Basseterre, St. Kitts

March 11, 2022

St. Kitts and Nevis March 9, 2022

The first Wednesday in Lent found us on the Island called St. Kitts (Nevis is nearby but we didn’t tour on that island). “Kitt” was the popular nickname for Christopher—according to two different tour guides yesterday, so it must be true. Besides, it’s much easier to say than Christopher Columbus Island.

Everyone is starting to lag a bit due to the island-by-island schedule and the plethora of tours available. Some of us have scheduled a day off—whew, and yes, that DOES sound self-indulgent as you deal with snow and cold and ice. The pattern for these past days has been leaving the docked port at about 6 or 7 pm, watch the shore lights recede from the floor-to-ceiling dining room windows, travel all night, then turn on the TV ship camera and watch the next island materialize, marvel at the volcanic outlines that are similar or totally different from all we saw in Polynesia, enjoy breakfast as the ship is anchored, then get off and join a tour for part or most of the day. Repeat.

And since we have been nicknamed the Magical Mystery Tour, today was a bit of an exception. For us. Our scheduled tour left at 1:30, so, hurray!!! We slept in a bit, had a very leisurely breakfast in the large dining room. I think it was our third time for breakfast in the Grand Dining Room and one server could be heard in the background commenting on it being our first time to another server as we passed. We worked on our two separate computers to get blog and photos sent, then made a dash off the ship to do some leisurely shopping at the blocks of shops that were conveniently spread out to accommodate the three cruise ships already in dock. Ours is almost always the smallest ship and we are happy for that. Most of the other vacationers are in the Caribbean for 7-10 days (Spring break? Cold spell relief?) with the requisite sunburns covered by new flowing batiks or embroidered covers. We’re continually puzzled that so many shops carry so many of the same tourist items. But it doesn’t usually stop me from poking my nose inside while Jerry finds a shaded bench and fellow commiserators.

Many of these islands have a history of raising sugar cane. This island was that to the extreme. At one point in the 1700’s, there were 250 sugar cane plantations!!! Sugar barons from France and England competed for the market, and they needed hands to do the work. Thus began a history of slavery that is harsh, embarrassing, and still needs confession (see more below*). Our guide said that almost every square inch of arable land was turned into sugar cane. Remnants of the brick windmills remain, devoid of the Dutch windmills on top that generated power to crush the cane which was then dried for days and became crystalized brown sugar. Nearby to some are tall cylindrical remnants of the furnaces. On St. Kitts In order to transport the sugar from the interior to the ports, a small narrow-gage railroad was built.

Imperial Sugar (a 3-minute video)

· How to Make Sugar From Sugarcane (leaf.tv) (a quick history with a recipe for making at home)

· Sugar production - Britain and the Caribbean - National 5 History Revision - BBC Bitesize (gotta include this even if it’s not easy access)

The sugar beet industry basically destroyed sugar cane, being much less labor-intensive. The island kept up for a while by modernizing along the way. This included adding a rail line to move sugar to the mills and the ports in the early 1900's. On this island of St. Kitts, the plantations gradually were sold off and replaced with other agricultural goods that stay on the island—lots of fruit trees and vegetables, herds of sheep and goat, all that enables an island to be more self-sufficient. Some freethinkers from Alaska came and invested in utilizing the remaining railroad track and hiring a plant in Seattle to build a double-decker train for tourism in the mid 2000's. The cruise ships grasped the importance and ease of this and the rest is recent history. The top deck is covered with open sides and long padded benches. A narrow stairs winds down to the mail enclosed level that is air conditioned and has a restroom. There are five “cars” with the narrator/guide sitting in the first with her mic connected to the other cars. Stewards prepare free drinks for us that can generously utilize the abundant rum. For 90 minutes, we jostled back and forth with the whistle blowing often at intersections on the route. A truck drove ahead on the road and operated all road crossings manually. The train is not fast, and the interaction of wheels and rail is very noisy with high screeching wails. The guide said, “As the railroad saved the sugar cane industry 120 years ago, the railroad is now saving the island for the tourism industry.”