St. Kitts and Nevis, 2009

Day 1
Beach Life
Brimstone Hill Fortress
Preston touched a monkey!
Sandy Beach
Golf
Shipwreck Bar
Nevis Pictures
Nevis Day Trip
Lazy Day 5
International Blevins Game Day
Proof!
St. Kitts Booty
Cockleshell Beach
Cathy's
Surprise... Puerto Rico!

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Suprise... Puerto Rico!

Our plane landed in Puerto Rico because of electrical problems in the engine. we will spend the night here, fly out on Saturday morning to Houston. The adventure continues!

As it turns out we are going to be able to fly out in the morning (Sat.) and connect back to Houston from Miami. We took the opportunity to see some of San Juan. From the airport we took a cab to Old Town San Juan and sampled some Puerto Rican Food (Not Bad). We then walk the streets of the old city and check out the Spanish Fort.

With a little luck will be home tomorrow!

Cathy's

The most recommended place to eat on St. Kitts is Shiggidy Shack, but if we walked just a few 'shacks' down and found Cathy's.  Our driver, Lion King, told us about it... we were suspicious that he was on the payroll because when he dropped us off, he also took our drink orders.  Turns out that it didn't matter because this was the best place we ate during this trip.  We went back twice!

Cockleshell Beach

Spent the afternoon at a great beach recommend once again by Lion King.  We had already been to Cockleshell beach and it was crowded the first time because there was a cruise ship docked on the island.  This time, there were only a handful of people. This first picture is of the peninsula, on the right is the Caribbean ocean and the left is the atlantic ocean.

I got some St. Kitts Booty

Gayly and I scoured the hotel shops after we got back from the golf course.  We were just passing through, but then we saw a girl making the jewelry at her table.  They all say they make it themselves, but she actually does!  I liked this red necklace so she whipped up these red earrings to go with it.  It's nice to get some booty to remember this trip by... arrreeehhh! (like a pirate?)

Proof!

Gayle and I met Billy and Preston at the golf course this morning and road with them for the back nine.  See, there is even a picture of me on a golf course.  Proof.

International Blevins' Game Day

Day 6 = International game day... volleyball in the pool, shuffle board, and dominos.  In the afternoon, we rented some snorkel gear and snorkeled in front of our hotel... that's right, Preston snorkeled.  That's just one step closer to going diving with me!  Small steps.  

We went downtown for dinner and drove through the town at night.  We passed an old catholic church and the town square.  This town square, which looked like a nice little park, was where slaves were auctioned and sold. 

Fisherman's Warf... glad we had reservations or that other group might have gotten the good table.

Basterre, the capitol, at sunset

Flowers in my hair

Domino Tourney!

Shuffle board.

Lazy Day 5

Today was a lazy day.  We started out with a Marriott sales pitch (so Preston could get two free rounds of golf) in which I was convinced it was a good idea to buy a timeshare... she was a good sales person.  But we didn't buy one... it's not a good idea.

Afterwards, Billy and Gayle went to town while Preston and I hung out at the hotel pool and bar and walked the beach.  We saw a male sting ray in the ocean right outside our hotel.  This lazy day was a great opportunity to read my book.

In the evening, we went over to Timothy beach again and got in the water.  We found lots of shells and treasures  and in a moment of creative clarity, Gayle and I decided to found an internet shell jewelry company....:)

We ate at Cathy's again, which was right there on the beach, and moved to Ziggy's to continue our domino tourney.  When we drove around town on Saturday, we saw so many people sitting on their front porches braiding hair and playing dominos.  It's what people do here.

Nevis Day Trip

Today we took a day trip to Nevis, a smaller island right next to St. Kitts.  Both islands make up the smallest country in the Americas.  The closest distance between them is two miles… a channel called “The Narrows.”  There is a yearly channel swim during which several people swim the distance, along with kayakers just in case someone needs help.

 We caught the eight o’clock fairy along with the “rush hour” work crowd.  At Port Zane, there was a man selling food out of his car right next to the fairy station.  After people paid him, they would pour themselves some juice from one of his two coolers and walk away with something long and skinny wrapped in foil, similar to a breakfast burrito.  After an hour, we met our driver at the port on Nevis.  His taxi name was “Smile on Me” but his real name was Sedroy, a common name on these islands. 

 Our first stop was at the Four Seasons golf course where Billy, Gayle and Preston played a round of golf during the morning.  When we got to St. Kitts, we heard that the Four Seasons on Nevis had closed down. This is the only large hotel on this island and it seemed sad that such a large building would stay vacant on a small island, like a waste of space.  We found out what happened though, in little pieces throughout the week.  It closed because it is built on the beach and when hurricane Omar hit, it filled the pool, restaurant, bungalows and grounds with trash and sand.  They are planning to reopen in October. 

 The Four Seasons also had damage during another hurricane before Omar.  It brought in palm/coconut trees from The States to replace the trees that were lost on the property. These trees had Yellow Leaf disease, which, like the name says, causes the leaves to turn yellow and fall off.  It spread throughout the island, killing all of the palm trees.  Some of them still have leaves which are starting to turn yellow, but most of them are now just tall, skinny bald things, reaching into the air above all of the other greenery on the island.  We were told that the Four Seasons saved their own trees by injecting them with something, but did not extend this courtesy to the island, but I am not sure if this is true.

