Fruits, flowers, and fire

Nature's dramatic contrasts abound on lovely St. Lucia

Author: By Charles L. Mitsakos, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, February 15, 1998

Page: M5

Section: Travel

The Pitons, the island's mountain range, stand in sharp contrast to St. Lucia's drive-in volcano and sulfur springs. But there is something that exceeds even the island's beauty: the warm hospitality of the people who live here.

My wife, Stella, and I hadn't been to the southern Caribbean for more than 20 years. Although Leeward Islands such as Antigua, St. Maarten, and Anguilla have a special charm because of their dry climate and varied geographic features, the beauty of the Windwards was overwhelming.

Settled by the Arawak Indians more than 1,000 years ago, this second-largest island in the Windward chain is believed to have been named by Juan de la Casa, Christopher Columbus's navigator. The captain himself never set foot on the island.

Avocado in shape, St. Lucia (pronounced Saint LOO-sha) was settled by the English in 1605. The French arrived 50 years later. The island changed hands 14 times, with the British and French in control seven times each.

The island achieved its independence from Britain in 1979. However, the French influence is still evident in the patois (French-based Creole) spoken, the island cuisine, the names given to the cities and villages and geographic features, holidays and cultural events, and the dominance of the Roman Catholic church. Eighty percent of St. Lucians are Roman Catholic.

The British stamp, however, remains on legal and professional elements. English is the official language. The structure of the schools and the island's government have their roots in Britain. St. Lucians drive on the left.

We stayed on Choc Bay at the Halcyon St. Lucia, the former Halcyon Beach Club, which is just a five-minute ride from Vigie Airport. The hotel seems to be a favorite with Europeans, who, like us, enjoyed its all-inclusive amenities, attractive grounds, and laid-back elegence. Stella, an interior designer, commented on the unique blend of tropical decor and continental flair. A Sandals resort, the hotel offered exchange privileges with the 155-acre Sandals St. Lucia, known by many as the former Cunard La Toc Hotel.

The island, of course, is grand for swimming and sunning. But we wanted to explore, too. A land-and-sea excursion covering the western side of the island from the city of Castries to St. Lucia's drive-in volcano turned out to be one of the most memorable days we've had in our more than 30 years of travel in the Caribbean.

After leaving the hotel, we drove into Castries, St. Lucia's largest city. We stopped briefly at the market built by the British in 1894. A vendors' arcade was situated across the street. One thousand and one shirts with colorful designs pinned on long lines waved in the tropical wind and beckoned us. Craftspeople displayed a wide assortment of island-made pottery, wood carvings, and other local artifacts. A stunning piece of sculpture in mahogany by a talented carver named Michael Nuptiac made the trip around the island with us and then home to New England.

A few moments later, we stopped at the Immaculate Conception Church. It had many beautiful frescoes and stood adjacent to several other colonial-style buildings, reflecting a strong French architectural influence.

We admired a 400-year-old Saman tree as we drove through Derek Walcott Square, named for the Nobel laureate, a St. Lucian, who is a professor of literature at Boston University. As we left Castries and headed south into Rouseau Valley, we encountered a sea of banana trees. St. Lucia provides most of the bananas to the European Community and is home to the Banana Research Center. Bananas were not the only crop we encountered. St. Lucia boasts over 100 named types of mangoes as well as 100 more varieties that are unnamed. Pineapples, oranges, grapefruit, papayas -- you name a fruit or vegetable and chances are it grows in abundance on this lush tropical island.

We drove through the colorful fishing villages of Anse La Raye and Canaries. We passed majestic cedar trees in bloom, stately teak trees, cashew nut trees, and mahogany trees as we approached the rain forest. Our tour guide pointed out the national flower: hibiscus; national plant: bamboo; and national tree: calbash. She called our attention to the colorful wild orchids and several specimens of the 150 varieties of ferns. We stopped to peek at the fou-fou, one of three types of humming birds on the island, and the stunning St. Lucia parrot. We didn't see but were told about the boa constrictors in one of the large plantations we drove by. The farmers consider boa constrictors as friends since they help control the rodent population. We caught a glimpse of iguanas and opossums. This 238-square-mile island is indeed a nature lover's paradise.

We were awed by the majestic twin peaks of the 3,000-foot-high Pitons that seemed to be rising out of the sea as we approached the village of Soufriere. We then visited what St. Lucians refer to as the world's only drive-through volcano. It is connected under the sea to the other volcanoes in the eastern Caribbean, including the active crater that has caused the evacuation of many residents on the island of Montserrat. We didn't actually drive through this volcano. We drove to an observation point a hundred yards above its edge and saw firsthand the hydrogen sulfide steam and other gases rising from its craters.

The drive from the crater's observation point included a stop at the botanical gardens with their specimens of every tropical plant and fruit tree grown on St. Lucia. The adjacent mineral baths whose healing essence is drawn from the volcano and the dramatic nearby waterfall colorfully combine geography and geology.

Our return to Castries was at sea on the catamaran Carnival, under full sail. Two experiences aboard this cat were of special note. The first occurred at the Marine National Park just north of Grand Caille Point and the Anse Chastanet resort. We stopped there to snorkel off one of the reefs. We swam over elk horn, ribbon, pillar, and brain coral. We spotted morays that were as beautiful and yet repulsive as the snakes they resemble and many long-spined sea urchins. The jackknife drum fish elongated their front dorsal fins as they swam between us. A school of sergeant majors with their five vertical stripes saluted us as we swam among yellow goatfish and red fin needlefish.

As we approached the northwest point of the island, the coastal view from the catamaran looked familiar. It should have, since it was the setting of the Rex Harrison motion picture ``Dr. Doolittle.'' We sailed into Marigot Bay, a bay within a bay. Marigot Bay is a safe haven for yachts from around the world, especially in times of tropical storms and hurricanes. It reminded us of Nelson's Dockyard in Antigua.

Back at our hotel late that afternoon, we sipped tea as we awaited a colorful sunset and wrestled with the only decision we had to make that day, at which of the Sandals Halcyon St. Lucia's three restaurants to dine at that evening. The Pier, with its tropical flavors of the islands; al fresco Bayside, with its continental menu and Carribbean flair; or the elegant Mario's, with Italian specialties. Wherever we ate, we were never disappointed although the Bayside tended to become a favorite.

We also found the breakfasts and luncheons to be exceptional. This was a direct result of the large array of local and traditional dishes form which we could choose and the fresh and delicious fruits and vegetables. The fresh-fruit bar was especially popular each morning.There was something special about the fruits and vegetables, the dorado, snapper, or kingfish: Each had been picked the day before or caught that morning off the coast of St. Lucia.

St. Lucia and the Halcyon St. Lucia resort offered all-inclusive activities from tennis and golf to water sports and deep-sea diving. But we also had the choice of taking time to sip a second cup of coffee from beans grown on the island or a bottle of Heineken bottled right in St. Lucia. We could relax on our favorite chaise under a palm-thatch hut on the beach, catching some rays as we read about what ``Small Vices'' Boston author Robert Parker had found for his fictional detective Spenser. We could gaze at the island of Martinique less than 30 miles to our north. Or we could catch some Zs after an invigorating swim or lazy walk along the sandy beach.