ST. KITTS and NEVIS

Looking south on St. Kitts with the Atlantic on the left and the Caribbean on the right.
Nevis can be seen in the background.

Our 136 mile crossing from the BVI to St. Kitts culminated just as the day was dawning.  In the gray morning light,  St. Kitts' main port of Basseterre looked rather industrial with its many two and three story buildings lining the waterfront.  The beach looked like regular dirt and we could not see the anchor hit the bottom at a depth of 16 feet.  As the sun rose overhead, we were able to read the bottom clearly and were utterly surprised to find it dotted with sea stars in every shade of orange and loads of white sand dollars!  We learned that the beaches on the island were not dirt, but soft dark sand that resulted when fine bits of volcanic ash washed down the mountainsides during heavy rains.    The volcanic ash enriches the soil and much of St. Kitts and Nevis is lush with growth. 

Original Caribelle Batiks hung out to dry

The week we were there, St. Kitts' radio reported that they were expecting 31,000 tourists on 15 different cruise ships.  And from what we witnessed around the shopping mall squares of Port Zante and The Circus, the Kitticians really know how to capitalize on tourism!  You couldn’t walk six steps without someone trying to stop you to explain why you shouldn’t miss their tour of the island.  We had planned on hopping on the local bus to get a cheap feel for the lay of the land, but finally succumbed to a polite young man who introduced himself as “BRYAN” but wore a name tag that read “ALEX.” 

NOT our tour guide;there were multiple mannequins like this around the malls;
 each was missing at least one appendage.

Nevis, on the other hand, was quite a different story.  This island is much smaller and more rural, in a kinder and gentler sort of way, with more sea stars and sand dollars.  No hard sells for tours and trinkets were experienced.  We did take the local bus to see what the island was like and when the rest of the passengers got off, our driver gave us a little guided tour along his route, even offering to stop at some places to let us get out & look around.  The high light of our brief stay in Nevis was having dinner at SUNSHINE’S on Pinney’s Beach.  Dan likened it to “Foxy’s ” on Jost Van Dyke-BVI. 

The meal at SUNSHINE'S was DEElicious!

"...then home again, home again, jiggety jig!"