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Published: June 26th 2017
The ship is now looking very festive. The colour scheme is gold and silver. I would have preferred some splashes of red and green along the way but then that's why I'm not allowed to decorate our tree at Christmas!!!
The Christmas songs are all by the original artists such as the 1947 version of '
Here Comes Santa Claus', ‘I'll be home for Christmas' (1943) and ‘Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow' (1945). From some of the scratches it sounds like they are being played on the original vinyl as well!! As for the last track I mentioned:
‘Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow', Princess should redub the track:
‘Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain as despite the temperature remaining warm, we have had rain at some stage most days!
Each day the captain addresses the crew and guests with a progress report. This includes the weather. Today in St Kitts he predicted the weather as sunny intervals with a high of 82 degrees. It will be partly overcast with some passing showers. The earlier forecasts were usually the opposite of what the Captain predicted. We have no idea where
he has been getting his information from. With hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment at his disposal on the bridge, he probably uses google weather like the rest of us!! With using the phrase ‘
passing showers', I think he is now resigned to playing the percentage game. All showers ‘pass' just some last longer and pass more slowly than others!!
Saint Kitts also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island is one of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. It is situated about 1,300 miles southeast of Miami so although we are now technically on our way home, we still have a fair way to go! St. Kitts is about 18 miles long and on average 5 miles wide. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis (pronounces Nee-vis) constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The population is now around 50,000 with 40,000 living on St. Kitts and the remaining 10,000, on the island of Nevis, just a short boat ride away. The islanders are known as Kittitians. There are a small amount of
migrants from Catalan living on the island. They are known affectionately as Kiti-Catians!! (This may, though, be an Urban myth. In fact I don't think it's even that. I may have just dreamt it!! Verification required!!)
The islands climate is ideal for growing sugarcane. For this reason, St. Kitts and Nevis were once the crown jewels of the Caribbean. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Spain, France and England vied for control of the islands, with the English finally winning out (yay!!) in 1787. Basseterre is the capital of St Kitts and Nevis meaning Lowlands in French.
The ship berthed ‘nose first' in Basseterre so our balcony looked down on the town. This was the closest to the centre we had docked in all the ports we had visited on this voyage. The cruise terminal and main square, I learned later is reclaimed land and built some years ago to accommodate the large number of cruise ships that visit each year.
Looking down on the colonial buildings, we both felt that this island was going to be a pleasant visit.
Like Barbados and most other Caribbean islands, St Kitts drive on the left hand side of
the road. Unlike Barbados, there were no plans B, C, D or E. We didn't even have a plan A!! It would be nice just to explore the town on our own. Well we should have known, the locals weren't going to let this happen!!
Once through the security gate, the main square opened up to reveal wall to wall jewellery shops, souvenir shops, café and bars. All stores seemed to have a ‘hook' advertising a free gift just for browsing.
‘
Ooh look!' exclaimed Roisin,
‘Monkeys!!' ‘
Where?' I said, looking around me only to see a local with an open folio heading in our general direction.
‘
There', Rosin replied pointing to a young man with two green vervet monkeys perched on his shoulder.
Now I knew what I was looking for, there were a number of youths wandering around with these monkeys. Green vervet monkeys are also known by another, more common name:
‘bush babies'. These fragile looking monkeys are tiny in comparison to some of its African and Asian cousins. They were all wearing clothes of some description to hide their dignity although how dignified is it seeing a monkey in a dress??! Some
were being cuddled whilst others left free to roam and explore the upper body parts of their handler!! One hears bad things about the treatment of such animals for gain and profit. I observed that none of these people were approaching the tourists. Now whether this was by design or they were just naturally shy, but they waited for the tourists to approach them, have a photo taken and offer a few dollars. It was refreshing to see that at no time did anyone ask for money.
In the few seconds it took me to make this assessment, our man with the folio was upon us. A two hour tour of the island for $25 per person. He showed us some photos of what we could expect and a picture of our mode of transport, an open sided truck/bus with capacity for fifteen passengers. Already a group of four Swiss had signed up. The tour was due to leave in fifteen minutes. With nothing better to do, we handed our cash over and received a red coloured wrist band.
With eleven passengers on board, we set off. Due to the configuration of the bus, everyone had plenty of
room. With the exception of the first row where three people were sat, everyone else had one row between two.
David, our driver and guide took us around the city of Basseterre as a starter. We drove through Piccadilly Circus and a short distance further on stopped adjacent to Independence Square, once known as Pall Mall prior to the islands independence in 1983. David related the story of how slaves were brought here directly from Africa and sold before being distributed all over the Caribbean.
Opposite to Independence Square is the imposing building of the Church of Immaculate Conception. This is the Cathedral of St Kitts with its characteristic fan palms outside. David explained that there are 90 churches on the island between only 50,000 inhabitants. The main religions are Anglican, Catholic and Methodist. These are the more traditional religions. Those who prefer a more party atmosphere have branched off creating a cult following in some cases
In keeping with our World tour of Customs/Revenue offices we passed the St Kitts Inland Revenue Office before heading out along the coast known as Bay Road.
