Our St Lucian Christmas

As I promised, here is the day-by-day update of our St Lucian holiday. Photos will be posted very soon - just as soon as we've sorted through them all.

Friday 19th December

Time to get up

3:30am Mwap, mwap, mwap, mwap…the alarm goes off and I stagger out of bed and into the bathroom. At this moment, tired and not feeling particularly perky, not even going to St Lucia for Christmas can make up for getting up in the middle of the night! Especially as we hadn’t gotten to bed until around 11:30pm as we were still finding chargers and stuff to put in the case. Stephen had made me laugh. He got into bed, lay down for 10 seconds, threw off the covers and got up again, announcing that it was time to get up…

We were flying from National airport, so it was a short taxi ride to the chaos of American Airlines check-in. We queued to use the self-service check in, got so far through the process, and then were told to ask assistance from an agent as it wanted to check our documents (we often have this problem as Brits). Stephen got hold of what turned out to be the least helpful and most rude customer rep in the history of air travel. She came over telling us there was going to be nothing she could do, and she proved that point and just pointed us at the back of the enormous line for old fashioned check in… She then proceeded to shout at several poor harassed travelers whom had been given bits of paper they didn’t understand, including one poor Chinese girl who had been bumped from a flight the night before and told she was booked today, but it turned out to be tomorrow…Why put people who can’t deal with people in customer facing roles? She was appalling! Rude, disrespectful. The poor girl was nearly in tears and groveling on the floor in order to get this harridan to help her, or rather even to tell her what this meaningless piece of paper she had meant. I am resolved not to travel American again if I can help it. We finally got checked in – which took all of 5 minutes after waiting in the queue not moving for around 40 minutes. We got to the gate as they were boarding the plane at 5:30.

We both attained a state of unconsciousness within seconds of take off and slept until Miami about 2 hours later. We then schlepped about 5 miles from our landing gate to the departure gate for the 2nd flight. Past all of the nice food places to the gate that time forgot… This must have been the only part of Miami airport that hasn’t been refurbished. There was a choice of Pizza Hut or some other place that wasn’t open for food. Hmmmm, let’s think about that….pizza for breakfast – what could be finer??

The flight was delayed an hour leaving and we were all in agony. The seats were not flat in our row. I was being pitched towards the window and Stephen was being pitched towards the guy next to him, who was being pitched towards Stephen. We were all best friends pretty quickly! Because of the delay we arrived just behind the Virgin flight and had to wait in the enormous queue for immigration. I spent it chewing attractively as, once again, my ears had popped thanks to my cold. There was a special line for people with special needs or children, and I felt that I could probably conceive and deliver a child quicker than we were moving through the queue…
My ears popped (mostly) on the climb over the mountains in the taxi. The roads have improved markedly since the first time we were here (thanks to the cricket world cup). The first time (about 4 or 5 years ag0) we were in the back of a minivan with 6 other people. I had the right hand seat and could see the lunatic drivers heading towards us down the middle of the road. Stephen had the left hand seat and had the view of the sheer drop 4 inches from the edge of the roadway. One twitch of the wheel and they would never have found the bodies! The roads are better – less potholes and maybe a foot of road before the sheer drop off the mountaintop. Saying that, there were 3 separate crashes that we passed on the way to the hotel.

We arrived into Castries just as the sun had set. I have never seen a sunset so breathtakingly beautiful. The whole sky was an incredible magenta colour and was reflecting on the inky black water of the harbour, silhouetting the dark vegetation on the surrounding cliffs and the painting a rosy glow on the ship festooned with twinkling lights sailing into the point where the sun had just set. It made my heart ache it was so gorgeous and more than made up for any hassle with the airline and lines at the airport.

We checked into the hotel (and into “our” room) and went down for dinner. It was like coming home! A lot of the staff remembered us and we got an especially warm welcome from our St Lucian “mother” - Angie in the restaurant. There were a whole line of staff coming up to us to say hello. Between us we excelled ourselves at remembering names…and as I can barely remember my own some days it was quite a feat!

