CaribEthnoExp. VII. Saint LuciaMapMarch 14 ... April 5, 2014 What a striking contrast between the country’s name and its contents.  On the one hand, there’s a lot of British heritage here. The pillar boxes.  The bus stop signs.  The striped traffic light poles.  On the other hand, it’s a total disaster. CastriesMapA city of little interest.  None, in fact.  There are a few stilt houses, like in São Tomé and Príncipe, but overall it’s nothing to write home about.  Payphones.  A directional sign with traffic lights.  The city has many types of trash cans. One is a shiny bucket in a metal cage.  Another is a green one like the ones in Dominica.  A third is a simple blue plastic barrel.  There’s also a model with a flip-top lid, which is always kept open to show that it flips open.  A license plate.  The entire city is basically a 3×3 block area for tourists from the cruise ships. As soon as you reach its perimeter, a police car rolls up to you and strongly recommends that you don’t go any further. Because there’s some bad shit further ahead.  You keep walking. And old man comes up to you and says you shouldn’t go that way—shit’s bad.  The woman in red told us there’s some bad shit this way.  The woman with the bananas confirmed this.  Then some man gestured towards the bad shit and, speaking in Spanish, said, “Muchos bandoleros.” 
Later on, I asked a taxi driver what would have happened if we’d gone where everyone was saying shit was bad.  So we decided not to risk it and stayed inside the tourist perimeter. Where everyone is hammered in the middle of the day.  Where there are prostitutes on the street in broad daylight.  A street market.  Passers by.  Road surface markings and inscriptions are painted by hand.  No smoking or spitting in the market.  License stickers on windshields.  Speaking of stickers, this is where the expedition bid farewell to Aerousique and removed all the stickers from the plane.  Catamaranousique awaits.  We say goodbye to paradise.  And sail away forever.  |
