St. Lucia Day Five

I got up and met my mom in the lobby of my hotel and started the trip to my grandfather's house. We were supposed to meet someone in town to take us to the country-side where my grandfather lives but we needed to kill some time cause our ride was late. The night before I ran out of contact lens solution and ended up gathering saliva as a replacement. I didn't see this as a permanent fix so I decided to search for some solution while I had the time. I quickly learned that St. Lucians don't really do contacts for the most part. I was instructed that the most likely place would be an optometrists office for such fancy fair. At that point I decided to do the breakfast thing instead of aimlessly seeking out a doctor's office.

It was only 6EC for breakfast for my mother and I; this included two drinks. When we were almost done with breakfast our ride showed up and we hopped on in. St. Lucia is mountainous. There's a huge difference between the coastal and inland areas around here. All journeys inland require climbing up some sort of hill or driving up the side of a mountain. This trip up felt longer and seemed to have more twists and turns than the one to the rain forest.

My grandfather had been working in the yard and looked like a bit of a mess. There was a brief sizing up and a hello when he saw me and then we didn't really speak much. Instead my mom gave me a tour of the house she used to live in while he chatted with the gentleman who took us up to his house. I was reminded that at one point my family owned most of the land around and we ended up selling it for ice cream, our only weakness. The cashew trees in the back attracted lots of beautiful birds. These birds, unlike the ones in the rain forest, seemed accustomed to the human presence and didn't fly away as quickly or as far when I approached.

After my bird watching my grandfather collected cashew fruits for me. The birds had already started feasting on the ones he picked but I didn't really have any intention on eating them. He also has a mango tree in his front yard with these flavorful small mangoes. I definitely appreciate the trees people grow in their yards here over huge swaths of useless grass.

On our way down the hill we went through the new tunnels built in St. Lucia. These are nothing more than long underpasses through big hillsides. Neither is more than a few hundred meters long. We were dropped off in the market in Castries with no particular destination in mind. After bit of quick thinking I thought that it would be good to see my aunt who has a stand in the middle of the city. She seemed quite excited to see me. According to her I am an exact copy of my father. I can't really argue with that.

After that brief visit we went around the market picking up a couple of things along the way. I was finally able to find contact lens solution in the oldest drug store on the island. I headed back to the hotel to put away the goods from the market and headed over the the beach. It was a very short visit because we had dinner plans for the evening.

We were picked up at the hotel then we were driven up by Mr. Weeks to his family's house. It was absolutely beautiful. As I stepped into the kitchen I smelled the food which was just as beautiful. Mr. Weeks brought us up to the balcony where we sipped on some Chairman's Reserve as my grandmother put down some whiskey. Mr Weeks made the mistake of cutting my grandmother's whiskey with water but got the point after she gulped down the first drink.

There was great food with great conversation all night long. We were being entertained by one of the best. He had true stories, jokes and did I mention rum? Since some of the jokes and part of the conversation was occasionally in patois I was forced to be the translator. Lbo picked up a patois phrase along the way. I will leave it up to him to tell you more about that.