Saturday 20th December

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

It turned out to be a snoozy day for me. Stephen was in full American mode. We had breakfast and went to the pool, then he disappeared for 10 minutes. He came back and announced that he’s booked us into the Trysting Place for dinner, booked a massage for himself for 11 and was going to take a boat out sailing… I just looked at him as if he was insane. The whole point of coming to the Caribbean is to settle into a slower pace and RELAX… NOT do a whole days activities in an hour! I had no problem settling into the slower pace. I’d picked a shady lounger, so I simply lathered myself in lotion, read until I couldn’t keep my eyes open and snoozed the morning away. After lunch I picked up book, almost immediately put it down again and snoozed until it was time to get changed for sundowners. Then back to the room for another snooze before dinner.

Dinner at the Trysting Place was excellent. And the service was very slow – a delightful change from some places in the US that pride themselves on their speedy service and will have you in and out in 30 minutes. Dinner took a whole 2 hours. It was great! We did have a hysterical moment though…I’ve mentioned before that Stephen is something of a dangerously messy eater…well….he was buttering a piece of bread when the butter (which was quite hard) flew into the air. He couldn’t see where it went and wasn’t sure of the trajectory. He was very concerned that it might have hit the 300lb (of pure muscle) guy that was at the table next to us… I finally spotted it at the end of the meal. It was beside the vase and candle on our table – which meant he’d manage to launch it a good 2 and a bit feet. Obviously he’d launched it with enough energy to hit the huge black dude at the next table, just luckily for us it had gone in a different direction!!

Sunday 21st December

Food, Glorious Food

After our huge meal last night we were resolved to have a light breakfast – maybe just a couple of pieces of toast and some fruit. All was well until we saw the breakfast buffet…they had baked beans, and fried bread, and… enough other things that constitute a proper English cooked breakfast (that we haven’t had for ages) to lead us into temptation. It was bloomin’ fantastic! I cannot describe the joy that baked beans brings to a meal when you get them so rarely!!
It was a day of showers. Yes, it does rain in paradise! They were brief, but reasonably heavy and frequent…and ignore any platitudes – rain here is pretty cold too! We headed to the room early and headed down for (lack of sun)downers. Dinner was a treat too – a carvery with roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roasties, mash…again, it was delicious and something that I can’t be bothered putting together for just two of us, so a real treat!

It was a quiet night at the bar, a lot of people had left that day and there was the Casino night, so no entertainment. We were chatting to Yannicka, one of the bar staff, when there was a great shriek from a lady sitting at a table near us. A fast moving rat had just shot across the floor past her table. As we’ve never seen so much as a cockroach here this was a novelty…and rapidly dealt with!

Monday 22nd December

What time is it??

Mwap, mwap, mwap….at 4:45 this morning we were woken by an alarm going off in the distance. Stephen was cursing the room next to ours for having the same alarm tone and setting it so early. I realised what was going on much more quickly. I had set my blackberry alarm to totally off. Stephen had set his to off at the weekend, and he hadn’t reset either the timezone or the time of alarm. His blackberry had woken up and was in the safe bleeping away like a mad thing. He was trying to blame me and say it was mine, but a quick check showed exactly who was to blame!! I was a little narky as this was the first night I’d really been having a great sleep. I wasn’t appreciative of being woken…

We spent the day by the pool – too sun drenched to move too far. Stephen went out for his twice daily sail, but aside from that, and lunch, we spent a sedentary day sun soaking. I went back to the room about 5pm and switched on the chandelier – BOOM – the lights fused. I phoned reception and they promised to send someone. Stephen appeared shortly after and decided that there was enough light in the bathroom to shower. I went in after he had finished and there was even less light! Have you ever tried showering in the dark? Especially in a rush in case the maintenance man arrived? Eventually the maintenance man came round, replaced the fuse, replaced the bulb that had blown and dropped the bulb on the floor….broken glass everywhere. He did a thorough job of sweeping though, so hopefully no shards left to be stood on in the nighttime!

I forgot to bring my hairdryer and am relying on the hot air dryer in the room. It is totally rubbish – I would be as well simply taking stands of my hair and blowing on them. I am destined to have uncontrollable hair all holiday….

