippee! And for future reference we noted that they DO NOT take down your room number when ordering

Sunset

NOM NOM dinner

After evading the ever-present beach rasta-men (who we even had to avoid later in the night) we took a rest on our comfortable mattresses in our air conditioned room. For dinner we walked to the “Jerk Pit” which is a St. Lucian version of a taco truck. We shared some jerk chicken, fried chicken and fries. Don’t hate- we eat healthy all week!


We spent the night at Delirious… our new discovery. The scene includes what we think are St. Lucian “hipsters,” foreigners, and a dabble of beach Rasta’s. Of course we immediately ran into the cricket players and spent the night learning random things about England and shaping up our cricket knowledge (none).

Did you know there are two different English accents from the north and south? Apparently, if you are from the south you are more “Posh.”

Shout out to Tom/Ollie… thanks for the beverages.

At the end of the night we entered our beloved hotel and went to sleep remembering fondly of the night.

Sunday morning we woke up to blasting music from the garden area. We decided we needed some coffee and pancakes, and went down to the hotel restaurant and got a decently priced and very delicious meal.

Comfy beds!

We were sad to check out of luxury but they allowed us to keep our bags behind the counter while we hit the beach for the day. We hung out under the shade of an umbrella and read. Maddie is currently reading ‘The Girl who Played with Fire’ and Elektra, after just finishing ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, is reading Tina Fey’s ‘Bossypants’ and has occasional outbursts of laughing- so far, we haven’t had any strange looks.

We had a very relaxing day, and got home and went to sleep very early.

Jump Up! - Gros Islet

Gros Islet on a Friday night!

On Friday evening (very late evening) we attended "jump up," a street dance party in the nearby town of Gros Islet. Similar to Fish Friday at Anse La Ray, there is always a lot of food and energy. This event happens year round except during Lent (St. Lucia is a majority Catholic). Our tour guides for the evening were Jenny's nephew, Claude, and his friend, Francois. It was great going with them because we didn't have to use public transportation and they were gentlemen, making sure we were safe and having a good time.

We arrived around 11 and danced for about two hours. It was an interesting mix of people...tourists and locals. Looking around there were a couple of interesting scenes. All around us, we could spot older foreign women romancing with younger St. Lucian men...cougars, anyone?There were St. Lucian women dancing aggressively to the beat that reminded us of what we experience at college parties. Finally, there was a group of British boys wearing extremely bright lime green polos. On the back of these polos each young man had a humorous sexual innuendo such as Thrush, MILF, and Harpoon. We later saw the fronts of the polos and discovered that they were an English university cricket team.

The background to this interesting scenery included a lot of Soca (e.g., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVmjuklcM3M&feature=related, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTDTmccChEA), which is a genre of Caribbean music that builds upon Calypso and more contemporary main-stream music. It was fun to dance to the Caribbean rhythms and relax after a long week of working. The DJ also played a number of American tracks which drew a lot of enthusiasm from the crowd.

We ended up leaving around 1 a.m., but we couldn't leave without purchasing a bake (pictured on left), the delicious donut-esque treat we had discovered in Anse La Ray. Except, we do have to note that the quality was not as high as in Anse La Ray. We look forward to attending this Friday night dance party again!

Three Day Weekend!

Elektra Sporting our Orange Towels

This weekend we spent a lot of time at the beach and the resort. We started the weekend with the "ultimate scam." In need of more towels (one towel is not sufficient for beach and shower use) we headed into town with Jenny were she showed us a place to buy cheap towels. While browsing the selection, Maddie spotted bright orange towels, the same color that they use at the resort! Since then, we have been enjoying the lovely poolside lawn chairs.

It's been very nice. The sea has been exceptional. The perfect temperature where it's not too warm, but cold enough so that jumping in is refreshing. Maddie spotted some cool sea creatures, and Elektra saw a couple of fish.

Maddie water jogging around the pool

Saturday night we ventured into the Rodney Bay area to test out the night-life. It was a good test run for future endeavors. Not wanting to walk/take the bus late at night we left the house around 7:30. Unfortunately it had gotten dark and was a creepy walk to the bus stop. We encountered a pack of dogs… but they were all bark and no bite. We found some bars to hang out at while watching the NBA finals and will return next weekend. The night life starts late here, and we headed in before it really began.  People eat late and the clubs start opening until midnight or later. We called Kusbert, trusted CEHI employee for a taxi ride home.. it was filled with good laughter and jokes.

Monday was a national holiday and we didn't have work! Woo-hoo! We slept in, did some cleaning, and moped around the house in the HOT HOT heat. We watched "No Strings Attached," before heading to bed for a long day at work.

Anse la Raye Fish Friday!!!!

On Friday night we got to attend the "Anse La Raye Fish Friday" festival. Anse La Raye is a small fishing town on the northwest part of the island. Every Friday they close down the street directly next to the water and locals set up make shift "restaurants" and stalls with delicious seafood options. We were able to charter a mini-bus taxi with others from the conference because otherwise the 40-minute trip would have been impossible without access to a car.

When we got there, we could not believe the options. The aromas were absolutely intoxicating. We wandered down the short strip and eyed the selection. At the end of the street there were massive speakers blasting music: at first it was american pop, but as the night progressed it switched to Caribbean.

When it came to choosing our food we decided to have the snapper(highly recommended by Jim). The snapper is cooked in a pot first, then placed in foil on a grill with an oil based garlic sauce. For side dished we ate fried marlin with Irish potatoes, stuffed crab, and a fish/flour/fried concoction. Not only was it delicious but VERY cheap. We spent about 33 EC which is about 6 USD each! 

The Snapper

Not completely full, we sampled a few other options such as sweet plantain and fried dough, which is similar to a donut but with less sugar, needless to say, we could not believe how tasty it was. Maddie also purchased a small fried fish that she named Frank. "He" was very delicious too.

Frank cost $.92 USD... YUM

We loved Anse La Raye and are hoping to return soon, we just need to figure out how!