Our previous stop, St. Martin, is governed by France and Holland. St. Kitts and its companion island of Nevis are an independent nation, though, and perhaps the smallest country in the Americas. Like many islands in the West Indies, European colonialists tried raising different crops before finally settling on sugar cane. Sugar and rum were once the mainstays of the local economy, but tourism is their main cash crop today.
View from our cabin once we docked at Basseterre on the island of St. Kitts. The mountainous topography on Nevis and St. Kitts reflects their volcanic origin. The West Indies lie along a subduction zone boundary between the Caribbean and Atlantic tectonic plates, and the region has experienced earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from time to time over the past few decades. Fortunately, things were quiet during our visit.Fairview Great House, an old sugar plantation house on St. Kitts. Today, this sprawling frame construction on a stone foundation serves as a museum and botanical garden for visitors. Wide verandas provide shade, and there are lots of windows to allow cooling breezes to blow through the rooms. However, the shutters are functional rather than just for looks; many buildings on these islands have sturdy shutters to protect windows and doors against hurricanes. While there we sampled a fresh Johnny Cake, a local fried bread that reminded us of a Mexican sopapilla, but without any honey or chocolate sauce. Nevertheless, it was tasty. We discovered later that, like sopapillas, Johnny Cakes come in somewhat different varieties based on family recipes and the cook’s techniques.Desert rose, also known as mock azalea, planted near the plantation house. The “PictureThis” app on my phone made it easy to identify various plants and flowers. By the way, we did not see any irrigation systems for the flowers or for the sugar cane fields, so we suppose that these islands get more rain than other places where we have seen sugar cane cultivated. St. Kitts has a large number of vervet monkeys; locals say there are more monkeys than people on the island. The monkeys steal anything they think might be edible, and do a lot of damage to fruit trees and gardens. Here are two monkeys with Dorcas. Notice that the handler gave them cucumber slices to keep them occupied so they would (hopefully) not bite, scratch, or steal something like a cell phone.I snapped this photo through the window of our small bus as we zoomed down the road. These are egrets nesting in the tops of thorn trees; the thorns prevent monkeys from raiding the nests.Sunny view along the coast. This was the leeward (or dry) side of St. Kitts, and you can see the outline of some cactus on the arid hillside.A rare photo of the photographer! Dorcas shot this while we were relaxing on board our ship. I am holding my Canon with zoom lens attached, ready for the next shot. Every tool has its use, though, and while this equipment is excellent for distance and macro shooting, sometimes my iPhone camera is better for wide angle shots like landscapes.We noticed these mostly black birds soaring over the shoreline (and sometimes over our ship), and I used the zoom lens to pull in a close shot. This is a “Magnificent Frigatebird,” or just a frigate for short. The “Merlin” bird ID app on my phone was a great help in figuring out what kinds of birds we saw or heard.Parting shot of St. Kitts as we sailed away towards our next port of call, St. Lucia.
