Whenever we are in StLucia, we love taking the minibus to Castries...StLucia's capital. Pam and Bill of Songbird joined us for this visit. Castries is a colourful town, with kind people, lots of bakeries, rotis stalls and vendors lining up all along Jeremy street in addition to the large market square. As we were passing on that street, we noticed that a lady was pouring white liquid into large liquor bottles...wine? no...the smell !!!Kerosene! Yes! We were looking for that stuff..this is namely our cooking fuel! We purchased 5 liters. And then, I noticed that she was also selling black tobacco...to chew, or for your pipe, or even to be mixed with your marijuana. Here you go...Heiner bought some for his pipe. The tobacco smelled slightly smoked, was black and in big chunks. What else was she selling??? Oh yes, little mini plums...why not? Every person on that street specializes in everything!!! At noon, we choose the newly opened Chinese Restaurant "Cheerful together" for lunch...after all, this restaurant's name fitted perfectly our being together with Pam and Bill. We had spring rolls (too greasy but tasty), and vegetable chow mein as well as vegetable and cashews fried rice...all very tasty.





We strolled along the busy streets, catching some unusual sites such as 2 x 4 bamboos supporting a structure, admired the huge 400+ year old samaan tree in Derek Walcott Square and talked briefly with the gardener Aruba who told us to be in love with this tree which he climbed numerous times! Aruba was pretty busy when we were there as the square's garden was taken over by technicians setting their equipment up for the jazz festival concerts.




There are many quaint streets in Castries and despite the mass of tourists arriving by cruiseships, the town has not lost its authentic caribbean character!