Soufriere, Saint Lucia

The Great Pyramids of the Antilles


a sulphurous life
A moment in the street of Soufrière, the neighboring village of Pitons.
Silver sunset
Soufrière resident next to the village's silver waterfront.
in the shadow of god
Passersby in front of the Church of the Assumption, the main church in Soufrière.
hurried step
Girl walks along Frederick St. towards the Soufrière waterfront.
Fishing Public
Onlookers watch a community fishing in the Soufrière cove.
end of day fun
Friends and dog on a jetty, with the Petit Piton in the background.
Le Petit Piton
Bright Petit Piton, seen from the PN Tet Paul trail.
Craft skin and bones
Fisherman helps to collect the nets laid out in the cove in front of Soufrière.
marine operations
Fishermen guide the task of collecting a net laid out in the cove in front of Soufrière.
Soufrière & Pitons
Panoramic view of Soufrière at the foot of the Pitons of Saint Lucia.
Perched above a lush coastline, the twin peaks Pitons are the hallmark of Saint Lucia. They have become so iconic that they have a place in the highest notes of East Caribbean Dollars. Right next door, residents of the former capital Soufrière know how precious their sight is.

It's Sunday morning. McArthur Cornibert, the designated driver, fails to disguise how much this unexpected journey depressed him. We depart from the La Clery district and from the heights of Castries. We cross the current capital of Santa Lucia and conquer the slope that finishes it.

From there, towards the south coast that we had planned to explore, the paved road passes through a succession of valleys and slopes oriented from the center of the island to the Caribbean coast. An hour and a half of this lush roller coaster later, we reach the top of the zigzag route that leads to the Palmiste area.

Mac stops the car by a viewpoint and, even in his monotone of shy and irremediable annoyance, he encourages us: “Take a look over there. It's one of the best views of the Pitons you'll find.” We rescue the photo backpacks.

the first sighting

We dodge the ubiquitous souvenir sellers on the island's tourist route. Moments later, the balcony enraptures us with the first of Saint Lucia's sweeping revelations. Ahead, the prevailing rainforest gave way to multicolored houses that occupied a carving of the valley below.

Soufrière and Pitons, Saint Luci

Panoramic view of Soufrière at the foot of the Pitons of Saint Lucia.

It was delimited by the outline of a wide cove and a densely wooded hillside of which the villagers had claimed only the shore. By itself, the panorama would have everything to dazzle us.

As if that wasn't enough what we've described so far, on the other side of the valley, two huge, sharp boulders insinuated themselves over the ridge above the village.

Welsh settlers became accustomed to simply calling them the Pitons, as they did to several other peaks of their Overseas Empire. Since the village was located on the outskirts of a smoking volcano, they nicknamed it Soufrière. This term, too, is far from unique in the Caribbean.

Randy, a flamboyant and sensationalist tour guide we joined a few days later, made a point of putting the dots in the “is”: “You certainly won't know but I'll inform you: thanks to the French, only two of the seventeen volcanoes of the Caribbean is not called Soufrière. Check it out if you like!"

Les Pitons: the Geological Monument of Saint Lucia

From the colonial ends of Saint Lucia, Soufrière and its Pitons are inseparable. For programmatic reasons, we started by dedicating our attention to the peaks duo, symbolic of the natural exuberance of Santa Lúcia to the point of giving the name and brand image to the national beer “Piton”.

On the first day, we just crossed the city pointing to the Tet Paul Natural Trail, a route outlined at the top of the slope from which the Pitons rise: the Gros Piton (770 m) and the Petit Piton brother (743m), linked by the ridge why we walked, his name Piton Mitan.

The privileged viewpoints of Tet Paul revealed to us, in opposite directions now, the colossi of rock towards the good light and in all its splendor, stained by the vegetation that clings to them.

Petit Piton, Soufriere, Saint Lucia

Bright Petit Piton, seen from the PN Tet Paul trail.

