Adventures of a Vegetarian

For July 4th holiday break we went to Soufriere, St. Lucia, and flew into the airport at teh southern tip of the island. St. Lucia is a beautiful carribean island that is lush and tropical, with rain forest, beaches, and hiking. We stayed for 4 nights at the Fondoux Plantation cottages, which is a real chocolate plantation, near the town of Soufriere. The cottages at the fondeoux are peaceful, secluded, romantic, and have beautiful views of the rain forest all around you from your balcony. If you are looking to get away from it all then this is the place for you.

Veggie Food Options:
Finding vegetarian food in the Sourfriere resort area of St. Lucia was quite difficult. Each hotel usually has a restaurant and typically one veggie (and very boring) option. But we did find two good places. There is the Boucan restaurant at the Hotel Chocolat that is a chocolat themed restaurant and has good veggie choices for mains and appetizers (containing chocolat) and chocolate cocktails and desserts to die for. You even get salt and pepper shakers with chocolat nibs inside. They go all out here.The other option is the Dasheene restaurant at the Ladera resort. Not only does the open air restaurant give you breathtaking views of the petit piton mountain at sunset while you sip your cocktail, but they have a separate vegetarian menu. I had the vegetarian creole soy-meat stew which was excellent.

The meals in this area are very pricey ($20/plate), but that is unavoidable as there are really only hotel-based restaurants available in the Soufriere resort area. But the service and plate presentations in these restaurants are like being at a 5 star restaurant. So you won’t mind the expense.

There is one low cost option in the town of Soufriere, and that is the vegetarian Ja Lambe. We heard about this place from our mountain hiking guide / vegan rasta, but it has illusive hours, so we were not able to find it open. But I have heard this place is awesome from several sources, so try and check it out, and post me if you get to eat there. It is very inexpensive local vegetarian cuisine, and I even saw it featured on the travel channel a few months after we came back. Basically a hole in the wall place that serves up incredible tasty and healthy food. There are also bakeries and small foodmarkets in town that you can buy baked goods and basic food at.

On the way back to the Hewanorra airport, in Vieux Fort we did find another restaurant in the center of town called the “Old Plantation Yard”. Here you can get a vegetarian plate which has delicous cooked yams, rice, beans, and salad. Very inexpensive, cute courtyard and indoor eating areas, and very nice staff run this place in town. It is a little hard to find so make sure you have it on your GPS or smart phone map before you head out (or ask someone on the street, it is pretty popular place).

Things to do in Soufriere: are to visit the collapsed albeit smoldering drive through volcano crater, visit the mud baths fed by the volcanically heated water and smother yourselves in mud, snorkeling, kayaking, and hiking up the gross piton mountain (requires a guide at the entrance to the trail). The best place to snorkel is the Jalousie resort, where you can also rent snorkel gear and kayaks (weather permitting).

We recently came back from Negril, Jamaica. To my delight, there were several excellent vegetarian restaurants b/c of the large population of Rastafarians, who are all vegetarians. The “local” veg cuisine is ackee (sort of like scambled egg but is an african fruit), callaloo (much better than spinach), rice and peas, and several really tasty and unique breads: bun, bami (cassava flour pancake) and festival (sort of like a dense crunchy donut). 

 The vegetarian restaurants I would reccomend are Royal Kitchen (vegan with a set menu food made by Rastas $), The Hungry Lion (fancy restaurant with $$ sophistcated veg menu, reservations are a good idea) , and Jus Natural ($$) – try the kalalu melt, it was yummy. They were all located on the main road, 3 to 5 km south of downtown Negril. You can walk from your hotel or get a cab. The Hungry Lion will actually send a bus to pick you up at your hotel if you call them up.

For good veg options I would reccomend Kuyaba ($$), Irie on the beach (callaloo pasta was really tasty), Selina’s eatery, and Miss Sonia’s ( for patty’s – try the ackee one), these are all north of downtown, also accessible by foot or cab.

 My favorite drink was the dirty banana, which was banana and rum, simple but delicious.

This link has a map with all the restaurants on it:

http://www.talkofthetownnegril.com/2008_Negril_Map.pdf

Hotels:

We stayed at the Beach House Villas, 1 or 2 bedroom suites on the ocean front with full kitchens. It was nice but did not have a pool. I definately reccomend staying at a local hotel rather than at an all inclusive. You will miss out on all the local culture and cuisine if you stay at an all inclusive. An important FYI, hotels south of town have cliff views (no sandy beach). Hotels north of town have sandy beaches for easy swimming. Both are really pretty but just keep in mind if you want to sit on the beach stay to the north of town or make sure to check with your hotel in advance and verify if it has a sandy beach.

Things to do:

Besides relaxing on the beach and drinking dirty bananas, trips to the Royal Palm Reserve and Mayfield Falls (an adventure)  are a must. These are both accessible by Cab or a group tour. Renting a bike would be a great way to get around too, just make sure you get a lock.