honk if you love st. lucia

last weekend my blogmate and i rented a little jeep and drove up the western st. lucia coast. we had a number of tasks: drop off boss at fancy hotel, check out suspiciously cheap rental condo, acquire snorkeling gear... to our loyal readership back home this might not seem like an ambitious list for a saturday afternoon, but by the end of the day we were darned proud of ourselves. we were also mighty tired and each of us had one bright red arm, having let them dangle out of the car with reckless abandon.
there are many obstacles to driving in st. lucia, especially if you insist on cheap, under-the-table car rental. once behind the wheel of the car that came with no papers to speak of, a car that clearly belonged to someone, it finally dawned on me that i was sitting behind the wheel on what i consider to be the passenger side, and that i'd volunteered to drive up the narrow, windy, mountainy road without even considering how scary it might be. i was fortunate not to notice the horrible squeling sounds the little jeep was making in protest of being forced up the hills. also lucky for me, my blogmate was a good cheerleader (and map reader), and before i knew it i was cruising down the "highway," blasting terrible calypso music, and giving the little car horn toot required to alert oncoming traffic that might tearing around the bend.
in doing this, we became aware of the many things that can be said via honking. the various honks have subtle, nearly imperceptible differences, but the meaning varies widely.
there's my honk, the "please slow down as you make your sharp turn so that i you don't run me off the road.
the encouragement honk from the guy behind me that says, "come-on girl, you can do it, i know you can pass the bus in front of you that's going 8km an hour!"
there's, "hey you big stupid cow (or pig or horse), get out of the road!"
as a pedestrian i've learned a few more...
"hey nice girl."
"hey sexy mama!"
"'sup?"
the list goes on.

the official language of st. lucia may be english, but i still have so much to learn...