I still have a sore throat so need to work harder on drinking the rum based cocktails to cure it…

Tuesday 23rd December

The bird man of Rendezvous

I am seemingly married to St Francis of Assisi. We were snoozing on the verandah this afternoon out of the rain, when I was woken by the whirring of birds wings near my head. I came to pretty rapidly to find two little birds sitting on the top of Stephen’s chair. I shooed them away at which point Stephen woke up and began to read his book. I came into the room for another snooze (I’m still not feeling great!). When I woke up Stephen was still sitting outside, but there was a muffled shout of “Kerry. Come here. Grab the camera”. I went out and there he was surrounded by little birdies! As I was snapping away I counted 8 all around him – up to two at a time were brave enough to actually land on him and were hopping about on his knee, arm and stomach. The others were sitting on the furniture watching him. I am SO glad they could sense the lack of birdman appeal coming from me as I would have totally freaked out! Stephen was basking in the love of the little birdies who were totally mesmerised by him. So, it’s not just kids he has this effect on!!!

We had spent the morning down at Pointe Seraphin doing some Christmas shopping. Stephen bought me a totally gorgeous opal and tanzanite bracelet which was an added bonus indeed as I had already picked out a necklace. We spent the morning wandering round the jewelers and craft shops. There was a new shop opened which seemed to be basically a gallery for a famous local artist Llewellyn Xavier. I had seen some of his watercolours which are stunning (and sell online for VAST sums of money), but I hadn’t seen any of his other work. I was having a really interesting chat with the gallery owner and she was showing me some of his other pieces. There was a rather fantastic highly textured oil painting (like pointillism, but very textured) of a blue vase. Knowing how much his watercolours sell for I knew it was going to be expensive – and it was! The price was $500,000! But she said we could make a lower offer and the artist may accept it. I wonder if we could ask him to chop the last 3 zero’s off the end?? His abstract watercolours are so vibrant, and no matter how many colours he puts down they never seem to muddy. Apparently he describes this as a gift from God, and I’m not going to argue with that!

Our favourite St Lucian band were on after dinner. There weren’t very many people on the Terrace, so they were doing requests. They do the most beautiful version of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song, so we asked for that and they obliged. As the numbers dwindled we practically had our own personal band! They have 2 brothers that do the vocals and wander about the bar singing - and when I dragged Stephen onto the floor (as they had proclaimed the song was for us) we had both of them singing to us from a few feet away! I did notice that when they would come towards me, hand on heart, during the romantic numbers Stephen would grab my hand and be romantic (or stake his claim). Obviously having two strapping, fit and attractive St Lucian men singing to your wife is quite disconcerting!

Weds 24th December

Rain, rain go away. Please come back another day.

Christmas Eve in paradise…and it’s still raining! It was pretty heavy downpours this morning – short but relatively frequent bursts of tropical rain. We sat for a while in the bar reading, but Deano persuaded us to the pool bar to Fish A Prize. The object of the game is to hook a metal hoop over the neck of a beer bottle. Not so easy when the hoop is dangling on the end of a long bamboo fishing pole…even the slightest breeze sends your hoop flying off in the wrong direction. I was totally rubbish, but Stephen got 2nd prize amongst the guys – a bottle of rum! A bottle of rum in the land of free drinks….hmmm, it’ll be coming home with us in the case for daiquiri making. I just hope that they’re gentle with the case, or we’ll be smelling of Eau de Lush whenever we pack clothes into the suitcase!

There was sunshine around lunchtime, but it was the case that no sooner had you applied lotion, got comfy or dozed off then raindrops would keep falling on our heads. We gave up late afternoon and headed back to the verandah.

It was the manager’s cocktail party before dinner this evening and we spent a pleasant hour chatting to the staff and other guests. I was chatting to Niema and she said that our personal band of the previous evening had called her up to say how much they appreciated us staying up to the end and the kind words when we had spoken to them. We appreciate them and they appreciate us. Nice!

It was the staff show and, although we’ve seen it a few times now, it’s still a great show. It’s funny to watch those who are on their first visit react when Lenny the grumpy looking breakfast chef comes on in full drag and sings Don’t Cry for me Argentina.

We have also discovered THE best non-frozen rum based drink: Spiced rum and ginger ale. Our thanks to Ashley the barman for that one. We asked for something typically Caribbean and that’s what he gave us. DE-LIC-IOUS! Dangerously so!!

