I was met by Dr Ulrike Krauss at St Lucia's Hewanorra International Airport after an uneventful flight from London. The drive from the airport to the guest house, my home for the next nine weeks took us virtually the length of the island. It was immediately evident that St Lucia was lacking in flat land but definitely not in rain. In fact the island receives between 1500 and 3000 mm of rain per year depending on relief, not the 30,000 mm I saw stated on a sign in the rain forest. St Lucia is a tropical island paradise with rain forest covering the mountainous interior and agriculture covering the more accessible tracts of land.
Bananas are the major agriculture product and are produced mainly on small holdings.
On the first full day on the island I spent reading up on banana crown rot disease, the most important of the post-harvest diseases. The following day I got to see the research station I had heard much about. This is the second laboratory Dr Krauss has had since coming to St Lucia three years ago. Her present lab lacks an adequate electricity supply, which is a little frustrating as the lab is fitted with an air conditioning unit but the current is insufficient to run it. Consequently all sterile work was done first thing in the morning, before the fan was turned on and started to distribute spores and dust.