We go with Shal every time we go to St. Lucia for the good times. Each trip was fun in it's own way, but the first will forever be one of my favorite memories.
It began when we got picked up in the harbor. That's my beloved Polynesia's masts we could see as we climbed up the mountains heading for the interior.
OK, so we had a small mechanical problem.
NO WORRIES! No snivelers here! Truth be told, we considered ourselves fortunate for this opportunity to see the REAL
St. Lucia. Shal took us home for repairs. He was appologetic about the delay, but the Ice chest never ran low so we were fine. In fact, we had a GREAT time hanging with the locals. It was fascinating talking with the people from the interior of the island.
The youngest were VERY curious about the strangers on their mountain. They spoke only Patois so we didn't know why they were so tentative to begin with, but we soon got the idea. They have no TV up there so they giddily wanted to touch our unusual skin and hair.
The Wood Brothers
pit crew did their magic, and we all had a rum punch for their help.
Shal, is the one in the bright blue shirt.
Later, we ran across a truck that was stuck in the mud out in the wilderness
and helped dig them out. Upon Success, of course we had Rum punches all around.
Note the difference between the Foo-Foo's in their cute little rain slickers paying for samples, and the people who are REALLY having fun. After catching up a couple times blasting Reggae and dancing off the back of the jeep, several of them said they were DEFINITELY on the wrong truck. Riding with Shal was very cool because he knew everyone and everyone knew him. We didn't have to pay extra for ANY of the places we stopped.
On another trip, this is Shal and I near Soufriere where we had lunch with the Pitons in the background.
Above is a local bakery that had a great variety of freshmade bread.
Check out the way they cook it. There is a fire under the huge pan, where they Pan-fry it. Mmmmmm Mmmmmm....
good!
We stopped occasionally to visit with Shal's many friends and sometimes to drop off food and supplies to the old ones who could not get to town.
OK, or to drop off a cellphone for contact later
Here is the Volcano's Caldera. 
About 5 miles down the mountain at the end of a poor dirt road, the boiling water had cooled enough to make a local natural hot tub.
He also stopped at a park with a waterfall where the water was quite cool.
But Shal was right in the middle of it warming us up with a gallon of Rum Punch.
WHAT? Never seen a man picking up the laundry?.
Sunset over Castries harbor
Detailed Maps of St. Lucia
