Saint Kitts

 

“Island days, island ways, surf, sun, and sunny rays.”

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Our cruise ships next stop has taken us to the beautiful island of St. Kitts. The official name for this island is Saint Christopher. It is an island in the West Indies and is one of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. As you travel around the island, you can see the Caribbean Sea on the west side and on the east side is the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and Nevis make up one country which is known as the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Nevis is a short two miles from Saint Kitts and is separated by only Channel known as “The Narrows.”

We got off the ship after having a nice breakfast. We were blessed with another beautiful day. We walked through the port in Basseterre, St Kitts which is the capital city till we found drivers who could take us anywhere on the island. Today we decided to take a taxi to a nice beach to spend the day. We hailed a nice elderly taxi driver that looked like a black Santa Claus with his white beard and mustache. We asked him to drive us to a nice beach. TIP: Make sure you know the price of your ride before you get in the cab.

He was great and told us he would take us to a beautiful beach. On the way he stopped at a great overlook called Sir Timothy’s Hill which is only about four miles from town. This is a popular tourist stop and I can see why. The views were incredible with bright green volcanic hills for as far as you could see. Along with the views, there was a vendor selling souvenirs and another lovely lady selling drinks for cheap. She was super friendly and we had a good talk. 

Our driver took us to a lovely beach and club on the Caribbean side of the island called Carambola Beach Club. That was to avoid the floating Sargassum, a brown floating seaweed that was washing up on one side of the island. During this time in the Atlantic Ocean (April 2023) there was an extremely large patch, in fact the largest patch ever recorded, of floating Sargassum that stretched from the coast of Africa all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. So he brought us to the best beach for the day.

This was a gorgeous sandy beach with a quiet area on the side that was protected from the winds and waves by a rock pile. We figured we would try to snorkel there and oh my, the snorkeling was fantastic. We saw so many gorgeous brightly colored tropical fish and many unusual ones we had never seen before. I was even lucky enough to see a sea turtle. He made swimming look effortless as he cruised through the water. He looked over and saw me and began to swim away so fast that I couldn’t keep up with him. We had about ten people with us that day, so we shared the snorkels and let everyone get a good look at the marine life. What an amazing spot to snorkel.

The beach had bright white sand and crystal clear turquoise water. What a delight. We rented a few lounge chairs there for $10 each and an umbrella for $5. It was worth it as the sun was hot. There was a bar and a restaurant there but everything was super expensive. TIP: If you go there and do stop on top of the mountain, buy extra drinks to bring with you to the beach. At the resort the personal pizzas cost about $23 dollars and drinks were about $10 each. There were tables and chairs set outside if you chose to eat but we just stayed on the beach.

Our beautiful granddaughter, Kaley found a beautiful shell in the water and showed us and our beautiful granddaughter, Christina found a starfish. We had a nice and relaxing day on the beach. When we were ready to go, our taxi driver was there waiting for us and we left as a group to get back to the ship.

As we headed back to the ship, there were many men walking around with tiny green monkeys asking if we wanted to get a picture with them. The monkeys were adorable. Some of the kids held the monkeys and loved it. The people on this island were super friendly. Before getting back on board the cruise ship, we walked around the port area awhile. It was just another great day in paradise.

Till next time. Bye for now.