Adventures in the Caribbean: St. Kitts & Nevis

Grandeur of the Seas brings us to a new island nation every day (which is the main reason we took it, such a great itinerary!). All the islands we are visiting were once part of the British West Indies: Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Vincent, Dominica, and St. Lucia.

Today, we are in Basseterre, the capital of the tiny country of St. Kitts & Nevis. The ship flies the flag of the country where we are in port, and me and the kiddo enjoy seeing that.

All seven of the countries we are visiting are small, but St. Kitts & Nevis is really small (barely 50,000 people)! 

After our experience with the kiddo in the heat in Grenada yesterday, today we hired a friendly cabbie, Elvis, to give us a little tour. He took us through "The Circus" on our way out of Basseterre.

We drove along the coast to the edge of the Central Forest Reserve National Park and a place called Romney Manor, which is on the site of an old sugar plantation. Production of sugar by slaves for the benefit of elite English families (men) is more or less the story of all of these islands, and this legacy seems to be very much "alive" more than a century and a half since (official) emancipation. Interestingly, this plantation was the first in St. Kitts to set its slaves free, in 1834.

Romney Manor is now the home of Caribelle Batik, where they make and sell batik fabric clothing, wall hangings, etc.

From Romeny Manor we drove south west, around Basseterre, to a place called Timothy Hill. From here you can look south and see the southern tip of St. Kitts, and Nevis not far away across the water.

That is the Atlantic Ocean to the north of Timothy Hill, and some of the resorts and the rest of St. Kitts further behind.

From Timothy Hill, it was back to Basseterre and the port.