Hans Mathurin pulled off the road and grabbed a leaf from a bush. I wasn't in the mood to smell, much less eat, anything, but I took the leaf and crushed it.
It was a bay leaf, a common ingredient in both St. Lucian Creole cuisine and, of course, many American dishes.
Mr. Mathurin said that trees, mangos, coconuts, sugar apples, and other produce were abundant here. St. Lucia has beautiful beaches, tropical forests, and the twin Piton mountains.
The locals of St. Lucia call it the "sea, sand and sun" tourist because they like to see the scenery from the beach.
The island's culture was unimportant for a long time. An all-inclusive resort might ask local dancers and musicians to perform or invite artisans to sell their crafts or prepare a "Creole Cuisine" night, but the focus was on exposing the guest to a somewhat watered down version of St. Lucian culture instead of inviting visitors to get out and
Local business owners noticed that the trend was getting worse. A new tourism minister is leading the charge to combine the island's environmental wonders and Creole culture in aholistic approach to tourism.
The minister for tourism, investment, creative industries, culture and information thinks that the tourism industry needs to be changed with the people of St. Lucian.
The industry should be owned by more St Lucians. It's not very encouraging that most of our tourism industry is not owned by locals.
Community tourism is the focus of his leadership and showcases the attractions, cuisine, traditional values and heritage of the St. Lucian people. The government will financially support local artisans through loans and grants to open a workshop where guests can see how the basket is made and even learn to make their own, instead of tourists buying a handwoven basket at the market or on the beach.
People are no longer satisfied to travel thousands of miles and pay thousands of dollars to come and stay in a resort with a limited engagement of the outside.
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Creole cooking classes, boisterous street parties, a tour of a cacao plantation, and visits with islanders preserving local traditions can be found on the island of St. Lucia.
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I wanted to have as much of a St. Lucian experience as I possibly could. St. Lucia was never on my list of Caribbean nations. I didn't think it was a good place to go for African American visitors. St. Lucia isn't a good fit for a traveler like me who likes to explore different cultures.
I could not have been right.
During Creole Heritage Month, the melting pot of Arawak, Carib, African, French and Indian culture is on display. Traditional madras-print ensemble and menu featuring the national dish of green figs and saltfish are just a few of the highlights of the city. You are more likely to hear the Kwéyl language, also known as Patwa, if you are in a large and small community. You don't have to go in October. The majority of them are there for the entire year.
I stayed at theFond Doux Eco Resort near the town of Soufrire. The 16-cottage resort is located on a 250-year old cocoa plantation and was acquired in 1980. The estate is located in the center of a forest. You may see the occasional rooster strolling by like he owns the place and tree frog provide a soundtrack each night, but you may want to pack ear plugs.
I found my Chocolate Heritage Tour guides, Clinton Jean and Whitney Haynes, waiting for me when I got to my cottage on the first day. On- and off- property guests can take the tour. Clinton got a ripe Pod and broke it open. Cocoa beans were wrapped in a slimy white substance called mucilage. We plucked out the beans and threw them in the ocean.
The boxes where cocoa beans are covered with banana leaves for two weeks to ferment and then placed into 19th century trays to dry in the sun were looked at. After drying, the beans are placed in an enormous cauldron at the center of the property for the "cocoa-rina" dance, where an estate worker stomps on the beans for 30 minutes to remove blemish. After drying for another two weeks, the beans are handed over to a senior chocolatier who makes delicious chocolate bars.
Liquid chocolate was hand-whipped after grinding the roasted beans and mixing the dark powder with melted cocoa butter. When my upper body strength failed, Ms. Felix immediately took over and poured chocolate into molds and put them in the freezer. I made myself a bar of chocolate.
There was a dinner at the restaurant. The chef is from London and has lived in St. Lucia for 23 years. The chef's home is where he offers intricately presented Caribbean cuisine in a five-course, $65 prix fixe menu with dishes like carrot, pumpkin and green banana soup.
Mr. Satchell wants people to see Caribbean cooking in a different light. Visitors to my restaurant can get a true Caribbean experience. They will leave as friends when they come here because they are not strangers.
I was excited to experience the more populated north after spending time in the rural south. I stopped by a local chocolate shop. The bean-to-bar experience is just outside the fishing village of Canaries. I was prepared for my stay at the Sol Sanctum Wellness Hotel with chocolate chip cookies, truffles and nut clusters, but I didn't know where to start. Marise Skeete, a co-owner of the hotel, has a 1,200- square-foot studio that hosts yoga, meditation, strength training and tai chi classes. The yoga mats and vegetarian breakfast in guest rooms are not included in the group fitness class fee.
The main reason I went north was to visit the Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Centre, which is located in Castries, the capital of St Lucia. Patrick Anthony led a movement to preserve Creole heritage.
Six years after St. Lucian independence from Britain, the movement became non governmental. The official home of the F.R.C. was a beautiful 19th-century building that was used as a research center. They had a large collection of audio, visual and written histories of St. Lucian folk customs, Indigenous cultural practices, artifacts and documentation of the Creole language. The majority of this was destroyed in a fire.
I met the new executive director at the temporary location of the F.R.C., a pale yellow building that used to house Monroe College. The center has a physical space and a cultural collection. She would like to see a stronger connection between St. Lucian culture and the development of the island.
She said that culture cannot be left out of everything. We put culture on a shelf and take it off when we want to. St. Lucians need to know that culture is who we are. Our way of life needs to be celebrated and preserved.
A lot of new initiatives are paving the way for the creation of a community-based tourism plan. Collection de Pépites is an accommodations database of nearly 200 villas, bed-and-breakfasts, boutique hotels and inns with 35 rooms or less, designed to draw travelers away from massive all-inclusive resorts.
There is a trail of traditional bars around the island that offer not only the chance to sip Bounty Rum and Piton Beer, but also to shoot the breeze with St. Lucians. A kabawé is a Creole name for a local rum shop that is often the center of social activity.
If you want to visit multiple kabawés without worrying about your blood alcohol level, you can take guided excursions. The Friday night Gros Islet Street Party where pop-up bars and barbecues fill the streets as St. Lucians serve up grilled fish, lobster and cocktails is well known.
When I booked a Creole cooking class, I experienced St. Lucian kindness. John Mathurin sent his son, Hans, to pick me up so that I could attend a class at his family home. Hans and I went to a home on a mountain overlooking Gros Islet and the sea after introducing me to the bay leaf. They had grown produce in their own yard, so a full kitchen was on the way.
Perpetua Mathurin- Busby is a person. Chef Maxx showed me how to cook fresh red snapper with garlic and salt before roasting it over hot coals, and how to cook chicken with brown sugar. We made a delicious fish soup with the snapper heads and steamed breadfruit and green bananas.
By the time we sat down to eat, Chef Maxx had given me a better idea of what St. Lucian Creole cooking was like.
The experience of being in a kitchen with my aunts and cousins forever solidified a shared moment I will never forget.
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