Sinkits - January 10

As I was going to Saint Kitts,

On a cruise ship with quaint Brits,

We went ashore in Basseterre

Our taxi driver was waiting there.

We passed some vendors hawking trinkets.

"Welcome," said our guide, "to Sinkits."

Yeah. Apparently it rhymes with trinkets.

This was our first time in St. Kitts. We picked up a taxi tour at the dock. Two other couples from the ship completed our group.

We saw a few things in Basseterre, but I wasn't always sure what they were.

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Our first stop was Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was worth it just for the view, but it was a cool fort, too.

On the road to the fort we drove through a forest and a green vervet came running down the road. At first I thought it was a dog. These monkeys are not native to St. Kitts. They were brought here by the French as pets and got loose. Oh, what a surprise. Now they outnumber the people on the island. Our photo came out as a dark green nothing. I fiddled around with Photos, changed it to black and white, adjusted something, and got a photo of either Bigfoot or a wild monkey.


The drive up to the fort was very steep, and at one point we got stuck on some rocks. When we got to the top, one of the passengers said he smelled something like burned rubber, so the driver checked out the wheels.


Here are some photos taken from the fort.

We circumnavigated most of the island. Here are some of the sights we saw:

An egret tree. They like this tree because it is thorny and keeps the egg-stealing rodents away.

An abandoned sugar mill. Sugar is no longer produced on St. Kitts.

I bought some pear soda and plantain chips at De Bamboo Pub

 

This area is known as Black Rocks

The Atlantic is on the left, and the Caribbean is on the right. Robert Redford's house is on one of those hills.

A lot of these tiny Caribbean countries without much of an economy have figured out how to achieve 98% literacy and universal free health care. Sinkits is one of them. The island is clean and tidy, too. 

In the evening we listened to a duo consisting of steel drums and electric violin. Very nice.