May 27th, 2003.

In the morning, ‘Pete’ (Pierre Corbin, proprietor of Villa Zandoli, which is a kind of lizard) allowed us to store our bags while we went to the bank & then hired a car with which to begin our adventure around the island. We stopped first at the market place in Castries, the capital, and joined the market vendors, shoppers & local business people having lunch at one of a dozen or so restaurant stalls in a small, crowded alleyway behind the market. Here we also bought mangoes which melted in our mouths that night, at the end of our journey to Soufriere, a fishing & resort port on the west coast.

The road from Pete’s, at Reduit Beach in Rodney Bay, to Soufriere is not for the faint-hearted or 2-wheel drive! The route is generously decorated with warning road signs depicting the literal hairpin bends, coming fast & furious one after another. The car rental lady recommended a jeep and we thanked her for it everyday since we started the road trip. Pete’s housekeeper raised her eyebrows when she heard our destination and admonished us to take great care, not with our own driving but because of the other maniacs on the road! Peter’s Philly training prepared him well for the fast pace and hair-raising stunts we witnessed and he had to perform himself!

We arrived in Soufriere and happily checked in to The Still Plantation, a veritable suite with a/c in the 4-poster bedroom and cable tv in the fully equipped kitchen/living-room (which we only used to make coffee and store beer!) We checked out 3 rather large iguana’s in a pen, hundreds of baby chicks and tried to photograph zipping hummingbirds feeding in the flowers around the front porch of our room at the still operational plantation.

Peter played with his laptop (and took the photo you see to the left) while Tara read and napped before they drove to the Still Beach (sister) hotel for dinner. There, we ate dinner at their open-air beach front tables, all alone except for two rather interested cats (Tara had tuna & Peter honey-glazed pork chops). This was our first full day in St. Lucia, Tuesday May 27th.