Summit Southern Caribbean Cruise - Part 2

St Kitts

St Kitts was the port I was looking forward to the most since I had never been there before. Too excited to sleep, I was wide awake at 6 o’clock. I sat out on the balcony and watched as we docked at Port Zante, the P&O Britannia pulling in behind us.

Once Ron got up, we went up to breakfast at the Oceanview Café buffet, stopping at the Solarium so I could try out another fresh juice (orange, ginger and carrot this time). When we got back to the cabin, this was our new view. :-)

Howdy, neighbors!

We had signed up for the Grand Tour of St Kitts with Thenford Grey Tours, which met at 9 o’clock at the welcome hall of Port Zante. I was happy to find out that our tour guide would be Mr. Thenford Grey himself. He was the perfect tour guide – calm and funny with a clear, deep voice. It was like spending the day with Morgan Freeman.

After our group of fourteen had climbed into the waiting van, we drove through the island’s capital, Basseterre, our driver Jermaine navigating the traffic while Thenford told us about the history of St Kitts. We circled the Circus, a roundabout modeled after Piccadilly Circus in London. Thenford explained that at one time, St Kitts was colonized by both the French and the British, with the French on each end and the British in the middle. How confusing! The French ceded the island to Britain in 1713, and St Kitts gained its independence in 1983, making it the smallest and youngest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

After leaving Basseterre, we drove up the west coast. About half an hour later, we left the main road and headed into the mountains, passing the remains of an old sugarcane plantation, an aqueduct and parts of the railroad that had once been used to haul sugarcane. Thenford told us that since we were on the edge of the rainforest, we should keep an eye out for some of the island’s famous green vervet monkeys, brought from Africa by the French 300 years ago. Thenford said that there were rules for monkey spotting. Rule #1: make sure you aren’t the only one to see the monkey. :-)

Our first stop was at Romney Manor, a beautiful estate originally owned by Sam Jefferson, the great-great-great-grandfather of Thomas Jefferson. The grounds of the gardens were filled with tropical plants and flowers, and Thenford seemed to know the names of all of them. He even pointed out a tiny hummingbird flitting in the trees overhead. The centerpiece of the estate was a 400-year-old Saman tree whose branches covered half an acre. Romney Manor also housed Caribelle Batik, where a group of Kittitian women created brightly colored fabrics using the Indonesian artform. We got to watch of brief demonstration of the multi-step process of waxing and dyeing.

Romney Manor bell tower

Thenford Grey

Caribelle Batik

Next, we drove on to the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park. The road up the mountain to the fort was clearly not designed with modern-day vehicles in mind. Jermaine showed off his driving skills navigating the hairpin turns and somehow managed to squeeze the van through the stone entryway with just inches to spare for the mirrors. From the scrapes along the walls, we could tell that not all drivers did as well. We had about 45 minutes at the fort to explore. Ron and I started with the long, stone stairway to the Fort George Citadel. The views from the Citadel were incredible. Cannons lined the parapets, their barrels pointing towards the Dutch island of St Eustatius in the distance. The ocean was deep blue, the mountains bright green. Wow!

stairs to the Citadel

After we left the fort, we headed to South Friars Beach on the south end of the island. Here we had the option of staying for an hour and a half of beach time or heading back to Basseterre. Only two people decided to stay. The rest of us spent about 15 minutes walking the beach or having a quick drink at the rustic Shipwreck Beach Bar. The volcanic sand at South Friars Beach, streaked with gold and black, was so different than the white sand we’d seen at Trunk Bay the day before, but pretty in its own way. Before driving back to town, we made one final stop at the Timothy Hill overlook for magnificent views of the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other. St Kitts was a beautiful country.

South Friars Beach

the Atlantic on the left, the Caribbean Sea on the right

It was almost 2:30 by the time we got back to the ship, and we were ready for some lunch. We fortified ourselves at the buffet and then went back out to Port Zante to do some shopping. Years ago on a work trip to the island, Ron discovered CSR, a Kittitian liquor similar to rum. We’d been trying to buy it ever since but apparently you could only find it on St Kitts. Fortunately, there was a duty-free shop at the port that carried it, so we picked up a bottle for ourselves plus a few sample-size bottles for Ron’s co-workers. Next door to the duty-free store was a Caribelle Batik shop where I bought myself a cute sundress (perfect for future cruises). I had been too busy taking pictures to shop at Romney Manor, so I was happy to get another chance to bring home something unique from St Kitts.

That night at dinner, the hostess sat us in a different section of the dining room, but Jaime saw us and the next thing we knew, he’d moved us back to what was now our “usual” table by the window. :-)  After dinner, we hit the casino again. This time Ron played single hand Black Jack and had much better luck, getting three Black Jacks in a row. I lost my daily allotment pretty quickly, so I spent most of the time watching Ron play until he decided he’d better quit while he was ahead. We went back to the cabin where we could see the lights of Nevis from our balcony, shining like jewels in the darkness.

continued on Part 3