We hightail it to Miss Theresa's Bakery in Soufrière, where a long queue snakes down a tiny alleyway and the heavenly smell wafts through the air. I step inside and the heat's unbearable: mother and daughter bakers work away using a very old wood-burning oven. The end result is nothing flash or fancy, just plain white bread — but golden brown with a beautiful crust on it. I break one open and wolf it down — absolutely delicious. There's also sweet bread with coconut and cinnamon, and coconut and mixed spice biscuits, which again are just to die for. These simple local treats are hard to beat.
You can't go to the Caribbean without sampling the amazing fish so the next day I visit the market in Choiseul with Jonathan. It's right on the quay, so as the fishermen arrive the fish are dropped off and quickly sold. It's as fresh as it comes. There are no ice machines yet and Jonathan takes away a large red grouper, barracuda, Mahi Mahi, lobster, albacore tuna, snapper, all to be used over the next three days in the various restaurants at the resort. Mostly the fish is treated simply, just grilled, sometimes with gentle spices — it's the freshness that makes it so great.
We move on to Jah Lamb's, a vegetarian restaurant in Soufrière. It's a quaint place, with plastic tables covered in plastic mats, photos all over the walls and (of course) a TV in pride of place in the middle of the room. The kitchen is open to view and Jah is there cooking away. There are little stickers on the walls saying 'meat's no treat for those you eat' and 'pigs are friends not food'. We munch on Jah's special, a brown flour-based pizza dough with lentil and cheese topping, washed down with iced passion-fruit drink. This is a popular place: there's only space for about 12 to eat and the stream of people coming in and out to pick up their lunch bags seems never-ending.
Of course, there are a few things to do in the Caribbean besides eating. Diving, tennis, jungle biking, waterfall trips, zip wiring, whalewatching... the list is long. A sunset cruise along the rugged coastline is an exceptionally beautiful, relaxing way to end the day, and there's some lovely sightseeing. In Soufrière I check out the French architecture, all wooden porches and shuttered houses of different shapes and colours clustered around the town square (where the guillotine used to be in the days of the French).