 The next stop was the Nevis Equestrian Centre, where I scheduled a two and a half hour horseback ride.  The centre was actually a small house with barely there stables in back, a few horses, a goat, a pig, some chickens and geese, a rooster and a few peacocks.  Erica, the owner, was my guide.  Thankfully, there was no one else there that morning so I was able to trot and canter on the beach and gallop along the back roads in the mountains and rainforest. Nevis has some beautiful beaches, soft sand and crystal blue water with the mountain rage of St. Kitts just a few miles in the distance.  While we were riding on the beach, we past a sea turtle next.  We could see where the turtle climbed up the beach, almost to the grass (I call it grass, but it is more like a sand weed, which I do know the name off), made and covered her nest and then made her way back down to the water.  She had stopped at one point, turning around I guess, and there were big indentions in the sand almost 6 feet apart.  She must have been big!  This is the point where I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera on the ride; I was afraid I would lose it because I didn’t have any pockets.

 After the ride, Sedroy dropped me off at a beach bar and grill to wait for Preston, Billy and Gayle.  I found one lounger on the beach and stationed myself there, realizing that for the majority of the morning, I had not seen anyone else on the beaches on the north side of Nevis.

 After the rest of my group arrived, we set off again with Sedroy on a driving tour of the island.  We past neighborhoods and houses on the island side of the road and churches and hotels along the beach side of the road.  We stopped at two churches that were built in the 1600’s.  Preston pointed out that they were very small compared to the Catholic churches built on the islands that were colonized by the Spanish… His Latin American Religion class in action.  Also, underneath the carpets, there are tombs inside the churches. 

The history of these islands is tightly woven with the genocide of the native people by the colonists in the 1620's and the colonists use of slavery that followed.  Another church on the island was built shortly after slavery was "abolished" on the islands.  Plantation owners were reluctant to release slaves.  One owner allowed his 131 slaves a day off to go to church.  A church was built for them.  This initiated the end of slavery on the islands.  Unfortunately, we were unable to see this church because it is in need of repair and blocked off to visitors. 

 Something that was strange was that we passed several police stations, maybe three, on our drive.  Each small neighborhood has it’s own police station.  Also, we saw several houses that were concrete on the lower level and wood on the upper level.  These are called “a skirt and blouse” house… I’m guessing they are built this way to provide some safety from hurricanes and also probably to save money.

 Our last stop was an amazing restaurant in the mountain.  It used to be part of a sugar cane plantation, the building where they prepared food for the workers.  Remnants of sugarcane plantations cover these two islands, everywhere you see old, dark colored crumbling rocks, you know that was a structure built in the 1600’s.  St. Kitts was producing sugarcane up until two years ago, but the plantations on Nevis closed a long time ago.  In Nevis, geothermal energy is the “new big thing.”  Anyway, back to the restaurant… we ordered refreshing fish sandwiches and lobster salads along with banana daiquiris that were made with real bananas and not Oasis brad banana puree.  The tables were dotted with square, red umbrellas that contrasted nicely with the lush greenery growing around the dark stones of the building. I felt like we were in a travel destination magazine. 

 This day was very draining… when we got back to the hotel, we stayed in and ate pizza, very un-Blevins like!  But we were all so tired.  We finished the night off with a game of dominos and a dip in the pool, all in all, a good day.  

Nevis Pictures

Shipwreck Bar

While Preston and Billy played golf, Gayle and I spent the morning at the hotel pool.  We met up at about 3:30, called our good friend/taxi driver 'The Lion King' and got a ride out to the Shipwreck Bar for some live music.  This bar has no running water and no electricity... they use a generator.  For a bathroom (we hope it was only the men's)  there is just a pipe in the ground!  We ordered some drinks and played some bones.  I guess we can't complain about La Caretta anymore.

Golf

Preston and Billy played golf at the Royal St Kitt's Golf Course.  Billy shot an 82 and Pres shot a 77.  Go Preston!

Sandy Beach

We stopped at a beautiful beach, Sandy Beach, which had been illegally blocked off from cars by the Sea Turtle association because people were driving their cars past the parking lot and onto the beach, which disrupted the habitat.  We parked at the road block and walked into the beach.  Ironic thing is that this whole entire area will be a massive resopt/condo/golf course in about five years, so the beach front is lined with property line markers and there are bulldozer tire tracks in the sand.  Very sad.

Preston touched a monkey!

We stopped at another bar that was home to Oliver the Monkey.  The goat and pig are unnamed, but they were excellent dining partners.  Once again... Mango margarita.

Brimstone Hill Fortress

Brimstone Fortress is a British military post built in the mid 1600's on St. Kitts.  Today, it is a national park.  We stopped here on our self guided driving tour around the island.  After pulling onto a road that looked like a Texas back road and successfully honking through several tight turns, we made it to the top of the mountain.  We ate at the snack bar (not recommended) and took a walking tour of the fort.  One thing that is still the same about the fort is that there is no running water... all the water is captured rain water using a similar system they did in the 1600's.  Needless to say, the views were amazing.