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Bizarre Birds And Cheap Booze!
May 21, 2007

As we are self catering this week we decide we should stock up on some food before we do anything else and wash out some clothes. We've only bought hand luggage so clothes were kept to minimum, in favour of books. Whilst hanging some shirts over the hammock to dry I hear the seagull that Will & Steph told us about yesterday when we checked in... It really does sound like a monkey as they said! Not only that but there is smallish sized heron shaped bird that lands on the rocks outside the front door a couple of times a day and makes a noise like it is being throttled as it lands. There are some really bizarre sounding birds here. More frigate birds this end of the island but despite being so big they are as hard to get a descent picture of as the hummingbirds.

We buy pineapple, melon, ham, cheese and cashews as well as some Jamaican wine and rum... A litre bottle of Bounty rum is £2.80. That's cheaper than a pint of lager back home! Other than the shopping we book ourselves onto a day trip to Martinique for the end of the week as well as a trip to the rainforest for the canopy ride.

In the afternoon we walk up to Pigeon Island, which is now joined to the main island by a causeway and is protected land. There is a restaurant overlooking the bay but as Sam is emerging from some snorkelling I finally notice the writing on the blackboard that says closed! Turns out it's open until 10.00 every night, except Monday. Still Sam saw some Sergeant Major fish and we found a huge bit of brain coral. So we wander back , freshen up with some rum and coconut, as the sun goes down, before heading out in search of food.

Will is in the garden with Piqua the daft Doberman and I ask him about the huge Sandal's Resort along the coast between them and Pigeon Island. Apparently the village of Gros Islet came to be by money, from the likes of Sandal's, that was used to reclaim swamp [or marsh] land but I don't see the locals benefiting much from the place financially. Apart from the initial jobs building the place and maybe some staff not much appears to go back into the Community. Although Will says that Gros Islet MP, Leonard "Spider" Montoute, wants to replace the shanty structures in the village with proper wooden huts and encourage businesses to set up around the Marina etc... selling local crafts and produce. So we'll see. It turns out that the Prime Minister of St. Lucia is badly ill and Spider could stand a chance as the next PM.

This time we try The Wall for dinner, which has a buffet type set up and for EC$40 we have pork, fish, black-eyed peas and rice. That's about £4.00 each including drink!

We are soon joined by Jason [Wire Man] who bends souvenir figures out of what I discover is very difficult to bend wire! In 10 minutes he has rustled up a footballer mid volley with ball! We have to buy it, despite saying we wouldn't take back any souvenirs, due to lack of baggage space. Jason's wire bending is accompanied by the sounds of Pastor James, next door, performing minor miracles to a very enthusiastic and vocal congregation on one side and Van Halen's Jump pumping out of the bar on the other!

When we return a new guest has arrived so we sit up drinking rum with Duncan, John and Page.

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

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