12-10-2010 – St. Kitts
Today was a later start, sounds like a broken record huh?, as the tour on the “St Kitts Railroad” did not leave until 10 AM. I did however get up in time to watch us come into port – There were several birds flying with the ship trying to catch some of the flying fish as we scared them off but I didn’t’ get any pictures of that – wish I had. As normal for me, sleeping more than 6 hours is way too hard as my back is really sore by then and the pills have worn off.
We were up, and had breakfast then back and got ready for the tour ride. We headed up the pier and they took us in groups to the buses waiting for us (6 buses in all for the 10 AM departure). What was good about this trip was the fact of the 12 mile bus ride and tour. Or driver, Eddie, was really good and told us more history and important parts about the island than the train guide did. On St. Kitts there are about 40,000 people but 80,000 monkeys. He guessed that at some point it would become a famous bar-b-que place for monkey? He claimed to have never eaten any and had been offered once and turned it down.
Eddie pointed out this “one of a kind” St Kitts “happy tree”.”]
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They also have a lot of old churches, everywhere. Some date back into the 1600 and 1700. This one lost its’ steeple and bell in an earthquake in the late 1700’s and still stands.
“This Church as stood for well over 200 years and maybe close to 300”]
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One of the churches along the train ride – this one is also about 200 years old.”
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He also said they had conveniently put the largest cemetery next to the largest Hospital in Basseterre. It was called an underground hotel that people check in but never check out and they put big cement covers on the rooms to make sure no one checks out.
We also learned that there is an American built set of schools for medical doctors and veterinarians – “The Ross University”.
Getting good pictures from a moving bus is difficult. This is the entrance to the Ross School of medicine.”]
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“A ways down the road from the School of medicine is the School for Veterinary
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When we got to the train after a 12 mile bus tour of the villages on the south side of St Kitts. This bus tour passed the road to the “Brimstone Hill Fortress” (see map above) . The fort was started in the 1500 and never truly completed. They built on it for over 100 years in the first go and then quit when the truce was signed making all of St. Kitts a British island. Before that the island was split French and British. Once at the “end of the tracks” (only about a mile past the fortress road) we off-loaded the bus and loaded on the train. There was plenty of room and one could set in the lower or upper seating, upper was open air and lower enclosed. We selected the top to get better views.
St. Kitts “Sugar Train”. At the end of the tracks where we loaded.”]
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The train runs the rest of the way around the island as does the road but the Train is a bit more scenic. At first I was thinking the train ride would be a problem as it was really squealing and squawking when we started out but it quit after a mile or so. The brakes on that train really make a noise. The good thing on the train is they serve you all the beverage you can hold, including rum punch and pina-colada. Of course I had to have one but just one as I wanted to be able to get off the train and not be poured off. A local group sang for us at several locations along the route and they were pretty good.
The singing group as we speed (8 mph) along the Sugar Train route.”]
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“Vies from the train – the mountain under clouds”]
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“An old plantation in the distance with sugar cane fields gone un-checked.”]
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One of the many communities along the route.”]
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There were a lot of these old Sugar Cane mills – most were windmill run but the tops are gone”
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The train passed by several old plantation homesteads as well as several of the small communities, winding its way through the old sugar-cane farms. One farm on the north side is now an Inn “Ottley’s Plantation Inn”. There is a new horse-race track on the far NW side of the island, although I didn’t see many horses. We did see a lot of goats and pigs and dogs and kids running to wave at the train.
“Open range goats and sheep of St Kitts.”]
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“Kids waving as the train passes, a lot of them are in there back yards, we were that close.”
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The train working its way around the north side of the island passes some really good beaches and surfing spots (if you were of that interest).
A beach in the bottom”
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“Waves on the north shores”]
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Black Sand beaches in hard to get at spots with great waves.”]
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The evidence of the sugar-cane production is everywhere but is in really run down shape considering they really only quit production in 2003 when the government quit subsidizing the production. The tracks end at the international air port where we off-load the train and re-enter the bus for the short trip back to the docks.
Old engines wasting, in the background is the International Airport.”]
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Eddie explained the industrial area we came through where there is also the “bank of the Eastern Caribbean” which controls all the local currency of 7 islands. When we reached the shopping area of the docks he explained about the a guys with monkeys that would get your picture taken with them (for a price) and to make sure you ask about the price first.
Of course we did some shopping and found some t-shirts and some other small things that we “just couldn’t live without”. We even made a walk into old town and saw a little of the other side.
“The dock side of the National Museum”]
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The old clock tower in the “round-a-bout””]
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“Some of the “better” buildings in old town”]
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A really nice building with balcony – everything has balcony’s”]
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Tourist shops at the port”]
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Once back on the ship we had a sandwich for a late lunch and then back to the room to rest a little. At 5pm the neighbor ship was pulling out and I got some pictures of that. Funny how when they blew their horn to leave port there was a rush of people from the shops racing to our ship, most with “do-do” in their pants… that was funny in the lower left you can see there was almost no one on the dock but with in 10 minutes it was full of people rushing to our ship… What a kick and Ryan and Brooke were in that crowd.
“Neighbor ship pulling out before us.”]
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“Moving back and out”
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Making the turn as they and pulled in and not backed in like we had.”]
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“After the horn sounded this guy was playing the bagpipes as they pulled out.”
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Then as we pulled out I got a few of the town of Basseterre with the lights and Mt. Liamuiga in the background. St. Kitts was a very pretty island with very fertile soil.
View of Baseterre before we pull out”]
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“The lights and town as we pull away”]
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“City lights as we pull away”]
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For the evening we attended the magic/comedy show. Again a very good show well done. We then went to dinner the crew again sang to the crowd. I would guess they do that at 9 or 9:30 nearly every night? We have only been there twice that late. I didn’t take the camera this time and they did some dancing as well that would have been good to catch but another of those, damn I forgot. When we got back to the room this was waiting for us.
“Our nightly towel art”]
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The towel art in Ethan and his parents room?
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Tomorrow we stop at St. Marteen.