We stopped alongside a narrow beach. The sand was dark indicating a
volcanic composition. It wasn't the best kept beach we have seen with debris washed up on the water's edge. Together with old rotten wooden tables and broken pallets this made the beach look cluttered and untidy. It didn't surprise me that I saw no blue flag flying. Come to think of it, I didn't see a flag of any colour flying!! David did assure us that the beaches on the other side of the island are golden brown and popular with locals and tourists alike.
One of the passengers enquired after a small boat that had just docked less than a hundred yards from the volcanic beach as there seemed to be a lot of activity emanating from the quayside .This boat has just arrived from St Maartin, some sixty miles from St Kitts. Apparently it is cheaper to pay $130 for the round trip, buy food in St Maartin and pay the import duty. The boat would have left St Kitts at midnight and arrived in St Maartin in time for the shops to open. People are starting to stock up for the holiday season. Thank God for Aldi and Lidl.
In the ten minutes we had
been on the bus, the clouds had closed in and we felt some spots of rain. We continued to drive up the coast passing some small towns. David continued to give a running commentary. We stopped by a tree with many beer and other empty bottles that once contained alcohol that were tied to the trunk and branches of said tree.
‘This is the nearest we get on the island to a bottle recycling plant!!' chortled David as if he had just thought of this, what was probably, a well-rehearsed line. It took a few moments to sink in but I then realised there is a joke in there if you look hard enough!!!
The rain was not easing off. In fact the ridge of the mountains were now shrouded in mist. The rain was starting to blow in to the bus. We were definitely getting wet!!
We passed an overgrown gulley. Without any notice it would be easily over looked as just another dumping ground for fly tipping but the sign read ‘
Bloody River'. At first when David was explaining the history I just thought it was something that was making him cross. However, this now
dry river bed was named after a massacre of Amerindian inhabitants in 1626. It is said that the river flowed red from the upstream killing and violent slaughter of hundreds of
Kalinago people.
We crossed over the bridge, passed some overgrowth where evidence of the old sugar train rail track remained and drove on to a small grassy field coming to a halt underneath a mahogany tree.
The rain was as heavy as ever but this didn't stop David from offloading a large ice cooler with a selection of rum, beer, soda and water. He invited everyone to share in these refreshments. This land belongs to David who also owns the house opposite the field. His sister and her family live in this house as David and his family live several minutes further on. We were introduced to all his nephews and nieces as well as the several varieties of chickens roaming freeing amongst us.
‘We used to keep these for food', David started.
‘But now they are just pets?' ‘So, what do you do if you fancy a chicken dinner?' someone asked.
‘We just go down the supermarket like everyone else. It's more convenient and cheaper!!'
Carnival time is celebrated at the same time as Christmas and a few of David's nephews were rehearsing for their big day, dancing in their colourful costumes to the rhythmic beating of the snare drum.
All suitably refreshed, the bus continued on, as did the rain. We had a twenty minute ride to our next destination. In the meantime David cranked up the volume and the bus was filled with the reggae beat of Mr Bob Marley. The bus had now official become one of the world famous ‘Boogie' buses. I'm sure the tots of rum and the music was a ploy to make us forget that we were starting to get very wet. Driving in to a slight headwind wasn't helping matters either!!
We headed toward Timothy Hill on the upside part of the island. Here one could see mansions and villas. All I could think of is how dry those people in their mansions and villas must be right now!!
Our day was just about to get a whole lot better. The rain had eased off as we reached the top of Timothy Hill. There to greet us was a Santa Claus
with his rein donkey…only on St Kitts!! This Christmas lark in the Caribbean has been a surreal experience as the eyes see decorations, sparkly baubles and Christmas Trees everywhere but the body still feels 80 degree heat (albeit a little ‘damp' at times!!) The brain just keeps out of it and tells the eyes and the body to sort it out between them!!!
Looking down from the top of Timothy Hill one could see a small strip connecting St Kitts to a headland. The Caribbean Sea was to the right of this narrow isthmus whilst the Atlantic Ocean was to the left. The island of Nevis would be seen beyond that, if it was a clear day!
Despite the rain, this experience has been surprisingly pleasant as St. Kitts is definitely a nice place to be! We liked what we saw of the island. The people all seem sincere. We haven't felt that people are trying to rip you as with other places and the locals genuinely want to show off their island and therefore charge what they feel is a fair price. We can't argue with that. David is testament to this. St Kitts is definitely in
the thumbs up category.
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Ragnhild Sorin
non-member comment
This time of year is pretty dull and dark in our part of the world......The only light at the moment is the Nobel Prize festivities that they show on Swedish TV, so reading about your exotic Days, although you get rain showers , is very n
ice.