Soufriere is located in the caldera of a hopefully extinct volcano consequently any walks are going to be uphill so today’s adventure took me up a long mile and a half hill to Morne Coubaril estate where Noelle took me for an informative tour of the estate what really interested me was the simple way sugar cane was milled and how complicated is the process of getting cocoa from the pod to the finished product and then there was the whole coconut/copra story. It was an excellent tour, I tasted herbs, freshly squeezed sugar from the cane, raw cocoa beans and the finished roasted bean as well as coconut water, heart of coconut and the flesh itself, there was no need for lunch after all that.
After the tour I explored the rest of the estate which offers highly priced tours on horseback or by zip line to bus loads of tourists from the cruise ships and the resorts in the north of the island. The zip lines are well laid out and run through the rain forest, the horses are really healthy looking and very amiable when I went and said hello even though I had no carrots.
Because of all the ripoffs of the cruise passengers and tourists from their highly priced resorts the costs of transport, accommodation and dining in the town is really OTT, I was enquiring about taxi fares to the start of a walk I would like to do, the first offer I had was £90.00 for a 6 km return journey so far the cheapest I can get it is £29.00, basic main meals off plastic tablecloths in a restaurant on the harbour are over £40. I had one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten tonight at a local joint for under £7 and the beer was half the price it is in town plus I got to meet Rusty who besides running his own small farm hand carves various rocks, shells etc to make jewellery, between us we put the world to rights over a few beers.
I haven’t made plans for tomorrow yet but I have to get back here by 4pm for the start of the 6 Nations rugby.
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