The first thing visitors to St. Lucia will notice, is how exotically green it is. The 238-square-mile island is dotted by protected parklands that preserve its lush foliage, which serves as home to parrots, wild birds and a range of four-legged critters that would rather avoid human contact.
» Saint Lucia General Information
Capital: Castries
Currency: East Caribbean dollar
GNI per capita: US $5,530 (World Bank, 2008)
Language: English
Main exports: Bananas, clothing, cocoa, vegetables, fruits, coconut oil
St Lucia has produced two Nobel Prize winners, the playwright and poet Derek Walcott (Literature, 1992) and Sir Arthur Lewis (Economics, 1979).
› Public Holidays
New Year's Day; Independence (22 Feb); Good Friday; Easter Monday; May Day; Whit Monday; Corpus Christi (June); Emancipation (Aug); Thanksgiving (Oct); St Lucia Day (13 Dec); Christmas Day; Boxing Day.
› Visas
Visas are not required for citizens of the USA or Commonwealth countries.
» Saint Lucia History
Saint Lucia is an independent island state and one of the Windward Islands. Named for the Roman Catholic Saint Lucy of Syracuse. It was first visited by Europeans in about the year 1500 and first colonized successfully by France who signed a treaty with the native Carib peoples in 1660. Great Britain then took control of the island from 1663-1667 before going to war with France over it fourteen times. The British finally took complete control of the island in 1814. Representative government came about in 1924 and from 1958 to 1962 the island was a member of The Federation of the West Indies. Lastly, on February 22, 1979 Saint Lucia became an independent state of the Commonwealth of Nations.