Stephen has made a new friend. Wendy seems very taken with him! She’s certainly quite a character! Barely pauses for breath!!

Thursday 25th Dec

Christmas in Paradise

Christmas Day dawned bright and clear. Is dawned the right term to use when you get up at 8:30? Maybe not, but you get my drift… It was bright and sunny which was a change from the previous 2 days, so no time to hang about – out of bed quick sharp! We went down to breakfast in our Santa hats (the essential holiday checklist: t-shirts check, bathing suit check, Santa hats check, sun lotion check…) and kicked off the morning with a bucks fizz and a cooked breakfast. Again we had gone with the intention of having something light….bacon, eggs, fried bread and beans is light fare though, right? Okay, so maybe not in weight watchers books, but surely somewhere….

After breakfast we headed to the pool. Brand new velvet textured pool towels – they’re spoiling us! We chilled all morning before we headed off to the beach BBQ lunch where we again stuffed ourselves with too much food. It’s all so good how can you not??

We were debating whether Santa would arrive on waterskis or not. Neima had said it would be too difficult if the water was choppy, and there were rather large rolling breakers coming in. However Deano – sorry Santa – persevered and managed to ski in from behind the neighbouring islet onto the beach. It was a fair old distance! Stephen and I had been gathered by Gaston and taken down to the very front where Santa was going to hit the beach, so we were first in line when he was handing out his gifts. I got a much coveted Rendezvous Christmas T-shirt and Stephen got a bottle of Rum which Santa was pretty insistent that he take. We now have two bottles to stick in the case!!

After lunch we all headed back to the pool. Stephen took some photos of the vegetation and then went to drop the camera back in the room. Just as well he did! About 5 minutes after his return (when everyone was lathered in lotion and beginning to read/snooze etc) the sky went gray and huge spots of rain began to hit the deck. Everyone jumped up and started to gather stuff and jam it into beach bags. 5 seconds after that we were less fussy and just grabbing stuff and trying to shelter under pool towels as we ran for the pool bar. By the time I had traversed the 20 yards there I looked like I had just come out of the shower. I could not have been more wet!! Stephen was much drier as he had grabbed his book and towel and run and left me to gather the beach bag etc. It was a total cloud burst and over as quickly as it had begun. We headed back to our loungers. Stephen got more dry towels and we settled down again. About 20 minutes later we were again cowering at the beach bar! We decided that the Terrace might be a good idea at this point!!

Stephen went off to do Archery and I read my book. Imran our fave bar tender took me by surprise. We were both engrossed in our books so I didn’t see him come over until he bent down and whispered Merry Christmas in my ear. He has a little girl around toddler age (and a real cutie) and he was telling us that he’d got her a kiddies laptop for Christmas which she was loving.

Christmas dinner was lovely. The staff Christmas show was great. They’ve been rehearsing a lot and it paid off. They rehearse at midnight when most people have gone to bed, finishing about 3am, and then a good proportion of them are up again for a morning shift. These people are very hard working. But it can’t be too bad a place to work as there isn’t a big staff turnover. Most of them have been here for years. Angie in the restaurant has been here for 30 years!

Stephen’s admirer was over for a chat, perching with him on a corner of his bar stool and patting his thigh a lot. I think she’s definitely got the hots for him despite the 20 year age gap! I hit the wall about 11pm and we hit the room – me to bed and Stephen to the verandah with a very large whisky and a cigar.

Friday 26th December

The Riddim of Rum

Another sunny start to the day, so we were straight to the pool after breakfast and wished Steven the bar tender Happy Birthday. He was touched we’d remembered – although it was only last night he told us and even my memory isn’t that bad!

Stephen went off to the archery tournament this afternoon and came second – YAY! He won…another bottle of rum!! We now have 3… we’re going to be seriously over our weight limit on the checked case if we keep this up!! Still, the office daiquiri hours now have a serious supply of rum to keep us going!

I was reading and looked up to see a huge black cloud bearing down on us. We just had enough time to grab stuff before it got seriously heavy. We’d all made it to the safety of the bar when the wind changed direction and was blowing into the bar. We got soaked and were all trying to huddle in one small relatively dry section. Just Stephen and I and 8 of our closest friends in a space about 4 ft sq! Deano says we’re all wimps and its only Liquid Sunshine.

