No matter what time of year you visit, you’ll find Saint
Lucia pulsating with the energetic rhythms of calypso, cadence, zouk, steel pan, soca, and reggae music. On Friday
nights, residents and tourists alike stream into the fishing
village of Gros Islet for a raucous weekly street party that
gets going around 10 p.m. and lasts till the wee hours of the
morning. Bars throw open their doors and pump loud music into the street, while snack vendors sell fried fish, barbecue, and hotcakes. Revelers dance under the stars with a
can of beer in one hand and a juicy barbequed chicken leg
in the other.
Local crafts of basketry, pottery, woodcarving, and jewelry made from seeds are for sale throughout the island.
Browsing is half the fun at the bustling Castries Central
Market and Vendor’s Arcade and at the Choiseul Arts and
Craft Centre.
Food and Drink
Saint Lucian cuisine takes full advantage of the island’s
abundant fresh seafood and exotic fruits and vegetables. In
general, local chefs cook in the Creole style, interpreting
African-derived dishes with inventive French flair. The national dish is salt fish and green fig—a stew of dried, salted
codfish and boiled green banana. Other regional delicacies
are boudin (spicy blood sausage), lambi (conch), and colombo (curried chicken or goat). Locally grown produce
includes bananas, passion fruit, papaya, limes, guava, coconuts, plantains, breadfruit, and seven kinds of mangoes, as
well as okra, avocados, cucumbers, pumpkins, yams, chris-tophenes (a white, watery vegetable), and callaloo (a leafy
green spinach-like vegetable). Fresh lobster is widely available in season, which lasts from August through March.
In addition to Creole cuisine, restaurant fare and resort
buffets run the gamut with Asian, French, Mexican, British,
and American offerings, as well as fast food burgers and
pizza.
Refreshing fruit juices abound and islanders are rightly
proud of their rum. Saint Lucia Distillers produces an assortment of both dark and white rums at its factory in Roseau Valley. The distillery hosts guided tours showing how
rum was made in the past and how it is produced today
using modern techniques. Local bartenders concoct delicious rum punches and cocktails with fresh fruit juices and
liqueurs.
©2009 ISTOCKPHOTO/LEN KAITMAN/CHRIS HUXLEY
Nature
Nature lovers enjoy a wide range of land and sea adventures on the island. The sand on the beaches here ranges
in hue from volcanic black to golden honey. Reduit Beach
