There is an Island in the sun....

St Kitts and Nevis

Up bright and early - for us .. I'm convinced they put something in the water to keep these wild party octogenarians docile and sleepy... we made landfall at St Kitt's and Nevis, Basseterre to be precise... it looked promising from the ship.

Basseterre was an interesting place once we walked out through the port and past all the duty free, souvenir and tourist shops - the town itself was a gaudy colourful mix of higgle piggle buildings. 

A eclectic sekection of new and old, shiney and delapidated. All sizes and shapes.. Alot of music and wafting food smells - mostly good.   We walked up to Independance Park... a large square with lots of beautiful old trees, an ornate fountain and loads of chickens running about, some with babies.

This square has history though, thousands of slaves were traded there back in the day.  Now it is a quiet green space overlooked by a church, an art gallery (closed) and a few offices. I say quiet because it has that park vibe but the cafe on the other side was blasting out some funky tunes... great astmosphere...

Just around the corner was a monument to Queen Victoria... this amused me - it was a small (possibly broken? ) post stuck in the middle of the road surrounded by traffic signs and seriously unkempt.  The only identifer was and embossed portriat of the great lady herself...

Once away from the port gates, in the town, there was less tourist tat, hardly any diamond shops and not so many bars - at least not so many open at that time of day... quite a lot of signs and suggestions that this might be an interesting place to be later....

We wandered around town, the photographs show some of the less well kept properties as these were often the most interesting. There was a lot of music playing everywhere - we decided we wanted a coffee but we couldn't find anywhere that could change a $20 note🤣  well to honest we could find anywhere selling coffee for ages😵‍💫.

More wandering took us past more painted buildings, statues, graffiti, and lots of fabulous banana trees.. there were some nice ramshackle green spaces.

Chickens roamed everywhere... just as we were about to expire with thirst we found spot with a deck outside and sat and had a Carib.. the caribbean beer.

There were pelicans swooping around - fabulous archiac creatures looking magnificent.  They were diving in the sea but we couldnt get near as it was all fenced off.  We had to make do with watching them glide across the sky. 

Basseterre was defo a more interesting place than Philipsburg, it felt more lived in and much less geared to tourists. Obviously it is very much a tourist destination but somehow it retained its own character.  We were one of three cruise ships in port that day - I guess its what keeps the economy going.  From the ship, using the binoculars, it was very evident that for all the ramshackle, weathered dwellings in the town centre there was still a lot of money on the island given some of the enormous houses we could see on the side of the hills.

The town centre is not very big and it only took us a couple of hours to explore so we were back on the ship in time to enjoy some outside deck time (spying on houses) and even have a nana nap before having dinner and then a stargazing session.

The stargazing looked doomed.... cloudy skies allowing a 30 sec glimpse of jupiter even now and again but in fact it came good and cleared just as we needed it to, and then clouded over just as Dr Fred was finishing.  The evenings are so pleasant and warm... much nicer outside on deck then inside with the aircon so high you need a jumper.. ( loads of guests complaining).

Yesterdays drawing was a Philipsburg street scene and todays were the wild chickens..both to be finished.