We awoke this morning to the inevitable warmth and sunshine, once again in a port to which it was our second visit – Castries, the capital of the beautiful island of St. Lucia.
We decided we’d just do our own thing this day, but I was on a quest – I wanted to get my hair put into Caribbean corn-row braids 🙂
We took a slow walk into the town along the harbour, where we could see the Ventura towering over all the other vessels in the port. Castries is very lively, if a bit shabby, and there were a lot of market stalls, as well as a covered market selling everything from hand-carved wooden souvenirs to clothing to jewellery to spices, fruits, vegetables and fish.
We had a good look round the shops and hairdressing salons, but none of them seemed to offer braiding. I was actually quite surprised that we had got this far into the holiday without being accosted on the beach or near the cruise terminal by ladies offering to braid our hair – usually you see them everywhere, but not this time.
I did, however, spot a nice-looking shoe shop and bought myself some lovely leather sandals with a 5″ wedge heel. They were under 20 quid, which was a bargain. Feeling quite pleased with my purchase, we bought some postcards and went to find the inevitable bar to have a beer and write them out.
We found a little bar and had a bottle of Rooster beer each; it was strong stuff at 7.6%. A radio blasted out reggae music which competed with the loud soca music coming from the bar next door. When we finished, I could have put another one away, but Trevor was keen to try somewhere else as he found the blaring cacophony of music annoying.
After talking a slow stroll back to the port, we stopped at a little drinks kiosk which was playing Bob Marley music, and I had a freezing cold rum punch while Trevor had another beer. It was pleasant just sitting there on a stool and people-watching. A local steel band struck up a few cheerful tunes further along the quayside.
We had one more drink and went back to the Ventura in time for lunch, after which we spent some time just sitting out on our balcony reading our books and relaxing in the sun.
That evening I put on my new wedge sandals to wrax them in a bit; the heels were very high, but the wedge did make them comfortable 🙂
Instead of going to the main theatre, where Clem Curtis of “The Foundations” was performing once again, we went to the Havana to see Steve Tandy, the comedian, doing his new show. He was very funny and we enjoyed it a lot. Trevor said that he often preferred the secondary shows to the main one.
Then we went along to ‘Wetherspoon’s’ where they had a karaoke again. This time I sang Dido’s White Flag, then got up to do Lynn Anderson’s Rose Garden. I got as far as singing “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden…” when a group of women walked into the pub and stopped right in front of the TV screen with the lyrics on, completely blocking my view! Luckily I knew all the words anyway, but they were just oblivious until I waved my hand at them in a gesture asking them to move aside. Then they realised they were blocking the screen… they did come over later and apologise though 🙂
After the karaoke we stayed in the Exchange, as they had a quiz about film stars on. We didn’t join in, just had a few drinks and listened to the questions. Films and film stars isn’t really my forte; to be honest I’m not really into celebrities the way some people are.