View From Ladera

Location:
Saint Lucia

hidden tropical retreat

By Nancy Kelly

Ladera Resort, St. Lucia

This, I told my husband, is where you will find me if I turn up missing. Never have I felt so strongly that I had arrived at a place so elegantly aloof, a place where all worldly matters and thoughts immediately left me. Situated at the southwestern end of the island of St. Lucia, Ladera, is a destination complete unto itself as it captures the breathtaking views of the island’s famous pitons, the guardians of the island stationed at the edge of the Caribbean sea.

It was my husband’s idea to visit St. Lucia, and since he’s the photographer, he gets to plan most of our trip itineraries. I get minimal information ahead of time as I want to experience each place without too much in the way of expectations. But I knew it would be a very tropical island. He also told me that St. Lucia is known for its pitons – large cone-shaped mountain tops where only the tip is visible above land. As we approached the island in our twin-engine airplane, he was excited to point them out to me, and I did notice that they were definitely unusual.

But they did not capture me until we got to Ladera and were sitting outside on the restaurant's open-deck balcony at eye level with them. There, in their presence, I could sense an aliveness to them which had something more to it than just the tropical vegetation and wildlife. The air was thick with it, creating a profound quiet, except for the soft sounds of nature. I was entranced and enjoying a ring-side seat as the large blue, gold and red parrots flew nearby, calling out to one another with other birds and monkeys chiming in. But it was ever so soothing and calming, as if I’d found my long-forgotten roots.

We had driven to Ladera not knowing exactly what to expect. Since it was a resort, we were hoping to have lunch, but we had no point of reference to anticipate this totally natural wonderland, the awesome view and terrific cuisine. Every part of the resort’s amenities seemed to be made from, and as if a part of, the jungle, allowing us to be one with it. Our view included the long descending walk-path leading from the resort to the beach, although parts of the path were obscured by the dense jungle growth. The beach was small, nestled between the two pitons, looking entirely protected and private in its sheltered cove at the edge of the huge ocean expanse. We could see a few couples there, catching a few of the sun’s intermittent rays, but mostly seemingly content in their privacy with nature and each other.

Getting there was another adventure we had not anticipated. The roads on St. Lucia are good in the areas linking towns and communities, and we were headed to Ladera on a brand new highway. After driving three-quarters of the distance, we arrived at Soufriere, a small waterfront town situated just north of the pitons, and soon came upon a detour sign. It was raining and so we quickly asked the first person we saw if we would in fact be able to get to our destination via the detour. We were strongly assured this was so, and that the rain had only washed out a small portion of the new road. The old road which we had been detoured onto was a mixture of gravel and clay. It was narrow, barely wide enough for our small blue Suzuki Tracker, clinging vicariously to the side of the mountain which we were climbing ever so slowly to navigate around and through the huge potholes. When we finally arrived at the sign which pointed to the Ladera Resort, the turn-off onto the entrance road was the end of the new highway, which would have made our trip from the detour point about 15 minutes instead of the hour-plus it had taken us. It was a welcome sight, even as it climbed straight up, giving our little Tracker something to think about.

Ladera, which resides high in the mountainous area just south of Soufriere, was the last day trip we had planned as part of our exploration of the island. And it was the highlight. Everything we had seen and experienced on St. Lucia was wonderful. The people are of British and French decent and/or rule and many have settled there from other nearby islands. They are soft spoken, polite and helpful. English is the primary language with a unique accent that speaks of the islands. As we crossed the island and passed through small villages and towns, there were school children everywhere in crisply clean uniforms with their backpacks, looking very much like North American children.

When I go back to Ladera, I definitely will call ahead to get a road report.