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Published: December 23rd 2014
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Friday 19th December, 2014. St Kitts & Nevis, Leeward Islands, West Indies
The Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis (St Kitts and Nevis) consider themselves 'The Secret of the Caribbean'. These two islands lie to the north east of Montserrat. St Kitts is mountainous and shaped like a chicken drumstick and is 37 km (23 miles) long and 8.5 km (5 miles) across at its widest point. With winding coastlines it covers a total area of almost 168 sq km (65 sq miles).
The largest mountain on St Kitts is Mount Liamuiga which is a dormant volcano standing at 1,156 metres (3793 ft). Its name means "fertile land" and is the Caribs' original name for the Island. The name was changed when CC sighted the island duirng his second voyage in late 1493 when he renamed it St Christopher after the patron saint of travellers.
In 1623 St Kitts became the first island to be colonised by the English when a small group of Pioneers arrived. Old Road Town was the first settlement and a tobacco plantation was soon active. English colonists then began to move out to other nearby islands including Antigua and Montserrat. St Kitts though,
has always been name as the mother colony. The name was shortened in the 17th century to St Kitts which was the British abbrviation for Christopher at the time.
The French was also colonizing the area and within 12 months they had set up their own settlement on St Kitts, claiming the northern and southern parts of the island. From here they claimed Martinique and Guadeloupe for France. In 1626 the English and French joined forces against the Caribs ousting them from the island. There follwed intermittent warfare between the two nations. By 1700, slaves had been introduced to work the plantations that now grew sugarcane. St Kitts was granted to the British by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. In 1983 The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis became independent but is still a member of the commonwealth.
We docked at Porte Zante which is a purpose built cruise terminal located in Basseterre which is the capital of St Kitts. Situated on the South coast this is the largest town on the island. We were up early as we unusually booked ourselves on a ship's tour (at great expense). The reason for this was that the only
thing that seemed to be worth doing was a trip around the island on the old Sugar Cane Train. The ship had two trips and we thought it unlikely that any independents would get a look-in, so we bit the bullet and were lucky enough to get two tickets for the 8.30 tour. We were picked up by bus number 7 and taken to the St Kitts Railway station. There waiting was a double decker diesel train sitting on narrow guage trackes. We were on coach 3.
The tracks were laid between 1912 and 1926 to haul sugarcane from the plantations to Basseterre. In the past the tracks would have passed through miles and miles of sugarcane fields. Nowadays the sugarcane has all but disappeared but the train still offers great views of the rainforest, beaches and neighbouring islands. THe sugarcane has disappeared as since 2005 there has been no European subsidies - Europe preferring Sugar beet to Sugarcane. This is how the St Kitts railway came to be, shifting from hauling sugarcane to hauling tourists!
We chugged along and were entertained by the female commentator who had a great sense of humour. After about half an hour
we were offered some refreshment we were informed that we could have Pinacollada Regular, Full Strength or Virgin (no rum), Rum Punch or Rum Punch Virgin (no rum), rum and coke, rum and water or rum and rum! We went for a Pinacollada each (even though it was only 9.30 am!). A smartly dressed conductor came along and we all took some photographs. We passed many small villages and had great views of the volcano and St Eustatius Island which is part of the Netherlands Antilles. We were entertained to some Christmas Carols sung by 3 members of a local choir. Everybody waved to the train as it passed by - especially the children who were on their Christmas break. We passed hundreds of abandoned vehicles - it is very expensive to dispose of these properly so they are just left to rot in gardens or in fields. The railway only crosses the main highway once. There are a total of three bridges on the route. The tourist route does not go all the way around the island. We were disgorged just before Sandy Point which is the second largest town on the island.
We re-joined bus 7 where
the tour around the island continued on 4 wheels. We passed what the driver described as a rare 'Booze Tree' which was a tree with lots of bottles dangling from it. We spotted lots of white birds roosting in the trees along the way. We also passed numerous churches representing most Christian denominations. This part of the tour took us along the Caribbean coast of the island. We were dropped back at Port Zante by our driver.
It was still relatively early (around 11.15 am) so we decided to check out Basseterre. We went to the Pelican Mall whichis a two storey Mall directly in front of Port Zante on Bay Road. This houses banks and shops selling pretty much everything. We made our way to the Philatelic Bureau (apparently St Kitts and Nevis have some fantastic stamps) which also claimed to have internet access. Unfortunately the internet was down! We continued on to Independence Square which was formerly known as Pall Mall Square until St Kitts and Nevis achieved self rule in 1983, however, most locals still call it by its original name. The town was incredibly busy as today was a VAT free day. Apparently this is
an annual thing just before Christmas saving the citizens of St Kitts 17% on all their purchases. We found a quiet square where we were able to access Wi-Fi for free. We returned to the ship stopping at the Port Zante Shopping Centre to buy D a new pair of shorts.
We had dinner alone as we showed up quite late. After dinner we went to see the show which was called 'When Swing Was King' by the Headlines Theatre Company. It was quite good but we had seen it before on the Iceland Cruise last year. We retired early as M was still not to good with a bad cold and cough.
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