Saint Lucia

This last week or so, we've been trying to do a country every day to get our September average up. Up next we head to the Carribbean to learn about Saint Lucia, the only country in the world named after a woman, Saint Lucy. 

Now, I know when I first started I wanted to do these countries in alphabetical order, sans those in theme weeks. But, I realized there is a flaw in that plan. If I did that Saint Lucia would come with Saint Kitts & Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Not only would the meals be pretty similar, since we're sitting in the same part of the world, but the boys likely wouldn't remember much about each individual one, because they all start the same and would be presented to them one right after the other. This isn't the only place that might happen. Take Mauritania and Maritius, the 'stans', or Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. So, I decided it's time to start pulling some of these one's that might get confused out of the alphabetical line up. Don't worry about me, I try and keep a nice detailed outline of what's been done and what hasn't been done. 

Part of the Lesser Antilles, the people of Saint Lucia speak English, but they also note their French heritage. Saint Lucia was so popular with the British and the French, they fought over it for over 150 years. The island changed hands back and forth over 14 times in the dozen wars that were waged. The French ceded  the island for good in 1814, but many people still have French accents, and live in towns with French names (and they are fond of French/Creole food- which makes me a happy camper when it comes to planning meals, I know it's sure to be a hit). 

Though the British took over in 1814, it wasn't until 1964 when they elected their first leader, Sir John Compton. He's known as the 'Father of the Nation'. He served from 1964-1979, and then after that, Saint Lucia gained it's independence and the guy was so liked, he became their first Prime Minister. He served three seperate times, up until he died in 2007. 

Besides the tug of war between the British and the French, St Lucia had pirates to deal with. You can kill to history birds with one stone and visit Fort Rodney on Pigeon Island. It's an old British military base, and a former hangout for pirates. 

But, for our landmark we went with something a little more daring, the Drive-In Soufriere Volcano. It's considered the only 'drive-in volcano in the world, and as such, it's no surprise that it's a major tourist attraction. The road runs right up to and through the crater of the volcano (which sure sounds easier than hiking four miles around it- ahem, Hawaii!) The volcano, of course, is dormant. It's last eruption was way back in the 18th century, but the crater still has boiling mud and water, and emits steam and sulfer. The boys moaned and groaned about the sulfur bit though, they remember what that smells like, and they are not fans.  In addition to the drive through volcano, Sulphur Springs Park also has hot springs and mud baths you can take a dip in! 

It's no surprise an island with gorgeous beaches, and some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean has a whole ton of tourists flocking to the island. The population of this tiny country is somewhere just shy of 90,000 people. But, they welcome somewhere around 350,000 tourists a year.  Man, I get annoyed when tourists are crawling all over Florida, I can't imagine being outnumbered 2 to 1. 

Sidenote: We may become part of the problem, Peyton has declared once he can get a passport again, this is the first place he's headed. To him, it sounded like Hawaii with a much shorter trip to get there. Travelmath says Tampa to Saint Lucia is only 3 hours and 52 minutes! 

If snorkeling and beaches aren't your thing, you can always go jungle biking! Which, is exactly what it sounds like. You bike, through rain forest, and nature preserves. Apparently, this one of the few places in the world designed to do that. 

 Saint Lucia is also home to the Pitons, two mountainous peaks that were created when a nearby volcano erupted. The lava was bottlenecked, cooled and formed into two cones, or volcanic plugs. They're called Gros and Petit. They are the national symbol, and are even featured on the flag. 

The boys made their Saint Lucia postcards. 

Calib's featured a car on top of volcano, someone biking through the mountains, and lots of banana trees. Tourism might be vital to the country's economy, but so are it's abundance of bananas. 

Peyton's featured the old British Fort on Pigeon Island, the mountains, and a French guy removing the flag (there's a British flag on top of the Pitons, but you can't see it because of his clipboard). 

Hayden's featured the beach,  pirates, biking through the forest, and stinky green lines (someone remembers how much that sulfur stinks). 

For Saint Lucia dinner we had Crevettes Saute St Lucia (French Creole style sauteed prawns/shrimp) with yellow rice, a simple lettuce and tomato salad with a simple Saint Lucian dressing, pineapple, and of course bananas (since they have so many of them), and red lobster biscuits for no other reason than they were BOGO at Publix and everyone was excited about the prospect of them. 

This dinner earned an easy five spoons up. 

The salad dressing was the only hit or miss item on the plate. The garlic shrimp reminded us all of our trip to the north shore of Oahu, and everything else was simple enough the boys were happy, and I was just happy to get another country done after all the hurricane madness. 

Also, I love the Caribbean dinners. Barbados's Macaroni Pie? I'd eat that again! Trinidad and Tobago's box dinner? YUM. Antigua and Barbuda's porkchops with bacon and bananas and the ducana? Delicious! Why can't there be 53 of those instead of 53 African countries? 

We made a blue dot for Saint Lucia below Barbuda (of Antigua and Barbuda) and above/next to, Barbados.  This area is going to just be a bunch of dots on top of each other eventually (I should have spaced them out more and made them smaller in the beginning), so I'm trying to do colors that coordinate with the countries flags to try and keep them straight. 

That's 116 down, 77 to go! 

Next Up: Serbia (Only 5 more blogs to be all caught up!)