The first of several assignments in St Lucia was “Stonefield Estates” in Soufries. 

This was a group of villas high above the ocean and overlooking The Pitons. Many of the villas had their own pools. The small beach town of Soufries was a short drive away.

As most tourists want to be close to a good beach this was not a popular place to stay. It took a lot of work to re-position the property for the international market but as I look at the property now on the travel sites I am proud of what it has become.

Bay Gardens in Rodney Bay was my second assignment. It was well run by a British couple. It was the layover hotel for an airline and very popular with British tourists. Many young ladies from the surrounding villages in the hills Worked in Housekeeping.
One day a tourist was making a big fuss accusing a maid of stealing a very expensive pair of shoes. I knew the maids would never steal Anything. They valued their jobs and coming from small villages the shame would be too much.

The procedure for handling complaints in the hotel is just to listen, listen until the guest runs out of steam. So I patiently waited with just an occasional ah, hmm. Finally, she asked “what are you going to do about it? I looked down at her feet and said “looks like you take a size 6 or 7." Then I looked At the maid's feet which were easily a 10 or 11 and said "Madam maybe you forgot and left those shoes at home". I turned, took the arm of the maid and we left the room. Never heard another word. Island ladies all have big feet!

The capital of St Lucia is Castries so one day I hitched a ride with one of the power boats  that is used for diving as he was going into Castries to pick up divers .

The cruise ships go into Castries so it's always very busy there. I had a nice day wandering around checking out the market but I had to take the local bus back.

The process is simple the bus waits until it's full and then it leaves and it stops whatever people want to go

.while I was waiting for the bus to fill up I told the driver this old story "what do you get when you play a country and western song backwards" well yes you get your wife back you get your truck back and you get your dog back".  Many years later I returned to Castries got on the bus and guess what,  the driver was proudly telling everybody this old old joke!

I had to laugh.