It was a bright and sunny day when we arrived in St. Kitts at 10am, and after the past few relatively low key days, we were ready for some fun. As I've mentioned before, St. Kitts is the island where we usually rest, after a big day on Barbados. But that obviously wasn't the case this cruise, and so we were determined to get to a beach.
We left the ship carrying all our beach gear, but headed first to the Captain Jack's store in Port Zante, where the ship docks. They've had reliable wifi on our previous visits, but now they've locked it. Damn. While we were in search of wifi somewhere else (we really needed to check the webcams at home), we were approached about an island tour that would end up at a beach, and also included the transportation from the beach back to the ship. For $20 per person it seemed like a good deal, especially given that the taxi fare per person was at least half that. It was in an open sided safari bus, without air conditioning, but luckily that wasn't an issue today. The bus held 20 people in five rows, and Michael who owns it also owns three others (michaelbigbanana@yahoo.com). Michael is doing okay for himself, it seems. Before we left the Port Zante area, our driver Tristan served rum and Cokes, which were replenished at each stop. G is enjoying one aspect of my alcohol avoidance; he's getting twice as many drinks for himself.
It's had to believe, but in probably close to 20 visits to St. Kitts, we'd never done an island tour. We've been to all the island's beaches (and remember fondly fun days with fellow cruise friends) and once took a commercial ferry from St. Kitts to neighboring island Nevis on our own. We actually have a private tour set up with award winning operator Roosevelt in February, but that tour will focus heavily on Brimstone Hill Fortress, the best preserved fort in the Caribbean that sits high on a hill overlooking the Caribbean Sea. The tour today was quicker and cheaper and a good overview of the island.
We drove through the town of Basseterre (which means low land in French), receiving a well narrated tour along the way. Periodically, Tristan would stop narrating and turn on some island music and, honestly, just the views of the Caribbean Sea and the music while we drove along the coast were worth the price of the tour. Eventually, we made our way up to the base of the mountain with the Brimstone Hill Fortress, but didn't even stop for photos, which was fine with us, given our in depth tour next month. Then we backtracked along the coast road until we reached the turnoff to Romney Manor and Caribelle Batik. Arriving there, we did park and were given 20 minutes to walk the beautifully landscaped grounds. There wasn't enough time to actually tour Caribelle Batik, but that's another place we'll visit in more depth in February.
Several of our fellow passengers on the tour were younger folks from the other ship in port with us, Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas, and this was their first port on their cruise and for some of them their first time outside the US. We could tell they were aghast at the poverty on the northern side of St. Kitts. We passed a public bathhouse and saw water spickets by the side of the road as the houses had no running water. Honestly, G and I are well used to it by now, but it brought back memories of our first visits to the islands when we were the ones who were shocked. St. Kitts and Dominica are the poorest islands we visit, with St. Lucia and Grenada not far behind. But what is amazing on St. Kitts is how different the narrow, southern part of the island is from the north; multimillion dollar houses and condos are being built in development after development. The reason is simple: St. Kitts is one of the prettiest islands in the Caribbean, particularly the southern end with its beaches and expansive views to its sister island of Nevis. Money is coming to St. Kitts- we saw the new private aircraft terminal being built at the International airport- but I don't expect trickle down economics to be much of a success.
Finally, after 2.5 hours of driving, with minor stops and lots of rum, we arrived at South Friars Bay beach and the relatively new restaurant called Carembola. A single man has been buying up property adjacent to the beach and has big plans for development. The restaurant portion and beach rentals are all that are done right now, but the landscaping is beautiful, and the beach furniture rather unique: wicker circular sofa beds and chairs with ottomans, canopy beds with netting for some shade, and, of course, beach umbrellas. The restaurant is most known for its sushi and awful service, but they're making a fortune on drinks so I think there's not much incentive to step up their service.
G and I did not rent an umbrella nor expensive beach bed; we did not buy expensive drinks nor sushi. The reason for this was simple: when we went to get cash from the safe this morning, we were down to $41. Total. We had meant to get cash through a casino advance (which is charged to our shipboard statement) and had totally blanked it out. So we set out our tarp under the lush palm trees off to the side, opened our cooler for beer and water, and dug into the two bags of Fruit Loops G had brought from the ship. Hey, we had fun. The water was protected and fairly clear, the views to Nevis were outstanding and the sand was decent. It wasn't as black as the sand at nearby Frigate Bay beach, but it was dark. It was walkable in the sun, which black sand really isn't.
At 3:30pm, Tristan arrived back to pick us up. The nice thing about St. Kitts is that you don't pay for any part of a tour or taxi service until the return. It pretty much guarantees the driver will show up when and where he says he will, although I've seen some really loud arguments over the years when one driver feels another is trying to pick up "his" passengers, thereby stealing his fare. Somehow they make it work.
We used a bit of wifi from the Del Sol shop when we returned to Port Zante just after 4pm. It was locked but G walked in and asked if they'd share their password, and they wouldn't give it to him but they would enter it on our iPhones themselves. Hey, the end result is the same and only G would be bold enough to try. Finally, after all the photos I had taken and listening to my audiobook while floating at the beach (love it!) and then using the wifi, my battery was down to 10%, and it was time to recharge.
I returned to the ship, leaving G still internetting. There was quite a bit of clean up to do; the beaches semi-dark sand was the sticky sort, and our bags were covered and filled with it. Furthermore, someone (and it could be either one of us- we're really not sure who) put the beach tarp back in the beach bag slightly wet, and it was a bit gamey today. I took it into the shower with me, and washed it with Cheer detergent over and over on both sides, then spent 10 minutes rinsing it. I did the same with the beach bag, filling it with Dial soap and water to wash the cooler part and scrubbing the outside with Cheer. Finding places to dry these, along with our swimsuits and my nylon shorts was a pit tricky, and this cabin is trashed tonight. We'll be lucky to execute any nighttime bathroom trips without breaking our necks. But we're almost at the halfway point of our winter, and it was a good time to get everything feeling and smelling clean again.
Photo 1: remains of one of the 250 sugar came plantations on the island
Photo 2: in the distance, Brimstone Hill Fortress sits on top of the hill
Photo 3: remains of the sugar came plantation at Romney manor, home of Samuel Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's grandfather.
Photo 4: Caribelle Batik
Photo 5: landscaping at Romney Manor