Diving in St. Lucia
Trip Start
Jan 22, 2006
1
7
8
Trip End
Feb 06, 2006
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Castries,
Saint Lucia
Friday, February 3, 2006
My hotelroom was big and clean, but 5 minutes after I got to my room, there was a leak in the bathroom and there was no hot water in my shower. I was disappointed, having looked forward to that so much... But it wasn't really a big deal. After all I had a huge bed to myself and could finally stretch out.
I was getting restless from not having been able to dive in Grenada (or the Tobago Cays), so I thought it was best to find a diving operation that could take me out on the following day. That proved to be more difficult than I thought, as many didn't do Saturday dives apparently. I searched for places by foot with no luck, I tried to call 3 operations and big hotels with no luck, and it dawned on me that if I really wanted to dive in St. Lucia, I'd have to go all the way from Castries to Soufriere (the other side of the island) and arrange the transportation myself.
It wasn't really easy to do, especially since it's very expensive to hire a taxi for a full day, but I managed to persuade someone to take me early Saturday morning.
01. Barbados by air
I had called Anse Chastanet resort and arranged to go diving with them 3 times the following day.We left Castries about 6.30 in the morning as it is a long 2 hour drive and I had to be at the resort before 9pm. My taxi driver, Rose was delightful and drove efficiently, yet carefully, so we had a blast talking and telling stories and jokes the whole way.
We arrived at Anse Chastanet (a secluded expensive diving resort) in time, and I got geared up for my dives. I got a bit offended that they made me do a check out dive, having to demonstrate skills and all. I am a dive master and I had been diving in Bequia the week before, but they didn't care, everyone has to do it apparently. (And I fu**ed up my skills anyway, since my equipment was very dry and bouyant I didn't have enough weights to keep me down at 5 metres to do my skills. I'll be less cocky next time someone ask me to demonstrate skills...)
The diving around Anse Chastanet was beautiful, loads of colours and loads of life. I really, really liked it. Their house reef was excellent. We didn't see any turtles or sharks, but it was still great in my view. I do however think that they babied their divers a bit, they got very stressed when a minor current challenged us a bit, and I think they could've allowed us more freedom. Apart from that, it was very professionally run.
The resort itself was gorgeous. It's not too big, the food is great and they have a private cocoa coloured beach just in front of the hotel.
After my 3 dives I lay in a hammock on the beach drinking Pina Coladas, thinking life couldn't be better than this! It was a costly daytrip, but well worth the money.
Rose had waited for me all day outside the resort and took me back to Castries in the afternoon. We saw the Piton mountains, small villages and beautiful scenery along the way. I feel I got to know her a bit. She even invited me back to take a look at her newly built house which was great. It was located in the middle of the bush and she had very few neighbours to bother her! I got the impression that it's hard trying to raise several children as a taxi driver in St. Lucia. But she wasn't really complaining despite obviously having a hard time making ends meet. I am grateful for her hospitality and I'm always happy to see and learn more about how it is to live in a foreign country, even if you only meet and connect with people for a short while.
