For the Love of St Lucia

Beach Speed and Great Rum

Replacing car horns, sirens and streetcar voice overs with the sounds of nature should have come to me sooner. Replacing snow with sun and sand alongside it.

Touching down in St Lucia and stepping off the plane is one invigorating transition after 5 months of Canadian wintering. My two layers now redundant and long sleeve shirt ready to spend a week hung up unused.

Arrival on the beautiful island of St Lucia sparked the start of beach speed - slower but deliberately so.

The first transition, from cold to hot weather, is relatively straight-forward. The second transition is slightly more difficult, at least for me.

It had been 3 months since any real slowing down - and that was at Christmas in the UK which naturally involved plenty of moving around plus socialising - an introvert was on the edge.

Going from sprinting to static was going to take a day or two of adjustment.

Thankfully there are guided nature walks and trips out to the sulphur springs - yes, St Lucia is volcanic - botanical gardens and nearby viewpoints.

I’d also packed plenty of books thanks to two book clubs and a growing pile accumulated from Queen Books I was well stocked to flick some pages.

The overall consistency of the day soon embeds itself into routine. No knee-jerk pivots towards unplanned ‘urgent stuff’, additional meetings or constant fire-fighting on the cell phone. Just rhythm, and rum.

Sunset and sunrise remain constant thanks to proximity to the equator. Tidal patterns vary in small degrees. Rum tastes as good as it did the evening before.

Chairman’s Reserve - Spiced. On the rocks, thank you. Next.

It is of course the fame of the Pitons that draws the eye, names the natively brewed beer (albeit by Heineken, but that’s for another day) and features on every post card. 

And I can see why.

Grand Piton versus Petite Piton - can you tell who is who?

It is a sunset sail that provides for the better views, in my humble opinion. The scale is awesome, but only when you see it through the perspective of a distant yacht.

Neither are the tallest peaks on the island, that title goes to Mount Gimie. Like all good summits, wearing a hat of cloud to keep the flies away.

Almost instantly you start to feel better, healthier even. Sun, sea and a vibrant diet I suppose will have that effect - not least on someone who can spend 45 - 50 hours per week indoors at a monitor (eurgh, what tedium).

Nighttime sounds reverberate around the room. There’s no panes of glass to shield the natural noise of the night, nor to trap air conditioned refrigeration in. Slats and insect nets are your only defence.

Totally worth it though, who wouldn’t want to wake up to this view.

The aforementioned Canadian winter and the aforementioned general hectic-ness meant I had failed miserably to wrap up a roll of Harman Phoenix II. That was quickly resolved in St Lucia.

The greens, the blues…the grain! Ahhhh.

What a beautiful country St Lucia is. From its friendly, broad smiling people, glorious natural landscape, spice inspired rum punch, to its rich music and cultural scene - stunning.

The break did me good, even if it was a slightly slower.

Thank you for stopping by to read, I appreciate it!