Petit Piton not so petit
Trip Start
Mar 31, 2007
1
6
19
Trip End
May 03, 2007
Soufriere,
Saint Lucia
Friday, April 6, 2007
On Tuesday morning I headed down to St Lucia's capital, Castries. It was a very busy place, especially as two MASSIVE cruise ships had just pulled into port. The whole town was on cruise tourist overdrive, coming out of the woodwork to peddle their useless shit. I managed to get some good St Lucian bananas (their biggest export), they are much sweeter than Aussie bananas. They couldn't believe the prices of Oz bananas last year, as they're about EC$0.50 (AUD$0.20) a 'hand' over here. Good stuff.
I wandered around the city, all the streets are barely one lane wide and the buildings push against each other. I saw the Church of Immaculate Conception which was pretty cool, an ornate, completely wooden church. There was a 'Youth Month' show on, and the church was being used as a school hall. Some high schoolers were singing, they had pretty good voices too
St Lucia - Petit Piton
. After this, I wandered around the back streets, checking out some good food and beer, and talking to random people.After a while, the constant procession of panhandlers, drug dealers and trinket pushers following me around got a bit tiresome, so I caught the bus back up to Gros Islet and took refuge in the tourist pirate bar 'Scuttlebutts'. I watched the South Africa-Bangladesh game with some Pommies, and kicked back with some Piton beer. I planned to get an early night, as I still hadn't got used to the timezone switch yet and wasn't sleeping well. However, the unmistakeable sound of live drums echoed over the usual noise of subwoofers, roosters and engines, and I set out to investigate. I found a 10-piece steel drum band practicing up in Gros Islet, and they invited me to jam with them for a while. I wailed on the congas for a couple of songs, and managed to pull of a pretty sweet Santana-esque conga solo. After this (and a few Piton beers), I retired.
On Wednesday I grabbed my stuff and caught a few buses about 40km south to the town of Soufriere, the so-called 'spiritual heart' of St Lucia. This is where the Pitons (two volcanic mountains that rise 700m straight out of the ocean) are located, as well as a number of warm springs and a volcanic crater. The Hummingbird Resort I checked into was quite swish, with king beds and pool and all the stuff. I took my first swim in the Caribbean Sea, and the water was beautiful
St Lucia - Soufriere
. I wandered through town, meeting plenty of people and grabbing some good food. Once again, a number of drug dealers (who call themselves 'Dr Feelgood') and trinket pushers swarmed around me, but I managed to organise them into a game of cricket. I think they thought I was going to pay them for it, but I bought a carton of Pitons and shared it around. I retired back to the hotel for a few swims, some good food and to watch the end of a cracker of a match between Sri Lanka and England (England lost, needing 2 runs off the last ball).At 5:30am on Thursday morning, I woke up and met my guide, Denis, who was going to show me around Soufriere and take me up Petit Piton. The two Pitons are Gros (big) Piton and Petit (little) Piton. However, Petit is only 20ft smaller than Gros, and much much steeper. I elected to go up Petit Piton and, to cut a long story short, it was the most physically challenging thing I've ever done. Two and a half hours of ultra-steep climbing, then an hour-and-a-half of leg-burning descent. The view was nice though, as you could see all around the south of the island, as well as the islands of Martinique and St Vincent. After the climb, I relaxed in the nearby warm volcanic waterfall, and visited the volcanic crater. The silver pools in the crater bubbled with heat, and the whole place stank of rotten-egg gas. After this, I was pretty much exhausted, as the physical exertion was done in over 30 degree heat and extreme humidity. I went back to the hotel, and met some American couples who were there on honeymoons or love retreats, and quickly passed out asleep.
This morning is Good Friday, so getting a bus back up north may be tough. Tonight I stay in Gros Islet again, before my flight to St Vincent in the morning. Only 10 more days until my first Aussie match...