The green blended perfectly with the turquoise emerald surrounding the Caribbean Sea, which is endowed with such preserved and rich flora and fauna that UNESCO declared the entire Ecological Reserve a World Heritage Site.

On the last of the panoramic balconies, the semi-sunken beauty of the Petit Piton forced us to stop walking. We sat down on a wooden bench and gave it a well-deserved contemplation.

At that moment, we thought we were alone. The hum of an approaching drone creates doubt in us. Activates the defense mode of a falcon that, upon feeling its territory invaded, attacks the flying apparatus with its beak.

Larger clouds, darker than the skeins that had hovered until then, steal the glow from the summits. When we noticed the extent of the cloudiness, we decided to withdraw.

The Past Ora Francophone Ora Anglophone de Santa Lucia

We crossed Soufrière again, on the way to the volcano that inspired the city's name, the only volcano drive in This is what the tourist authorities of Saint Lucia promote on the face of the Earth, committed to highlighting the easy access to the muddy, steaming, sulfurous and unusual slopes that, from the XNUMXth century onwards, surprised and delighted successive European visitors.

In the period before the Discoveries, Saint Lucia was inhabited by the Arawaks. Shortly before the advent of European colonization of the West Indies, these found themselves dominated and expelled by the much more aggressive Caribbeans who, in turn, made life miserable for the pioneers of the Old World.

It is estimated that Christopher Columbus sighted the island during his fourth and final expedition, when he sailed to the Caribbean Sea through the north of present-day Barbados and passed to the west of the Lesser Antilles, just south of the island that welcomed us. Columbus ignored her. It ended up landing in Martinique, the island that followed.

Street scene, Soufrière, Saint Lucia

A moment in the street of Soufrière, the neighboring village of Pitons.

It is known that shipwrecked people and – from 1550 onwards – French pirates led by the feared Jambe de Bois (François Leclerc) were the first settled European inhabitants of Saint Lucia, originally baptized as Sante Alousie.

By this time, any attempt at stable colonization was rebuffed by the irascible Caribbeans. In the year 1664, the British governor of nearby Saint Kitts tried to subdue the natives with a force of over a thousand men. Two years later, of these, there were 89 left. The rest succumbed to illnesses and attacks from the natives.

Two more years passed. The French West Indies Company decided to seize the island. He approached it with many more men and resources until the goal was accomplished.

Saint Lucia became a dependency of Martinique. It did not take long to arouse the envy of the British who, like the French, were eager to expand the profitable cultivation of sugar cane.

During the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, depending on the historical tides of each nation, Saint Lucia switched from the French to the British and vice versa. During this period, mainly the French settlers, established a series of large agricultural properties worked by slaves brought from Africa.

In 1774, the Gallic authorities hacked the island into seven administrative strongholds. Soufrière, one of them, developed according to the French-speaking standards of the time, with a rectangular layout of streets and neighborhoods, organized around the main church (of the few stone buildings) which had the homes of wealthier settlers and influential, yet, erected in wood.

Church of the Assumption, Soufrière, Saint Lucia

Passersby in front of the Church of the Assumption, the main church in Soufrière.

Since then, in visual terms, what has changed in Soufrière has been the gradual expansion of the village that became the island's capital and the shores of the bay that welcomed it.

The French stronghold of Soufrière

On the way back from Tet Paul, we stopped at yet another high observation point. From this other viewpoint, we can see, from a perspective opposite to that of the first day, the prolific houses of Soufrière, spread beyond a leafy section of coconut trees, in the central section of the valley and the inlet.

Even if cruises that ply the Caribbean, overflowing with vacationers, dock in the current capital of Saint Lucia, Castries, it is the Pitons and Soufrière that informed passengers want.

In Soufrière, at the same time, residents are yearning for the consumerist and excited heaps that fill their pockets with dollars. They sell crafts and trinkets Made in China. Too often, too dogged, they impose guide services for which they are unprepared.

