Yesterday, I touched down in the beautiful island of St Lucia.

I will ‘archive’ my Caribbean adventure here and be as honest as possible.

I am travelling by myself.

Hope you enjoy the upcoming thread.

To cut a long story short, I know someone who’s cousin hosts guests in St Lucia.

I am all for supporting local people and their independence to make their own money.

Also, the price for the hotels here are actually INSANE!

<Please do your own research with this>

So obviously before booking, I looked her up online via AirBnb + http://booking.com 

I saw that she was a super host on AirBnb, & tbh I was sold at this point. It was great because I know her cousin, so I knew she’d look after me.

My host is called Magdalena

We’ve been in communication from before I booked my ticket, and she was truly so helpful.

She picked me up from the airport. And actually had to wait for me for a very long time. (I’ll get into that in the next tweet).

And she was still all smiles.

So because I recently went to Ghana + Dubai, and with this COVID-19 scare, I had to be interviewed by health officers at the airport.

They were super nice, and we ended up talking about Ghana. The officials at the airport were super nice and didn’t treat me unfairly may I add. – bei Saint Lucia

Anyways, I almost forgot to pick up my checked-in bag as I’d been with the health officers for a while. Went back to get it, then briefly stopped at nothing to declare before walking out.

First impressions? So far the people are super nice. I wasn’t harassed at the airport too!

Finally met Magdalena and thanked her for waiting almost 2 hours for me.

We drove to Soufrière from UWF and she did an impromptu tour. Landscape is so green and lush, woooooshhh come and see beauty!

She also knew every other person which was cool #IslandLife – bei Saint Lucia

So I didn’t realise this, but St Lucians, as well as English, speak their own language— creole, which is like french patois.

We drove through town to get to hers and it has so much character

We finally arrived to Magdalena’s and my goodness, literally had to catch my breath.

Surrounded by green and comforted by the blue skies.

What a sight!

I also met her son and husband, who were very welcoming!

It was Magdelena’s sister’s birthday, and she is her next door neighbour, so I was invited to go round for the family’s get-together.

They were all so lovely! We spoke about a lot of things, most particularly racism in the Caribbean + the world.

Home-cooked food >>>

Day 2

As I didn’t have a lot of time in Soufriere, I was determined to make the most of it.

I had arranged 2 cooking classes with my host.

First thing was Callaloo soup + dumplings for lunch.

We also marinated the creole chicken for tomorrow’s dinner

After lunch we went to Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens. This is a huge estate which was given to the Devaux family from King Louis XIV of France in 1713.

The estate includes a waterfall, botanical gardens, a restaurant and much more.

It’s huge and still well maintained.

It was bought by the Boulay family, and now the estate is run by the daughter who happens to be a Mrs Devaux

I did actually see her and let’s just say she don’t smile much but it is a beautiful place that has been maintained well.

It’s opened Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm & Sunday’s 10am to 3pm.

Cost of entry is USD 7 / XCD 17.50.

The staff are super friendly, I’d 100% recommend. And they have mineral baths with water straight from the springs — but public spaces like such were a big no for me.

At this point, Coronavirus was not declared pandemic but I knew that me being by myself, I just didn’t want to take the chance.

My mother is a germaphobe so it’s within me. Plus I got super freaked out from reading about Italy.

As I said, I weren’t getting in no bath.

After the Botanical Gardens, it was a short drive to Morne Coubaril Historical Adventure Park.

If you are interested in the early history of the island then this is your place. You can do a bunch of other stuff like horse riding, eat and zip lining.

Entry is about $11

When we got there it was closed, but as Magdelena is well-known, we were still allowed inside to explore and didn’t have to pay a thing!

The activities such as horse riding, zip lining were closed but they are priced different. Please enquire/book should you wish to :) – bei Morne Coubaril Estate

As it was closed for business, I didn’t get to do any rum tastings. That could’ve been God tho

If you know how my Jamaica trip went, you’d be proud that I had the courage to even want to be near it.

We met a lovely couple that did their zip lining experience, and explored the rest of the park with them whilst Magdalena shared her knowledge.

I felt cool because everyone thought I was St Lucian before I opened my mouth & so I didn’t pay for the Gardens either.

We finally left the park and took a scenic drive down the mountains and into town.

We got to stop at a beautiful point which overlooked the Gros piton. This is a UNESCO Heritage site. The Gros piton is the 2nd largest peak in St Lucia

Just a little bit after this point, there is a view point which overlooks the town of Soufriere.

It’s a well-maintained site, and you can also buy souvenirs, snacks & goods.

Stunning view

Song by Alton Ellis “Love on Top”

Ok, if you’re like me and like to explore. You most definitely will need a car here. It’s very common for tourists to hire a car. I was lucky with Magdalena. But if you don’t drive, you’d be able to hire a driver.

Hmu if you want help with this

The roads can be very windy!

So Magdalena had to sort out a few bits in town, and town is pretty small. So whilst she was in the bank I went to an ice cream parlour. As I hadn’t spent any money (like nothing), I bought myself, Magdalena and some school kids ice cream.

I chose cookies’n’cream & pistachio