St Lucia - A Special Island With Friendly, If Sometimes Slow, Caribbean Service
The Caribbean islands are as different from one another as siblings in a family are.
St.
Lucia is distinct for its jungle landscape, mountainous terrain, and beautiful inlets along the island's west coast.
The people are good-natured and the food is fantastic.
However, as different as St Lucia is, in some respects it's ...
just ...
like ...
Barbados, my home island.
I refer, of course, to service.
Being a Type A in the land of Type B service isn't easy.
My advice? Roll with it.
Take it in good humor.
To wit: I visited the little store at our hotel this morning to get a snack...
St.
Lucia Shopping I walk in and poke around.
Music's playing, a warm breeze wraps itself around me, and I lose myself in the pretty hand-painted platters and other items.
Oh yes, the snack.
I'm here for a snack.
I spy a freezer.
I make a beeline for it.
I've learned that freezers in little stores in the Caribbean contain riches.
I'm rewarded nicely: Dove Bars.
I take one.
As I approach the counter it dawns on me that I'm alone in the store.
There is no clerk.
The clerk's on a bathroom run, I guess.
No problem.
I flip through coffee-table books on St.
Lucia to kill time.
Wait ...
beneath the beat of the reggae, am I hearing what I think I'm hearing? The unmistakable sound of ...
a snore? The clerk's not on a bathroom break.
He's on a nap.
I find him behind and beneath the front counter.
I lean over the counter and gently, so as not to startle, and say, "Excuse me, sir ..
..
" No movement.
I say it again, quite loudly.
No response.
A nap to envy.
Aha, I spy a receipt pad! I rummage through my purse for a pen.
In large letters I write on the pad, PLEASE CHARGE ONE DOVE BAR TO ROOM 323.
THANK YOU.
I sign my name beneath and I leave.
St.
Lucia Service I wander the sunny gardens of our hotel while polishing off my Dove Bar.
Several hours later, my husband returns from his meetings.
I notice he's eating something ...
He's halfway through ...
a ...
Dove Bar.
"Hey," I ask, "where'd you get that?" "From the little store," he says.
"Funniest thing, though.
" My ears perk up.
"Oh?" "Yeah," he says.
"I went to pay and said to the guy, 'Just bill this to my room, 323.
' "And the guy looks at me, then says, 'No worries, mon, it's on the house.
' "How's that," he says, "for a super-nice St Lucian?" Gotta love St.
Lucia -- indeed, all of the colorful Caribbean.
St.
Lucia is distinct for its jungle landscape, mountainous terrain, and beautiful inlets along the island's west coast.
The people are good-natured and the food is fantastic.
However, as different as St Lucia is, in some respects it's ...
just ...
like ...
Barbados, my home island.
I refer, of course, to service.
Being a Type A in the land of Type B service isn't easy.
My advice? Roll with it.
Take it in good humor.
To wit: I visited the little store at our hotel this morning to get a snack...
St.
Lucia Shopping I walk in and poke around.
Music's playing, a warm breeze wraps itself around me, and I lose myself in the pretty hand-painted platters and other items.
Oh yes, the snack.
I'm here for a snack.
I spy a freezer.
I make a beeline for it.
I've learned that freezers in little stores in the Caribbean contain riches.
I'm rewarded nicely: Dove Bars.
I take one.
As I approach the counter it dawns on me that I'm alone in the store.
There is no clerk.
The clerk's on a bathroom run, I guess.
No problem.
I flip through coffee-table books on St.
Lucia to kill time.
Wait ...
beneath the beat of the reggae, am I hearing what I think I'm hearing? The unmistakable sound of ...
a snore? The clerk's not on a bathroom break.
He's on a nap.
I find him behind and beneath the front counter.
I lean over the counter and gently, so as not to startle, and say, "Excuse me, sir ..
..
" No movement.
I say it again, quite loudly.
No response.
A nap to envy.
Aha, I spy a receipt pad! I rummage through my purse for a pen.
In large letters I write on the pad, PLEASE CHARGE ONE DOVE BAR TO ROOM 323.
THANK YOU.
I sign my name beneath and I leave.
St.
Lucia Service I wander the sunny gardens of our hotel while polishing off my Dove Bar.
Several hours later, my husband returns from his meetings.
I notice he's eating something ...
He's halfway through ...
a ...
Dove Bar.
"Hey," I ask, "where'd you get that?" "From the little store," he says.
"Funniest thing, though.
" My ears perk up.
"Oh?" "Yeah," he says.
"I went to pay and said to the guy, 'Just bill this to my room, 323.
' "And the guy looks at me, then says, 'No worries, mon, it's on the house.
' "How's that," he says, "for a super-nice St Lucian?" Gotta love St.
Lucia -- indeed, all of the colorful Caribbean.