Further north on Anse le Couchin beach, certain natives already referenced wait for the snorkelers coming from the catamaran tours in kayaks and lead the unsuspecting to the beach areas with the best reefs. Before they return to the boats, they present the account to them.

An animator of the catamaran on which we sailed from Rodney Bay to Soufrière assured us that he has seen elderly passengers forced to pay 50 or even 100 dollars.

Tired of putting up with them whenever she goes to the old capital, Maria, our Dutch hostess (married to a Martiniqueño) from Castries describes these opportunistic natives unceremoniously: “People are what they are!”.

When cruises are lacking, Soufrière lives the life he would otherwise have. It is in one of those relative peaces that we dedicate ourselves to the great city in the south.

Girl at Frederick St, Soufrière, Saint Lucia

Girl walks along Frederick St. towards the Soufrière waterfront.

Upon detecting our cameras, one or two “entrepreneurs” already too formatted for hunting gringos, cannot resist offering us their services. As if to emulate the island's fascinating bilingualism, one does it in French. The other in English.

Even today, Soufrière and the south of Saint Lucia express themselves in a closed French-speaking Creole. This, despite Saint Lucia having been a British colony from the end of the Napoleonic Wars until the emancipation of the United Kingdom in 1967, and being part of the Commonwealth.

It goes without saying that, as soon as they became the owners of the island, one of the first measures of the British was to move the capital from the French-speaking Soufrière to Castries, which would become an Anglista of no return.

A Fishing Late Afternoon

We left the main square and the Church of the Assumption to passersby, relieved by the late afternoon of work and in a good mood to match.

Silver case-Soufrière-Saint Lucia

Soufrière resident next to the village's silver waterfront.

As we descend Frederick Clarke St. towards the port, we come across the inevitable Rastafarian guests of the city, used to milling around the bars and businesses of this artery of the town and its airy seafront. In this golden closing of the afternoon, a communal task recruits dozens of hands and draws inquisitive souls to the cove's walled threshold.

Much due to the cruises being Castries and Soufrière's account, having stayed only with traditional fishing boats, small boats, sailboats and the like, fish abound in the sea in front of Maurice Mason St. and the seafront in general.

Net fishing, Soufrière, Saint Lucia

Fishermen guide the task of collecting a net laid out in the cove in front of Soufrière.

A mere twenty-five meters offshore, two fishermen with fins and diving masks guided a complex net fishing maneuver. They instructed an entourage of pullers ashore to retract the huge net in order to preserve the fenced school.

Initially, the work progressed according to plan. Two or three mishaps were enough to trigger the fury of the brains of the operation and multidirectional discussions that, in that wavy Creole, sounded to us the music, the themes sung between the dance hall and boyoun punch.

Net fishing II, Soufrière, Saint Lucia

Fisherman helps to collect the nets laid out in the cove in front of Soufrière.

Finally, the net is collapsed. With the horizon almost capturing the sun, fishermen and spectators are left to the intricate distribution of the fish.

Satisfied with what we were taking from Soufrière, we decided to share the last attention with the Pitons.

Fishing public, Soufrière, Saint Lucia

Onlookers watch a community fishing in the Soufrière cove.

The Delightful Vision of Petit Piton Twilight

We got in the car. We cross the village towards the edge of its bay. Then, we proceed to the sand and to the nook where the black sand gives way to the tropical forest hanging on the slope. A group of young women determined to improve their shape undergo strenuous exercise.

A few meters away, under the also vegetal shelter of a leafy mango tree, three boys try to save their minds from the hardships of the day, given to their own weed fingers and that unique tropical setting that most of the world only dreams of.

We stop at the surroundings, surrendered to the scent of grass intensified by the Caribbean humidity. We appreciated how the sunset and the twilight made up the smallest of the Pitons.

Petit Piton, Soufriere, Saint Lucia

Friends and dog on a jetty, with the Petit Piton in the background.

Out of nowhere, four teenage friends appear, one with a pit bull on a leash. They walk to the T pier that stood out from the beach and inaugurate a session of acrobatic dives that not even the mascot can get away with.

