St. Kitts Adventures (and a new video)

Tomorrow we wrap up a wonderful week in St. Kitts at the marina and head out for a few days of coast cruising the southern part of the island and Nevis (pronounced Nee-vis, as we learned).  After that, depending on wind, we'll head to our next island.

The weather has of course been beautiful here and we both agree that so far, this is our favorite island.  The people are truly friendly and the atmosphere grabs hold of you and makes you feel welcome everywhere.

The first day, we settled in, met Wayne, who is the most helpful person around.  He took our laundry and directed us to the offices to check in.  We didn't have local currency, and with 5 cruise ships in, ALL the local ATMs were out of service, but Chris finally tracked down a working one and we paid our fees.  Our marina check in went well, with a couple of local croissant bakers sharing their wares...the ham and cheese filled one was delicious.  We dined at the Ballahoo restaurant, over looking the Circus square, a cute town center with a clock tower in the middle of the roundabout.

The next day we broke out our folding bikes for the first time since NC, and rode 14 miles round trip to Brimstone Hill Fortress, a world heritage site with the ruins and partially reconstructed fort from the 1700s.  This island was controlled by both French and British at the same time then, and the fort came to fame when the French stormed up the quite steep hill and overwhelmed the British.  It's the second largest fort in the islands, second to one I think in Haiti. We had lunch at the snack bar, choosing the club sandwich, which we were surprised to find out included ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and a fried egg...combined with the locally bottled juice, it was surprisingly quite yummy.  On the way down, we caught sight of the elusive monkeys that run rampant on the island, they are pretty shy though and we couldn't get a good picture.  It was unnerving to know that they were undoubtedly watching us.  The chicken wing trailer just down the street from the boat provided a tasty dinner, complete with sweet potato fries and several unique dipping sauces like citrus lime and and mango.

The following day we took it easy, walked a bit around town, relaxed, and ate pizza.  Then on Friday, we succumbed to the tourist in us and took the scenic railway tour on the the narrow gauge railroad that runs along the entire east side of the island.  The trains were used to move sugar cane from the fields to the factories, but after the last sugar factory closed in 2005, they turned it over to tourism.  Free drinks and great views along the ride made for a most enjoyable trip.  We were lucky enough to be in the very last car, all the way in back.  When we got back in the late afternoon, we were hungry and sought out one of the many street vendors just outside the marina gate.  The gyro and chicken roti were phenomenal...we have kept looking for the stand for another sample, but haven't seen him since.

Saturday we puttered around the boat, Chris did some maintenance and we laid out our plans for overland travel.  Our credit cards took a hit this week with flights to Paris, Johannesburg, Sydney, and finally back to Trinidad.  We made reservations for storing the boat and for our Europe car rental.  The safari trip details are just about worked out, and we are getting excited for the next legs of this grand adventure, but are happy that we still have 5 more months to explore the Caribbean.  Friday night is big in St. Kitts, everyone gets paid and are glad the weekend has arrived and the main street outside the marina is party central.  Lots of street food venders, bar shacks and people just looking to take a load off and relax.  The music went well into the night, but we listened from the boat, safe from the mosquitoes that have incited the hunter in Chris.  Dinner was bbq chicken cooked right there on the street...grilled chicken never tasted so good.

Sunday we ponied up and took a taxi to the west end of the island to hike Mt. Liamuiga...previously named Mt. Misery.  It was not an easy hike, but well marked, albeit wet from the previous night's rain.  The top was shrouded in mist and reeked from the sulphur lake inside the volcano crater, but we had a great time.  We were starving when we got back and ended up eating chinese food...this port of call has undone all of our recent good eating habits it seems!

Today we got a late start, but were surprisingly productive, did some hand laundry, which dried in about 45 minutes in the sun.  Filled the water tanks, waxed the starboard side of the boat (Chris had done the other side earlier in the week) and cleaned both interior and exterior of the boat.  Tomorrow morning we'll restock provisions and we'll be all set for another couple of weeks of self sufficiency!

PS. We had previously discovered an issue with our marine toilet, i.e. the uric acid in our pee was slowly calcifying the hoses and valves, slowly constricting the ability for effluent to flow through.  This entire experience felt as odd as a Stanley Kubric film, so we got inspired again...check out the "videos" link above, or go directly there at this link...https://vimeo.com/58409666

An HDR photo of the crater showing the vegetation and the sulphur lake at the bottom.  Quite a view.