Jimmy Haynes has an office on the Soufrière waterfront that he shares with the town tourism bureau. Among his projects, Jimmy not only sits on the Soufrière Regional Development Foundation but owns and runs Gros Piton Tours, based in the village of Fond Gens Libre, at the foot of Gros Piton itself. He is eager to spruce up Soufrière as well as to bring tourism to the surrounding communities. Slim and bookish, he has an earnest, thoughtful manner, which is somewhat belied by his carrying three different cell phones, all of which require fairly frequent consultation. On the day we met, it was pouring. The prince and Camilla were still on their yacht out in the harbor, no doubt hoping along with everyone onshore for a break in the weather. Jimmy raced off to look for umbrellas while I stood with the crowd awaiting the royals. Greeters dressed in official-looking attire (such as band and police uniforms) and I squeezed under the eaves of the buildings lining the harbor. Initially the hope had been that the royal couple would spend the night, but things had just become too tight; they were only going to be able to stay for a quick visit. Jimmy returned and we scooted off to find the car.

Fond Gens Libre, or Base of the Free People, is where Jimmy's father was born and grew up. It is at the end of a long dirt road, across a couple of streams, past an old cacao plantation, around a bend, through mango trees and coffee bushes. As with so many other places I visited in St. Lucia, in the village you could either go up—which in this case meant climbing the strikingly steep Gros Piton (2,619 feet)—or go down, which led to the L'Ivrogne River that runs through a verdant ravine below the village and out to a small sand beach and the sea below. Across the ravine is the Carib village of La Pointe, the home of Jimmy's mother. The Caribs antedated the colonialists and the slaves, having migrated up the Caribbean islands from the Orinoco River basin in South America. This young couple fell in love and married despite their different backgrounds; they moved to London in search of work, where Jimmy was born. The family moved back to the island when Jimmy was ten, and Fond Gens Libre has played a big role in Jimmy's sense of himself ever since.

The interpretive center of Gros Piton Tours is here in Fond Gens Libre, where Jimmy and his cohorts have mounted exhibits about the mountain, the village and its history, and the local plants, rocks, fruits, and animals and their many practical and medicinal uses. The guides, who all live in the village, lead hikers not only up the piton but along other trails in the mountains and rain forests. Next door, they have all cleared and constructed a space where concerts can be staged and refreshments served. A half-dozen young guys are building additional Carib structures of wood and thatch. The goal of all of these projects is to encourage a resurgence of interest in traditional crafts that will support the inhabitants culturally and financially.