Soon, the blackness of the night merges with that of the beach. We return to Castries. The Pitons are among the stars of the Caribbean.

Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Virgin Gorda's Divine "Caribbeans"

Discovering the Virgin Islands, we disembark on a tropical and seductive seaside dotted with huge granite boulders. The Baths seem straight out of the Seychelles but they are one of the most exuberant marine scenery in the Caribbean.
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
Samaná PeninsulaLos Haitises National Park Dominican Republic

From the Samaná Peninsula to the Dominican Haitises

In the northeast corner of the Dominican Republic, where Caribbean nature still triumphs, we face an Atlantic much more vigorous than expected in these parts. There we ride on a communal basis to the famous Limón waterfall, cross the bay of Samaná and penetrate the remote and exuberant “land of the mountains” that encloses it.
Maho Beach, Sint Maarten

The Jet-powered Caribbean Beach

At first glance, Princess Juliana International Airport appears to be just another one in the vast Caribbean. Successive landings skimming Maho beach that precedes its runway, jet take-offs that distort the faces of bathers and project them into the sea, make it a special case.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
Skipper of one of the bangkas at Raymen Beach Resort during a break from sailing
Beach
Islands Guimaras  e  Ave Maria, Philippines

Towards Ave Maria Island, in a Philippines full of Grace

Discovering the Western Visayas archipelago, we set aside a day to travel from Iloilo along the northwest coast of Guimaras. The beach tour along one of the Philippines’ countless pristine coastlines ends on the stunning Ave Maria Island.
A campfire lights up and warms the night, next to Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge,
safari
Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, eSwatini

The Fire That Revived eSwatini's Wildlife

By the middle of the last century, overhunting was wiping out much of the kingdom of Swaziland’s wildlife. Ted Reilly, the son of the pioneer settler who owned Mlilwane, took action. In 1961, he created the first protected area of ​​the Big Game Parks he later founded. He also preserved the Swazi term for the small fires that lightning has long caused.
Herd in Manang, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 8th Manang, Nepal

Manang: the Last Acclimatization in Civilization

Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
Bay Watch cabin, Miami beach, beach, Florida, United States,
Architecture & Design
Miami beach, USA

The Beach of All Vanities

Few coasts concentrate, at the same time, so much heat and displays of fame, wealth and glory. Located in the extreme southeast of the USA, Miami Beach is accessible via six bridges that connect it to the rest of Florida. It is meager for the number of souls who desire it.
Boats on ice, Hailuoto Island, Finland.
Aventura
Hailuoto, Finland

A Refuge in the Gulf of Bothnia

During winter, the island of Hailuoto is connected to the rest of Finland by the country's longest ice road. Most of its 986 inhabitants esteem, above all, the distance that the island grants them.
Ceremonies and Festivities
Military

Defenders of Their Homelands

Even in times of peace, we detect military personnel everywhere. On duty, in cities, they fulfill routine missions that require rigor and patience.
Mdina, Malta, Silent City, architecture
Cities
Mdina, Malta

The Silent and Remarkable City of Malta

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Singapore Asian Capital Food, Basmati Bismi
Lunch time
Singapore

The Asian Food Capital

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Sun and coconut trees, São Nicolau, Cape Verde
Culture
São Nicolau, Cape Verde

São Nicolau: Pilgrimage to Terra di Sodade

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combat arbiter, cockfighting, philippines
Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

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Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Traveling
Annapurna Circuit: 9th Manang to Milarepa Cave, Nepal

A Walk between Acclimatization and Pilgrimage

In full Annapurna Circuit, we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). we still need acclimatize to the higher stretches that followed, we inaugurated an equally spiritual journey to a Nepalese cave of Milarepa (4000m), the refuge of a siddha (sage) and Buddhist saint.
Ethnic
Viti levu, Fiji

