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Published: July 19th 2014
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OVER PACIFIC
SUNSET EASTERN SIDE OF THE PACIFIC After 27 hours of travelling we were pleased to arrive in South Beach Miami for a one night stopover on the way to the Carribbean. We arrived early evening at the Essex Hotel an Art Deco building one block from the beach front, we still had just enough energy to go for a walk along the beach front to admire the art deco buildings. Ron's description of South Beach "that it is the Gold Coast on steroids" was well founded. The beach front was full of restaurants, clubs and lots of young people out to party. We enjoyed listening to a jazz band while having a drink and people watching before finally retiring around midnight. Both very tired but happy to be starting our next six week adventure.
The flight to St Kitts from Miami was a short three hours, a doddle as Ron said after the flights of the previous day. A short water taxi ride took us to Nevis the oldest British colony in the Caribbean and together with its sister isle St Kitts is in the Leeward Islands of the West Indies. Nevis is almost perfectly round and less than 36 square miles with only one main
road that has been in use since the plantation days, encircling the island. We stayed at Montpelier which had been a sugar plantation in the 1700s. The hotel is situated high on the hill with great views and cooling breezes and is surrounded by tropical gardens. We were surprised to see monkeys running around close to our room, they apparently out number the residents four to one. The restaurant served a blend of french and caribbean dishes, guests meet for pre dinner drinks in lounge before dinner on the terrace by candlelight, just beautiful.
The second day of our stay we opted to just relax, we were driven to Montpeliers private beach which has cabanas and a bar. We were supplied with a picnic lunch and our own personal barman, as we were the only ones at the beach for the day we felt very spoilt. The following day we decided to take a pre breakfast walk up to Nelson's lookout, a fort on Saddle Hill which was a large saddle shaped hill formed from ancient volcanic core. The fort was the point where Nelson checked for Spanish and French ships coming from the south, we were surprised to
ST KITTS
LOOKOUT ON ST KITS WITH VIEWS TOWARDS NEVIS see a large gravestone for someone called Phillipa Prentis Phillips in a such a remote site near the top of the hill. Returning to our hotel and internet we researched Phillipa and found she died in 1683, Phillipa was born in Devon of a poverty stricken family she emigrated to Nevis and married the first man she met on landing. When Phillipa died she had risen to be the matriach of the island and a major landholder. The main source of wealth on the island was sugar, tobacco and ginger, as a successful planter Phillipa raised the status of Nevis to the top sugar producer in the Caribbean.
Midday we walked to the botanical gardens which although small on approximately six acres had many tropical plants and orchids. The afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool before finishing our last evening at Montpelier with a beachside BBQ. It was a very romantic setting with tables for two set at the edge of the sea, oil lanterns softly lit the beach and a guitar player providing background music. The food was a highlight with tender ribs and buttered lobster, delicous. We were sad to checkout the next morning but at
NEVIS
MONTPELIER PLANTATION the same time looking forward to our next island, Antigua. We took the passenger ferry from Nevis to St Kitts a scenic 45 minute cruise and on arrival at St Kitts organised a driver to take us on a two hour tour before our flight. We were able to drive to Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fort was designed by British military engineers, and was built and maintained by African slaves.
Our flight was a short 15 minutes from St Kitts to Antigua, the plane was going on to the UK, along with one other passenger we were the only ones to disembark at Antigua. After a 40 minute taxi transfer we arrived at our next three night stop, the Inn at English Harbour. The hotel complex is just beautiful, the main restaurant is high on a hill with an outdoor terrace overlooking English Harbour, there are a number of rooms half way down the hill and four bungolows right on the beach. We were thrilled with our little bungalow on the beach, we were able to look out our sliding doors to the yachts anchored in the sea. As we
NEVIS
JUst ARRIVED AT MONTPELIER HAVING A WELCOME RUM PUNCH were only six metres from the shore we could hear the gentle sound of the waves most of the day. We spent the next three days taking walks to lookouts, swimming in the warm ocean, kayaking and eating lots of delicious food. The inn had its own little runabout to take guests to Nelsons Dockyard, a cultural heritage site and marina named after Admiral Horatio Nelson, who lived in the Dockyard from 1784 through 1787. On our last evening at the Inn they also had a BBQ on the beach this time the music supplied by a steel drum band, a perfect end to our stay in the Caribbean.
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