Stephen has been trying to find somewhere to watch the Rangers v Celtic game tomorrow morning. It seems Deano has been able to sort him out with a feed into the activities room. He has been teasing Stephen about the score all afternoon, so better hope that he remembers that he needs to let Stephen in tomorrow morning, as he’s on the early morning shift.

Saturday 27th

Beach fun

Up bright and early and down to breakfast at 8am so Stephen could get to a TV in time to watch the game. I set up by the pool and was surprised to see him about 20 minutes later. The football channel wasn’t running the game. He went for Plan B. The boys at Watersports have a computer which they get all the games on, so he went to watch it down there. As Rangers lost 1-0 he might have saved himself the bother!

Deano and Gaston are trying to kill us I swear! We took part in the beach games today. These were too energetic by far, but we persevered! I was doing great at the fish a prize until the game began for real. I’d hooked the bottle 3 times (beating Deano once) in the practice, but obviously I can’t perform under pressure. Then there was fill a bottle which involved running (yes, me, running) down the sand to fill a tiny plastic cup with water and then running back to fill the bottle. I was never going to beat the long limbed athletic lovelies at that one. Stephen didn’t disgrace himself though! Then the balloon toss, which we turned out to be good at! We came second and won – you guessed it! – another bottle of rum!! We now have 4…. After that we had the tug of war. We were on opposing teams and my team won! Champagne all round! There turned out to be a good reason they gave us champagne…the next race was drink and run. Run up the sand, head down, turn 10 times around the chess piece and stagger back and tag the next team member. It was a dead heat, so we sent volunteers for the tie break – a dead heat again! Deano and Gaston were in stitches – it was supposed to be the first back to their team and both people had staggered over to the wrong teams in their dizziness! After another dead heat tie break we called it a win for my team and had more champagne!

We were going to go on a tour of the island this afternoon, so we got changed and had lunch. Stephen came back into the room where I was gathering the last few bits and pieces and told me there was a change of plan. We were now going tomorrow morning at 8am. All dressed up (well, not in our swimsuits anyway) and nowhere to go. We jumped in a taxi and went to Rodney Bay marina. Which was nice but pretty quiet. We walked around, then went for a drink in the bar. Stephen is convinced we were sitting beside a former Italian football player whose name he couldn’t remember. I was kind of facing the wrong way, and he didn’t say anything until the guy had gone. Doh! He is just no use!! The chap was certainly Italian though, so he had that bit right.
We had opted for the marina as the shopping option didn’t look overwhelming. There was no sign of the bars and restaurants that we had been led to expect. Turns out if the taxi driver had taken us a little further on we would have found the strip, but we seemed to be getting the shopping or marina choice. Oh well, maybe I should remember to take the guide book with me next time!

We were chatting with one of the couple who we normally see at the pool. They’d spent the day at the sister hotel to ours. It seems that Amy Winehouse is staying there until sometime before New Year. She gave them a hug, and was apparently in a disheveled a state as you might expect, but reasonably charming with it.

We had dinner with Deano and Tamara tonight. What fun! I was complaining to Deano that he nearly killed me with the running up and down the beach and he said “I thought you’d take the bottle and fill it and bring it back. I said that you could carry the water in anything”. D’OH!! I should have listened more carefully and thought more laterally. I blame the rum! Tamara and Deano were on good form. He was telling her that she’d lost her body (she’s certainly not!) and she was telling him that she used to hold Lingerie Parties where everyone was dressed in their underwear. If this was an attempt to blow his mind (and Stephen’s too) then I think it worked!!

It was the staff show of the Lion King tonight – the final one for a while as they’re rehearsing a new show for the New Year. So we saw the first and we saw the last, and both were superb! Gaston must be incredibly strong. Yannicka and he mistimed one of the lifts – she ran and he wasn’t quite ready – so with no momentum to help he simply dead lifted her into the lift…almost a little too well as she went slightly over the back and gave a squeak of fright! But they recovered perfectly. A superb show.