The Unlikely Sharing of Viti Levu Island

In the heart of the South Pacific, a large community of Indian descendants recruited by former British settlers and the Melanesian indigenous population have long divided the chief island of Fiji.
sunlight photography, sun, lights
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Natural Light (Part 2)

One Sun, So Many Lights

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Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar
History
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
Ruins, Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia
Islands
Discovering Tassie, Part 2 - Hobart to Port Arthur, Australia

An Island Doomed to Crime

The prison complex at Port Arthur has always frightened the British outcasts. 90 years after its closure, a heinous crime committed there forced Tasmania to return to its darkest times.
Era Susi towed by dog, Oulanka, Finland
Winter White
PN Oulanka, Finland

A Slightly Lonesome Wolf

Jukka “Era-Susi” Nordman has created one of the largest packs of sled dogs in the world. He became one of Finland's most iconic characters but remains faithful to his nickname: Wilderness Wolf.
Cove, Big Sur, California, United States
Literature
Big Sur, USA

The Coast of All Refuges

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Hikers on the Ice Lake Trail, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Nature
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Annapurna Circuit – The Painful Acclimatization of the Ice Lake

On the way up to the Ghyaru village, we had a first and unexpected show of how ecstatic the Annapurna Circuit can be tasted. Nine kilometers later, in Braga, due to the need to acclimatize, we climbed from 3.470m from Braga to 4.600m from Lake Kicho Tal. We only felt some expected tiredness and the increase in the wonder of the Annapurna Mountains.
Girl plays with leaves on the shore of the Great Lake at Catherine Palace
Autumn
Saint Petersburg, Russia

Golden Days Before the Storm

Aside from the political and military events precipitated by Russia, from mid-September onwards, autumn takes over the country. In previous years, when visiting Saint Petersburg, we witnessed how the cultural and northern capital was covered in a resplendent yellow-orange. A dazzling light that hardly matches the political and military gloom that had spread in the meantime.
Natural Parks
glaciers

icy blue planet

They form at high latitudes and/or altitudes. In Alaska or New Zealand, Argentina or Chile, rivers of ice are always stunning visions of an Earth as frigid as it is inhospitable.
Crocodiles, Queensland Tropical Australia Wild
UNESCO World Heritage
Cairns to Cape Tribulation, Australia

Tropical Queensland: An Australia Too Wild

Cyclones and floods are just the meteorological expression of Queensland's tropical harshness. When it's not the weather, it's the deadly fauna of the region that keeps its inhabitants on their toes.
now from above ladder, sorcerer of new zealand, Christchurch, new zealand
Characters
Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

Despite his notoriety in the antipodes, Ian Channell, the New Zealand sorcerer, failed to predict or prevent several earthquakes that struck Christchurch. At the age of 88, after 23 years of contract with the city, he made very controversial statements and ended up fired.
Montezuma and Malpais, Costa Rica's best beaches, Catarata
Beaches
Montezuma, Costa Rica

Back to the Tropical Arms of Montezuma

It's been 18 years since we were dazzled by this one of Costa Rica's blessed coastlines. Just two months ago, we found him again. As cozy as we had known it.
Promise?
Religion
Goa, India

To Goa, Quickly and in Strength

A sudden longing for Indo-Portuguese tropical heritage makes us travel in various transports but almost non-stop, from Lisbon to the famous Anjuna beach. Only there, at great cost, were we able to rest.
Serra do Mar train, Paraná, airy view
On Rails
Curitiba a Morretes, Paraná, Brazil

Down Paraná, on Board the Train Serra do Mar

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Police intervention, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel
Society
Jaffa, Israel

Unorthodox protests

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Women with long hair from Huang Luo, Guangxi, China
Daily life
Longsheng, China

Huang Luo: the Chinese Village of the Longest Hairs

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Men dredge sand from the bed of the Sangha River for platform pirogues.
Wildlife
Ducret Expedition 1st:  OuéssoPN Lobeke, Congo Rep.; Cameroon

The Inaugural Ascent of the Sangha River

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Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.