international travel: part 2

Upon my return to the Gardens, I knock on Kadri’s door and invite her over for fruit salad. Kadri accepts. As I slice oranges, paw-paw and bananas I learn that Kadri arrived in Saint Lucia on a 75-foot boat, which made landfall in Marigot Bay. She was a member of a crew that sailed from Lanzarote, a Canarian island with a Sahara Desert climate tempered by trade winds, seventy-seven miles off the West African coastline. Kadri is from from Tallin, Estonia, where she served as an IT manager for Skype. Kadri heads back to her room and I walk to Island Breeze, where the DJ (I later learned was Sammy’s son Sherwinn) played house music to a packed house of locals.

The next morning Kadri and I walk down to the Reef. I order a blended fruit punch sans alcohol and Kadri orders breakfast and a strawberry milkshake. After awhile we relocate on a quiet stretch of beach. I let her know of my intention to take a long swim. The swim takes me from the Reef, with its exquisite view of Maria Major Island to where the sandy beach ends below a cluster of homes south of Vieux Fort. Walking onto the beach, I site a continuous stretch of travel-worn plastic bottles. One might reasonably conclude that these synthetic bottles had traveled by a strong current from islands to the south.

I ran back down the beach to where Kadri was reading a book, while soaking up the West Indies sun. We walk back to the Reef to seek some shade. Kadri walks back to the Gardens.

I walk back down the beach toward Vieux Fort. Suddenly, two locals ride horses onto the beach. I retrace the equestrian trail in reverse to stables at the edge of town. Just past the stables, I sight Sammy’s fast food restaurant. Hungry and dehydrated, I walk upstairs to the restaurant with a porch view of the soccer stadium and order a marlin dish served with provisions and a ginger beer in a refillable glass bottle produced by Pitons, the local brewery. I hear a man call out my name. Much to my luck it is Sammy. My encounter with Sammy provides me with an opportunity to retrieve my sunglasses I had dropped onto the floor of the back seat of his vehicle the night before. Sammy advises me that the political rally will take awhile to coalesce.

After devouring my meal and slurping down my ginger beer, I walk on narrow city streets toward Independence Square. On both sides of the streets are open concrete channels emitting a foul smell and littered with plastic bottles. I wonder if these channels may be a source for the synthetic bottles on the nearby beach.

As I approach the square, I meet a Haitian, who has relocated to Saint Lucia. The street is set up for the rally, but few are in the streets. My new friend and I walk around in search of a beer. We eventually settle on Sammy’s restaurant, where he gets a Pitons and I pick up another ginger beer. When we walk back to Independence Square and I am introduced to one person after another. Finally I am introduced to the new Prime Minister Kenny Anthony. I ask him about bicycling and he says one of his campaign promises was to build a velodrome. As we speak, Sammy walks up and exclaims: “You’ve already met the Prime Minister!” At night sets in, the light pollution from 1960’s style cobra street lights becomes ever apparent. The rally, hosted by the Labor Party, is long and loud, punctuated by repetitive chanting: “a rouge, a rouge!”

Upon my return to the Gardens, I knock on Kadri’s door and we catch up on our hours apart. I learn more about her work at Skype and her penchant for travel. We make plans for breakfast at the Reef the next morning.

On Monday morning, I wake up early. As I walk out my door, a female guest house resident, dressed for work at a resort, walks to her car parked on the street. As I begin my walk down to the beach, I encounter a healthy, elderly couple from Trinidad & Tobago. We walk together. At the Reef, we speak with Tommy, the kite surfing instructor. Tommy says the calm weather is giving way to strong winds ideal for kitesurfing. Tommy recommends the beach at Labourie for swimming; its calm waters would be appealing to my Trinidadian friends. The Trinidadian couple set out to complete their walk to Vieux Fort, where they will catch a bus to Sulfur Springs, hot springs just south of Soufriere. I go for a swim, the water is pleasant, though more turbulent than the day before.

After my swim, I jog back to the guest house. I say hello to Kadri, who is reading her book. Looking outside the back window of my room, I see a couple of men picking beans. The maid informs me, one of them is Sherwinn, Sammy’s son. After a shower and packing, I prepare a small fruit salad for Kadri and I. Sammy offers to give Kadri & I a ride to the Reef. I pay the balance of my bill at the Airport. At the beach, Kadri orders breakfast and I order a fruit punch smoothie and a Danish pastry filled with chocolate. After introducing Kadri to a number of people, we lay down on the beach to catch some sun. I say good bye to Kadri. I walk to the road and much to my surprise a jitney stops to pick me up to take me to the bus stop in Vieux Fort.