Day 11 Panama & Carribean Cruise

Day 11 St. Kitts

I went up on to the top deck at about 7:20AM this morning to get some shots of the island of St. Kitts and it’s nearby smaller sister island Nevis (together they form the country of St. Kitts and Nevis). The views were spectacular, as both islands are basically the tops of volcanoes – there was a nice rainbow of St. Kitts.

At ~7:45AM, the QM2 docked at the cruise pier of Port Zante in the St. Kitts capitol of Basseterre (pronounced bass tare). As usual we met up with our fellow travelers Kat and Mike for breakfast before heading off the ship.

The cruise pier is quite narrow and leads right into the terminal which was filled with the usual tourist shops. Following our by now well established routine, we headed straight for the information booth and discovered that there were ample taxis available for hire and that a trip all the way around the island would take about 3 ½ hours. We followed he signs to the taxi area and met up with the sales guy; after a bit of haggling (successful this time) we settled on $25 / head for a full island tour with stops at some spots we had previously picked out. Amazingly the same older couple who had rode with us on the Grenada tour turned up as we were making the deal, and agreed to join us.

Once again we found ourselves in a 7 passenger late model car – quite nice; our driver’s name was Randy. The center of Basseterre is only a few minutes ride from the terminal and we soon found ourselves in a small town square, complete with small clock tower – all the while Randy rattling off statistics and information about the island’s history.

St. Kitts is another former British colony and has only been independent for 26 years. Like many of the other islands, there is a very strong British influence; street names, driving on the left, parliamentary system etc. After only about 10 minutes we are all thinking this is a really nice island and that the tour was promising to be a good one. Our driver turned out to be very smart and knowledgeable – there was nothing he did not know, amazing.

We headed out of town and the north up the west side (Caribbean) side of the island. It’s obvious the government is trying to influence the population; we saw signs like “St. Kitts and Nevis – it’s Working!” and “Disasters can happened at any time – let’s be ready!” There were also a lot of roadside signs warning about HIV / Aids and advising people to get tested. There is also strong evidence of quite heavy investment; the island is not yet very well developed as a tourist destination – we saw many signs for construction projects and quite a bit of construction.

The island is very beautiful; the interior rises up in one big peak about 4000 ft high and Randy explained that the basic shape is like a chicken drumstick (the big peak being on the meaty part). All of the towns and hamlets are around the outside of the meaty part and down the bony leg bit. The island ceased sugar cane production in 2005 to focus heavily on tourism as the major industry. However the island is still heavily covered by sugar cane that is just left to grow naturally in order to stabilize the topsoil. Where the sugar came comes down to the roadside it has been cut back about 10 feet and flowering shrubs have been planted – there are flowers everywhere.

We stopped briefly and Randy pointed out a nearby Acacia tree with what look like large white flowers. On closer inspection the “flowers” turned out to be small egrets; the islanders call these their “flying flowers” – Randy even knew the Latin name for the egrets (a taxi driver that can quote bird names in Latin!). A little further north we massed the main fort on the island which was high up on top of a hill, we had previously agreed not to stop here – as it looked (from the brochure) like little more than a big wall around the top of a hill (I may be doing the fort a serious injustice here).

Turning off the main road heading for our first major stop, Randy pulled over at an apparently unassuming spot in the road. We asked if we could see monkeys on the tour, and had been assured that we would. I guess we should have made it clear that we wanted to see real monkeys in the wild – this is not what we got. A young girl sauntered over to the car, and as I got out I saw that she was hold a very young green vervet monkey on a leash – her first words were “welcome, I’m just trying to do a bit of business here”. This was code for “you want a picture, you pay the price!” It was all a bit pitiful really, the girl obviously needed the money, but the 3 month old monkey (complete with diaper, so as to not get the tourists messed up) was so sad. Before I knew it, the monkey was handed to me and Sandra was clicking away; all for a couple of bucks.

In this same area was a small garden that we were encouraged to enter; there being several of the usual trinket stalls just inside. I bypassed the stalls and headed for some very large rock outcrops at the back of the garden. Lying prone on one of the rocks was a local island gent holding a leash attached to a fully grown green vervet monkey, again wearing a diaper. The monkey may have been the sole source of income for the guy, but I did not attempt a photo, and he did not ask for money – which was just fine with me. The other large rock outcrop was adorned with a couple of petroglyphs; ancient figures carved into the stone by the island’s original inhabitants. The carvings had been enhanced with white paint to make then clear, I found this a bit disappointing – but it did make them clear. The signs apparently depicted the fertility gods, as evidenced by one being skinny and the other being fat – a sort of ancient before and after pregnancy logo.

Heading further up the same road and into the interior of the island we reached our first real stop; Romney Manor, a former plantation house – now ruined and turned into a Batik fabric manufacturing facility, with beautiful gardens. Randy informed us that Samuel Jefferson, the great-grandfather of the third US president had once live on the plantation. Sandra and I had seen Batik fabric production before, on trip to Malaysia, and so we bypassed this bit and just focused on the grounds and gardens. The gardens at Romney Manor are spectacular; at this point on the island it is practically a rain forest and so things grow exceptionally well.

Randy turned out to be quite the plant and flower expert, naming everything in sight and even at one point helping out a buddy driver by giving a quick lecture to his tour group. One highlight was Randy’s description of a large banyan tree, including a demonstration of how to swing like Tarzan on a dangling frond – of course I had to try, so did Sandra! The heat and humidity were quite high, so we were glad to be back in the air conditioned car and on our way after a very pleasant stop.

Continuing north along the west coast we passed through several small towns and at last reached the northern most point of the island, about 14 miles from Basseterre. Here the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Oceans meet; and we could see the waves from one side running into the waves from the other – it was very strange.

Starting our return south down the east side of the island, we drove off the main road down to an area called Black Rock where volcanic lava flows had reached the water (many years ago). The locals had, as usual, erected make-shift sales stalls; one enterprising lady was operating the Black Rock Pub – an improvised wooden hut about 8 ft across with a cut out window for a bar. Being a bit on the parched side, we headed straight for the bar and ordered Carib beers (Sandra had a water) and proceeded to swing our drinks while we checked out the spectacular views.

The eastern side of the island is less populated but still very beautiful. We soon started to see some really large modern houses set into the hills; Randy explained that this was part of a recent wave of investment. Having successfully circumnavigated the meaty part of the drumstick we headed south down the skinny bone bit. At his point we saw some very large resorts under construction and one even completed (Marriott). The road reached a high point where we could look north at the Marriott resort and south across narrow peninsula that is at the end of St. Kitts – this view was brilliant, again you can see both the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean separated by a tiny strip. Further along we could see that the peninsula had a few small peaks. Randy told us that Robert Redford and a group of investors were build about a dozen luxury villas on top of one of the peak – with views of both the ocean and the sea, for about $2.5M each.

We finally headed back to the port where we did a bit of trinket shopping before returning to the ship; the tour had been almost 4 hours, and well worth it.

While we out touring, the Norwegian Dawn had dock right opposite the QM2 – this was the same ship we had seen the day before in Barbados. Seeing the two ships side by side really brought into contrast how much bigger and impressive the QM2 is compared to other standard cruise ships.

Unfortunately I appear to be coming down with a cold – I hope it’s not going to be too bad.

The evening was fairly uneventful – penguin suit, watched the sail away, dinner (it was turkey (this being Thanksgiving), show, dancing, blogging and bed – goodnight!