Sunday 28th December

Pitons and more

We were up really early – around 6:45 – in order to be showered, breakfasted and ready for Mr Paul (our taxi driver) at 8am for our island tour. What a lovely man he was, and very informed about the island. He knew all the best places to stop for photos, and after I asked about a pod growing in a tree (it was tamarind), he was stopping every now and again to jump out the cab for leaves to smell (cinnamon and orange) and to point out cashews, coffee, cocoa, mangoes. I made him laugh when he pointed out a papaya tree and I said “Oh, that’s good for tenderising meat”. When he recovered from laughing he explained that I sounded like a West Indian woman.

We went to Marigot Bay (where Dr Doolittle with Rex Harrison was filmed), the Pitons which were truly awesome (and Oprah says a Top 5 place to see), the Diamond Falls (which Superman flew over) and the Hot Baths (where Empress Josephine (who was born on St Lucia) bathed). We declined to go to drive in volcano as we’d done it before and there’s not a whole lot to see and it totally reeks of sulphur. I explained that I couldn't hold my breath for long enough!

St Lucia is a really beautiful island. High mountains covered in lush vegetation, beautiful beaches, and clear turquoise sea – a tropical paradise. It also has areas of poverty – we drove through some fishing villages where houses were literally tiny patched up wooden sheds with corrugated iron roofs. There was one rum shack that I was amazed by. These are always pretty much a garden shed of varying size, but this one was built out over a cliff and was only supported by wooden 4 x 4’s at each corner and a few stout bamboo poles. Did I mention this was over a cliff edge?? It must be cheap to drink there – one rum and you’d feel the place sway…not so much because of the drink though!!!

We got back to the hotel in time to catch the last of lunch and to spot the Queen Mary 2 anchored just off-shore. It is apparently too big to fit into the harbour at Castries, so it must be huge as there are some pretty big ships (floating cities) that dock there. We went for a quick sleep after lunch and missed the final chance to win a t-shirt (or more probably rum!) as we slept through fish-a-prize.

We had sundowners watching the QM2 departing. The place was quite abuzz at seeing her sail off into the sunset…or what would have been the sunset if it hadn’t chosen that moment to absolutely pour with rain! We were trapped in the bar (what a hardship!) as we didn’t want to get Stephen’s camera wet. Consequently, we were just leaving the bar at 7pm and still had to pack before coming back down for dinner. Thankfully packing to come home is easier than packing to go out! We just stuffed everything in cases. We managed to get 3 out of the 4 bottles of rum into the case! We could maybe have managed the 4th one if we’d tried harder, but space was getting tight.

Monday 29th

Farewell

We were up early to get down to the pool for maximum sun exposure time. I lay and soaked up sunshine and Stephen ran around and took loads of photos of the grounds. Our taxi to the airport was booked for 1pm, so we managed t get a spot of lunch before we left. We then did our round of goodbyes of the staff and guests. Stephen left me with the luggage and popped along to see Imran who was on the pool bar, and the sweetie came back with him to say goodbye to me too. Imran then called Deano who was at rehearsals, so we got to say goodbye to him too (and I got a sweaty hug). I was getting quite teary! The staff are so lovely. They really are what makes going there so very special.

The drive to the airport was slow. We were stuck behind a petrol tanker for about 40 minutes with no way to overtake unless you wanted to try a suicide mission and overtake the queue of cars on a blind bend, going uphill etc. Eventually he pulled over to let people by, and not a minute too soon! We got to the airport about 1 hour before the flight, got checked in and headed for security. Normally in St Lucia there are ½ dozen people waiting and you breeze through but not today! We got to the gate (thanfully only about 10 feet from security) about 2 minutes before they began to board the flight.

Both flights were uneventful and we got to National airport about 11:40pm, collected the bags (which didn’t appear to be leaking rum!) and headed for the taxi rank. Ah-ha. Here is the downside to flying into National late at night. No taxis. Thankfully it wasn’t freezing cold as we only had jumpers! The taxi dispatcher was doing a good job though and every now and again 5 taxis would draw up. It took about 15 minutes (the line was huge!), but we were soon ensconced in the back of a cab on the way home. We arrived back here at around 12:45, tired but happy.