April 2019
St. Kitts(population: 34,900) is bigger of the two main islands in the country of Saint Kitts & Nevis(population: 52,800). Our cruise ship docked at the cruise terminal in Basseterre(population: 10,440), the capital. 
The cruise terminal here was typical of most others in Caribbean: step down the gangway of the ship, and you are met by local bands or singers/dancers. Then comes a shopping area that is dominated by jewelry shops(mostly international chain stores). You will be approached by local tour operators selling $25 per person tours.
One enterprising and quick acting tour operator put a wrist band around our wrists before we even noticed what was going on. Don’t worry. You are not obligated of anything. But, if you want to join my tour, please meet me in 15 minutes in front of… Right. No thanks.
That’s what we thought. We walked out of the shopping center to enter another shopping mall, then the center of town was ahead of us at the other end. Why not. Let’s do the tour. It will be easier. Pat surprised me by saying this. So we became part of the 2.5 tour around the island tour group. It was quite impressive to note how successful he was at collecting people using his tactic. Some people were interested in the railway tour, but he poo pooed this idea because it’s too expensive and it doesn’t really go any where, he said. We did agree about the price — we’d seen over $100 per person — even though we did not know much about where it went.
I promise you the best and the most comprehensive tour! He, whose name I can’t remember, did his best to keep that promise. After driving through the colonial core of the city that included their own version of “Piccadilly Circus,” we got on the road that encircled the island. From 1600’s on, British and French fought hard for the control of the island that produced sugar cane. Parts of the islands were heavily fortified during this time of frequent wars, and the natives suffered. Brits finally took charge firmly of the place in 1783, and St. Kitts remained under UK rule until 1983 when she earned her independence.
We stopped at an old sugar plantation site and a national park around it. No longer deemed a viable income source, sugar plantations were closed by the government in 2005. Now the major industry is, like most other places in Caribbean, tourism. Brimstone Hill Fortress, the largest fortress even built in Western Caribbean, was voted down by the group & we did not drive up the hill to get there. Mt. Liamuiga, a volcanic mountain dormant since 1620, was dominating the interior scenery of the northern part of island.
A black sand beach that resulted from the last eruption of Mt. Liamuiga was stunning. Our guide wanted to tell us about every single town on the ring road, but, frankly, there was not a whole lot of story in most of them. After all, it’s just a little island with 50,000 people!
The highlight of the whole tour, to me, was the scenery you get from the top of Frigate Bay where one can see the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other. There was a resort hotel near by where beach goers chilled out. We chose not to linger and returned to the ship.
Small Wide World 