We woke up to the sound of rain. Fast rhythm of dripping in the metal drainage pipe outside our balcony, coupled with the loud wave crashing to shore and the shrill songs of the blackbirds, was our perfect tropical wake up call. I walked out onto the balcony and took my first look in the daylight. By a streak of good luck, our room looks over the back garden of the hotel and is very peaceful and quiet. On this rainy morning, the mountains to the south were blurred by a grey mist and the whitecaps in the Atlantic were very pronounced. I sat down on the comfortable wicker chair and greedily inhaled the moist air - a blessing this Canadian doesn't take for granted.
A nice shower washed away any sleepiness and got me ready for the day. We wanted to experience a nicer dining environment and decided to try Toscanini's - the upscale Italian restaurant that serves breakfast and dinner. At night this restaurant requires reservation and formal attire - for men, that is. Amusingly, formal attire for ladies is a much more relaxed term: almost anything goes, except jeans. Men are not so lucky. They need to wear dress pants, dress shirts and closed-toed shoes. However, I think men's dress code reflects the necessary comfort - Toscanini's is heavily air-conditioned and on the previous night when we went to check it out, it felt like a meat fridge! I was prepared, wrapped in my warm pashmina shawl.
The restaurant looked charming with its dark wooden floor and large casement windows. It looked more British than Italian to me. The windows were dripping with condensation on the outside from the drastic temperature difference. We were greeted by very friendly staff who bent over backwards to accommodate all our whims. Kenny had smoked salmon Benedict which he raved about. I had two eggs with sausages and there was also a nice buffet with all sorts of fruits, cereal, fresh bake goods and juices.
Our waitress Julita is a cheerful St. Lucian who liked to chat. We found out from her the extensive damage Hurricane Tomas did to the island. It hit on October 31. It brought torrential rain which caused mudslides and eroded many roads. Hundreds of people lost their homes and some are still living in tents today. One family was killed when the mudslide washed out their the foundation of their house. On our way to the hotel, we saw the aftermath of the mudslide - naked earth on the side of the mountains.
After breakfast, we went out and explored the resort a bit. There is a piano bar right outside Toscanini's and Kenny was drawn to it immediately. Surprisingly the piano is too much out of tune. Kenny started to serenade me with the piece he played when we first met, Comme Premier Jour. I guess he was trying to kindle the Sandal's spirit - romanticism. And it worked quite well. I felt like we were dating again.
Kenny serenading in the Piano Bar
The Grande is a moderate-sized place with elegant decor. Even though the hotel was built in 2002, it is already seeing wear and tear, which testifies to both the popularity of this resort and the incredible corrosion of ocean air. It is located in a jutted-out point called Gros Islet. The front of the hotel faces a stretch of calm beach dotted by sailboats in the distance. The water is the usual turquoise blue, crystal clear - a signature of the Caribbeans.
At 11 am, we joined the orientation session provided by the concierge, where Lew showed a group of us around the resort. But for us, who have done an enormous amount of research over the Internet, grilled Lew the day before and explored earlier in the morning, the orientation was merely a review of information we already had. We lounged around a bit and ran into the Vancouver couple who took the helicopter with us, Mike and Shannon, both of whom work for the RCMP. They looked relaxed in their summer clothes, drinking Pitons at the bar. We had a good chat. They were not as happy with their room as they went for the basic room. But they had been promised a new room on Tuesday - as soon as other guests check out.
We took the shuttle to the Sandals Regency to drop off our golf clubs. The helicopter ride took us over the golf course on the way in and it looked hilly and well-manicured. We were eager to get a game in since we have not touched our clubs after September. There are 3 Sandals resorts on the island and the shuttle transports guests among them regularly throughout the day. The Halcyon resort is 20 minutes and the Regency is 40 minutes away.
The ride to the other resorts took us through St Lucia's capital, Castries. We became more silent as the ride went on. It is plain to see that many local people are not affluent. Shanty houses lined the roads, some so run down it is questionable if they are inhabitable at all! Their roofs covered with patches of corrugated pieces of asphalt felts and showed big gaps in between. The walls are made up of the same material and there are no proper doors or windows. Of course, there are well-built houses, too. But the route we traveled revealed more poverty than wealth.
Since the country is hilly, lots of houses are perched on long stilts sunk into the side of the mountains. It was truly amazing how they could withstand the hurricane and the mudslide. The fact that St Lucia is a developing country is apparent from the sights along the road. There are only a few modern buildings and all of them commercial. I am not sure where the wealthy islanders live. There is a surprising number of BMWs on the road though.
We first passed the Halcyon. It is a smaller resort with the feel of a boutique hotel. I noticed guests from the Halcyon are older. The Regency is the largest Sandals on the island. It is very modern, posh and spacious. Everything at the Regency is large, from the grounds, to the restaurants, even to the beach. The golf course is more a complimentary feature than a center piece at the Regency. There are only 9 holes and the pro shop is very small with a bright red roof.
We dropped off the clubs and took the next shuttle back to the Grande. As we approached the Grande, a torrential downpour hit the Northern tip and the island was immediately enshrouded in a cloak of greyness. We managed to get to Barefoot by the Sea without getting wet and picked a table by the ocean. Soon winds started to pick up and rain came down hard and was blown sideways into the covered restaurant. We kept moving further and further into the restaurant to avoid getting drenched. The sea and sky blurred into each other and world is filled with the rain song. We sat back with a cool Pitons beer and watched the rain coming down. The jerk chicken at Barefoot by the Sea was very spicy and wonderfully tasty, arguably the best jerk chicken I've ever had. To cool our taste buds, we decided to experience the much talked-about Josephine's, where specialty desserts can be found. The rain has chased away all the people on the beach and around the pool. Our kind waitress Claire offered to escort us to Josephine's with a large umbrella. It was not a long walk but we still got wet.
Josephine's has two sections. one indoors and one on a terrace outside. The room inside had AC cranked to the maximum and I didn't even want to spend one second browsing desserts. I quickly chose my dessert - a citrus vanilla cake. Kenny, being his usual dessert-loving self, chose the coconut tiramisu as well as the apple banana crepe. When we got our take-out order and ready to return to our room, the terrace outside was completely flooded. I had a pair of sandals but Kenny's leather deck shoes weren't so lucky. By the time we got back, we were soaked from head to toe!
Tropical rains are always sudden and strong, like its heat, its people and its spices. We sat back on our balcony, sipping cappuccino and savouring our desserts and marvelling at the huge sheets of white water hanging between heaven and earth.
That evening we dined at Toscanini's, the chilly Italian restaurant with the dark wooden floor. There was an antipasti buffet with cheese and salads. It was the first time I see Parmesan cheese served in chunks and presented in its original round block. Kenny ordered the fish of the day which was unfortunately over-cooked. I had seafood spaghetti and it was done to perfection! We finished the meal with custard penacotta and tiramisu.
Beautiful desserts @ Toscanini's
The night was still young after dinner so we sauntered into the billiard room. The room has two pool tables and a snooker table. Kenny is quite a pool shark so we took on the snooker. As usual he cleaned my clock! We retired to our room and tried hard to figure out how to set the best ambiance for our sleep. The night before we had left the balcony door open and Kenny was bitten by a mosquito. But if we shut the balcony door it would be too stuffy. There is a ceiling fan but when we put it on setting 1, it generated so much noise and chilled us to death. So the entire night was spent amidst fiddling with the door, the fan, the air conditioning and the returning mosquito. But at least we don't have to worry about dengue - we were told dengue is not a common disease in St. Lucia because there is not many stagnant water spots for the breeding of the dengue mosquitoes. So that night, we braved fed more blood to the same mosquito.
