"St.Lucia" a Saint Lucia Travel Page by steph4867

In recent years, St. Lucia (pronounced LOO-sha) has become one of the most popular destinations in the Caribbean, with some of its finest resorts. The heaviest tourist development is concentrated in the northwest, between the capital, Castries, and the northern end of the island, where there's a string of white-sand beaches.

The rest of St. Lucia remains relatively unspoiled, a checkerboard of green-mantled mountains, valleys, banana plantations, a bubbling volcano, wild orchids, and fishing villages. There's a hint of the South Pacific about the island, as well as a mixed French and British heritage.

A mountainous island of some 240 square miles, St. Lucia has about 120,000 inhabitants. The capital, Castries, is built on the southern shore of a large harbor surrounded by hills.

Native son Derek Walcott was born in Castries. His father was an unpublished poet who died when Walcott was just a year old, and his mother was a former headmistress at the Methodist school on St. Lucia. In 1992, Walcott won the Nobel Prize for literature. He prefers, however, not to tout the charms of St. Lucia, telling the press, "I don't want everyone to go there and overrun the place." Alas, his warning has come too late.