St. Lucia part 2, Second port of call, Caribbean Princess Cruise

You can view the first one here.

The island's capital is Castries, a town of pastel colored colonial buildings and has around 60,000 people.  A little history about St. Lucia....Carib warriors overran the peaceful Arawaks in the 9th century.  The first European settler was Francois Le Clec, a French Buccaneer.  The town of Soufriere was established by the French in 1746.  Sugar was what brought the money to this island with 50 plantations on the island and St. Lucia became part of the Caribbean's 18th century trade triangle of sugar, slavery and rum.  Today this beautiful island welcomes visitors who enjoy its exotic tropical landscape and superb beaches of crystalline waters and colorful marine life. 

St Lucia measures approximately 14 miles east and west and 27 miles north and south, approximately 238 square miles and 160,000 people live on the island.  English is the official language but many islanders speak a French-Creole patios. 

In this photo essay I'm sharing photos of the beautiful hills, flowers, trees and scenes.  I was really impressed with this island, there was less poverty here than some of the other islands I have visited in the last 12 years.  The people were once again very friendly and helpful.  As it is at every beach on these islands, you get a lot of residents trying to sell you trinkets, most hand made.  We upset one such salesman who made different items made from palm leaves.  Everything was so pretty, he had bird houses, bowls, and animals to offer.  His approach was very inventive, he came up to us and quickly made a little bird out of a leaf and also a grasshopper.  Very impressive and beautiful.  He handed the bird to DH and the grasshopper to me.  I was very hesitant since I knew a sales pitch was coming, and I was right.  He rambled on about his lovely wares while another younger guy came over with the other beautiful pieces.  We weren't in the market for any of these items, I have no idea how I would get such delicate pieces home and we don't take any large amounts of cash to the beach.  So we thanked him politely and told him that we were sorry.  I didn't know whether to laugh or be angry because he grabbed the little items from each of us and cursed as he walked away for wasting his blanking time:(    I know they are trying to make a living but he needs some anger management classes for sure.

On a brighter note, we had a wonderful time during our visit to St. Lucia and it became one of my favorite islands, see for yourself why.....

The sunrise...

Some of the flowers and trees ...

One of the hotel's version of a Christmas Tree

The beautiful sunset....

I hope you take the time to scroll through the photos as a slide show too!

Next stop Antigua!