Luscious Saint Lucia

Booking this trip in September was a risk as it's peak of hurricane season in the Carribbean. Luckily it didn't storm while I was there so that was nice. It's low season around this time so I got a cheap direct, roundtrip flight for $450. It rains in little bursts all week but reminds me more of Florida weather than a monsoon.

I landed at Hewanorra at 12:45 and there's somebody at arrivals holding a card with my name on it, Ms. Mavvie, for River Breeze Villa. Small thing. But landing somewhere alone and finding your name already written down does something to you.

Then the car is $80. Eighty! For one hour. And the price is for the CAR, not the seat, so it's the same eighty whether there's four of you or just me and my one book bag, and nothing here is metered, so whatever you agree out loud before the doors shut is the price.

We pull over at a viewpoint on the road in and we see the Pitons up close and personal, two of them going straight up out of the water. I've seen that photo a hundred times but seeing them in person is quite magnificent.

I stayed at River Breeze Villa in Soufriere town and then don't move for five days, which is the one thing I get right. I walked around town for a bit and picked up some vino and snacks from the Massy market, there are two in town a smaller and larger one. For dinner I picked up a cold piton at a bar by the beach and some $5 chicken wings for dinner and passed out.

Adventure time! I was walking up Tet Paul by 11:00am. Cost ten dollars and took about forty five minutes to climb up an back. The view of both Pitons at once from the top was totally worth it. Best ten dollars I spent on the island and I spent a lot of money on silly things. They give you a guide who walks it with you, so tip your guide - bring small bills, the entry fee isn't their money and there's no cash machine on the side of a hill.

The walk was easy, packed dirt and steps through bamboo so tall it closed over the top of me, and then it opened up and there they both were. There were flowers along it I'd only ever seen in a shop, growing like weeds, red ones the size of my hand.

Then the math started. $25 to get to Tet Paul. $30 from Tet Paul over to Sugar Beach. $25 from Sugar Beach home. Eighty dollars. In one day. To go basically nowhere. You could rent a car but I don't have a license and would be too fearful driving on windy roads anyways.

Sugar Beach at 2:42, and it's free and it's public, whatever anyone at the top of that hill wants you to think. It sits right between Gros Piton and Petit Piton so I was standing in the water with a mountain on either side of me. I taught myself to swim in Colombia in July, having never known how, and I'm still not good at it. But I stood in that water a very long time. I ate there, $20, which around here counts as restraint.

I watched the sun go down, then takeaway back at the villa at 8:30pm from Viola, eaten out of the container standing up while watching some sports on a tv.

This was the big mental prep day as I decided to hike Gros Piton at 6am. I headed out the door at 6:30 and my driver Sherman was all prepped waiting for me. You can't hike it on your own so a guide meets you at the entrance. You turn up at the interpretive centre at Fond Gens Libre, you sign a waiver, they hand you a guide, and that's the whole system. No booking site, no reservation, no app. It was $46.50 to get in.

2,619 feet, about four hours up and back. And nobody says this loud enough: it isn't the climb that gets you, it's the heat. It was the hottest, driest day of the whole trip, it felt like 101, and I was wringing out by the first viewpoint. They say q3 and q4 are the hardest but I honestly started having fun in between the two because I felt warmed up. The way down was way harsher on the knees than the way but but it was still very enjoyable.

The top was rock and low scrub and the entire island underneath me, and a guide who had done this four hundred times waiting patiently while I took nine identical photos. Doing the big hike in the middle of the trip instead of saving it for the last day was the smartest thing I did all week, because if it had rained on me I still had days left to go again.

I got back to my airbnb and was wiped the rest of the day, so I took it easy and showered, slept and rested.

Breakfast at Seashell, right down on the sand, $18. Halfway through, a black cat climbed up and decided it lived on me now, and I let it, obviously. Best meal of the week and the only one I'd go back for.

Sunday is the day the buses don't run between towns here. Not fewer of them. None. I headed to Anse Chastanet beach which was gorgeous and a reef sitting close in, and everybody out there is selling snorkeling.

Anse Mamin is five minutes up the beach and nobody tells you about it. Palm trees the whole way down the sand, two bars so you can sit with a beer and not move. I picked up some mac and cheese before arriving so I had some yummy eats on the beach.

I spent most of the day hanging with couples on the beach and swimming around. Ended up meeting some workers there and they taught me some Creole which was cool. I headed back home after a long beach bum day, sad to know I had to pack up my things and leave the lush island.

Slow morning walking around Soufriere with one bookbag and nowhere to be, past the boardwalk and the green shop with Petit Piton sitting behind it like it's nothing.

You can take the 4F minibus down to Vieux Fort for about five dollars then uber to the airport. I paid $80 for a car, same as coming in. I didn't want to risk the lines and also loved my driver and wanted to see him one last time.

Hewanorra is small and security backs up fast, I was lucky enough to get in with a breeze but I'm sure about a hour after my arrival things got backed up.

The Iyanola lounge takes Priority Pass and I had hours. Mac and cheese, and the pumpkin soup was so good I went back for more of it, sitting in air conditioning for free while everyone else ate a $14 sandwich at the gate.

I spent so much money on cars taking me everywhere, its definitely not a solo travel destination. I did the thing everyone tells you to do, based myself in Soufriere town the whole time instead of up north, walked to the beach, and still got eaten alive, because every single thing on this coast needs a car and I took one every single time.