It's a Women's World

Castries, Saint Lucia

February 12, 2025

A 400 year-old Samaan tree in the Derek Walcott Square.

What is the most unique fact about the country of Saint Lucia?

If you said that it is the ONLY country in the WORLD named after a woman, you are correct!  (Although Ireland was named after a goddess, which is close).

And speaking of women, the country is extremely proud of their first ever Gold Medal winner in the Olympics.  Julien Alfred won the Women’s 100-meter sprint in the 2024 Paris Olympics, beating Sha’carri Richardson (USA), in a huge upset.  There are pictures and billboards all around congratulating her.

This morning when we docked in Castries, Saint Lucia, we looked outside, only to discover that it was raining and windy. Not the best weather for a tour.  Fortunately, by the time we went out to get on the tour bus, the rain had stopped, and the sun was poking through the clouds. Yay!

The first thing we noticed as we started our tour was that the bus, and everyone else, were driving on the (wrong) left side of the street.  It took a while to get used to that, especially as we were driving on narrow, twisty roads.

Saint Lucia has many similarities to Sint Maarten, colorful buildings, lots of lush greenery, and friendly people.

One of the local artistic traditions is Batik.  This type of cloth art is created by using wax, such as bee’s wax, and dye to create a distinctive look.  You can always tell if batik material is really made in the traditional way, because the back of the cloth will look just like the front.

Batik process and an artist creating a free-hand design

Nature and Culture – one of our favorite parts of the tour was the guide’s expertise in both local plants and the local medicinal uses of them.  We learned about the many types of plants that produce edible or useful fruit, along with how the locals might use that plant for food or treatments for ailments.  At times, the bus driver would pull over and grab a fruit, or branch to bring back into the bus and pass around so we could see, touch, and smell it.  Once he even climbed a fence to reach a fruit to show us!

Here is partial list, with pictures, of the plants we saw and learned about.

Breadfruit Tree - and also bread nuts

Tamarind - calms inflammation and helps with anemia

Great Morinda - makes Noni juice, can be used to fight malaria, and is an anti-oxidant.

Some believe it helps with spiritual health also.

Clerodendrum

Guava - also the leaves can be used for tea.

Calabash (National Plant of Saint Lucia)

Used as a soup to battle dysentary, colds and lung diseases.

Ti Plant - helps with nerve and muscle relaxation

Castor bean plant - makes castor oil which helps with digestion

Moringa - the tea from this plant is useful in fighting colds.

Also - Papaya leaves can be used for tea; bananas taste good in BBQ sauce;

Animals (Birds) – While most of the tour focused on the flora of the island, we also saw some interesting fauna – birds!

Brown Bobby

Brown Pelican

Royal Tern

Eurasian Collared Dove

Carib Grackle

Fun Facts:

Saint Lucia also has had two Nobel Prize winners, giving it the second highest number of Nobel Laureates per capita. Both nobel laureates happened to be born on the same day (January 15), but in different years. Sir Derek Walcott won in literature and Sir William Arthur Lewis in economics.

The island has a drive-in volcano. Not really, but a car can drive in and around bubbling sulfur springs and mad baths.

There are both gold and black volcanic sand beaches.

They call green bananas figs, so one of the favorite local dishes, called Green Figs and Salt Fish, doesn’t have any figs in it.

The size and square miles of Saint Lucia (232 sq. miles, 17 miles wide and 27 miles long) is similar to Karen's mother's birth place of Guam (212 sq. miles, 9 miles wide by 30 miles long).

Funny Business -

Last but not least - Did you ever want to have your very own rain forest?

Tomorrow we visit Scarborough. Where in the Caribbean is it located?