Saturday, December 16, 2023
 |
| View from the Viking Sea of Castries, capital of St Lucia |
 |
This time we are truly at the back of the bus for the
included shore excursion, St Lucia Panorama; a
glimpse of the Government House (1894-1895), the
official residence of the governor-general of St Lucia |
 |
Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (est 1985)
was named for the St Lucian who was awarded the
1979 Nobel Prize in Economics |
 |
| A view down on Castries from Morne Fortuné |
 |
A peek inside Stony Hill (1999), a private home
that is rented for special events |
 |
We had steel pan entertainment (why do
they feel they have to play Western music,
instead of their own calypso tunes?);
actually mostly Christmas music |
 |
We had a "Taste of St Lucia" with, clockwise from top,
banana cake, coconut and cinnamon cake with chocolate,
icing, green fig and saltfish fritters, and banana ketchup
(which surprisingly tasted like ketchup!) |
 |
We wandered the gardens in a light rain:
gazebo surrounded by a small moat |
 |
| Acalypha wilkesiana/Copperleaf |
 |
| Tamarindus indica/Tamarind fruit on the tree |
 |
Bromeliad air plants are suspended by
string, with roots growing downwards (KSS) |
 |
| Dendrobium attennatum variety of orchid |
 |
| Phalaenopsis sp hybrid orchid perhaps |
 |
| Man-made waterfall |
 |
Artocarpus heterophyllus/Jackfruit Tree
with yellow "flowers" and fruit
exhibiting Rhizopus Rot (black fungus) |
 |
Pool in front of a Ficus benghalensis/
Banyan or Audrey Ficus Tree with aerial roots
|
 |
| View from Stony Hill of Rodney Bay (town and water feature) |
 |
| Arachnis flos-aeris/Spider Orchid |
 |
| Stony Hill house |
 |
| Stony Hill entrance |
 |
Sometimes shore excursions take longer than
scheduled because of island traffic |
After the excursion, we went straight to our own exploration of Castries.
 |
| Castries Central Market (1891, building 1996) |
 |
| Inside the market building |
 |
| Toys |
 |
| Miscellanea table |
 |
| Footwear |
 |
| Menswear from caps to undies |
 |
Dioscorea alata/White Yams and Citrus jambhiri/
Caribbean Rough Lemons (coconuts rear right) |
 |
| Musa paradisiaca/Plantains (must be cooked to be eaten) |
 |
So I should not assume these are bananas
just because they are yellow? |
 |
| Watching a sports match on the bar's television |
 |
| Castries City Hall was refurbished in 2017 |
 |
Statue (2011, by Ricky George) of
Sir John Compton, the first Prime Minister
of St Lucia and champion of Caribbean unity,
stands in Constitution Park that was so-named
in 1967 when St Lucia became an associated
state of the United Kingdom; independence
came in 1979 with Commonwealth membership |
 |
Castries Courthouse (no building dates found,
but most of Castries was built after a
devastating fire in 1948) |
 |
Cathedral Basilica of Immaculate Conception (1897) is said
to be the largest church in the Caribbean |
 |
| Interior of the cathedral |
 |
| Murals by St Lucian artist Dunstan St Omer |
 |
| Cathedral sanctuary |
 |
Even when opened, the stained glass
windows form a whole picture |
 |
| Ha, the newest building in Castries is a KFC |
 |
| Brazil Street has some restored French-Creole buildings |
 |
Derek Walcott Square with the ancient Samanea saman/
Rain Tree or Monkey Pod Tree that has survived fires
and earthquakes; in St Lucia it is called the Masav tree
due to the story that a tourist asked a local the name
of the tree, to which he replied "Masav," meaning
"I don't know" in his Kwéyòl language |
 |
Derek Walcott Square fountain with
seasonal decorations |
 |
Bust of Sir Derek Alton Walcott,
the St Lucian poet who was awarded
the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature |
 |
Bust of Sir William Arthur Lewis, whom
we have met, the other St Lucian who was
awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize for Economics |
 |
Castries City Library (1950, to replace the 1924
Carnegie Library that burned in 1948) |
 |
The contents of these bottles did not look potable;
they are insecticides! |
 |
| Trying to capture the color of Castries Harbour |
Next: Basseterre, St Kitts.
No comments:
Post a Comment