This is Ant, I loved St kitts from before I landed, I could see the green forested perfect volcano rising up from the sea with little Basseterre and its harbour below. There were only four of us on the flight, so was through the airport in minutes. I had a real spring in my step as I jumped into a cab to the Seaview Inn, we didn't have a reservation but there were sure to be rooms, St Kitts, like everywhere else we've been is empty.
Basseterre is a tiny Georgian/Caribbean port, lots of Britishness remains in the ice cream coloured cottages. I had found my way around the eating and watering holes of the town before Gill had even arrived, managing to ignore the cruise ship terminal and it's (to quote the Lonely Planet) - feral tubby tourists.
Gill was soon here and so a rum (Gill had brought duty free) was called for, on the little flower clad verandah of the hotel overlooking the busy port entrance. We discovered Ting, a fab local mixer for rum, which made it especially refreshing. The veranda was perfect for people watching. The hotel is hostel like, and like the kind of places we usually stay in. This trip has been devoid of these little traveller filled hostels that have looked after us so well elsewhere. Not sure if this is why there are no travellers here in the Caribbean or whether they don't come and so no call for hostels. Chicken and egg. Anyway we are happy.
Dinner at the Ballalloo restaurant, which was fine and we followed this with more veranda time. We met a German traveller, who was doing our trip in reverse, so we spent time swapping tales as you do. Again, first time on this trip. Woke up to monumental rains and news that Gill had left the key in the door to her room. She assures me that she hadn't been looking for anonymous comfort!
Very soon the sun was shining, so after a quick breakfast at the Caribe Cafe, looking out over the Caribbean, we did a quick explore - Independence Square, The Circus, Slave Market (oh yes please). Nice vibe here, friendly people, but by 11.30 we were done, so Nevis and our end of trip blow out pamper, here we come!
The little ferry port is across the road from hotel, it was nice just to wheel our bags, but we do not know why they are getting bigger when we haven't bought anything.
The Caribe Breeze brought us to Nevis. Bit choppy for Gill's liking. It was great to see both the Nevis and Kitts volcanoes as we crossed the channel between them. (This is Gill - Ant tried to convince me that the sea was smooth, it was only afterwards that we read the following news story:
ST. KITTS, JANUARY 12TH 2011 – Gusty winds prevented the 2,600-passenger Grand Princess from berthing at Port Zante on Wednesday.
“The captain decided to abort docking after gusty winds clocking over 40 knots were recorded on approach,” an official of the ship’s agents, Delisle Walwyn and Co., Ltd told the Communications Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister on Wednesday morning. He said the ship will instead spend the day at sea and cruise to St. Vincent its next port of call on Thursday.
Frankly, in my view if a huge cruise ship can't dock, the sea is more than choppy.....)
Funnily, both of us had wanted to get to Nevis for many years, so we disembarked with some excitement and dragged our bags up and down Charlestown's main and only road looking for a bar or restaurant for lunch. Ignoring the shouts of taxi drivers who came down on us like termites on a freshly fallen palm tree, maybe the first potential clients they'd seen for days.
We found a local bar at the port and settled down to a rum punch to watch cricket with the locals as they ate their lunch. Anyway, one turned to two and then we got the munchies and the giggles. We left before we got ugly.
The taxi ride to the hotel took us a third of way around the island and it was with anticipation that we pulled into Nisbet Plantation Beach Resort, it wasn't what we expected at all, little lemon chalets reminiscent of hi-de-hi or Butlins, whilst the rooms were nice and we got upgraded to ocean facing, my god they have a cheek at £400 a night each. The beach is bleak and windswept, we couldn't get lunch because it was after 2.30 pm, the bar closes at 18.00, and then we discovered that we weren't allowed to eat dinner at the restaurant because Ant had no shirt, long trousers or closed shoes. This wasn't good, also there was nowhere nearby to eat or drink, so we ended up walking a mile to the supermarket to get supplies. This isn't what an end of trip pamper is all about. Getting slowly more angry Ant tries to get his money back but to no avail. We had cheese slices and home made rum tings for dinner. We are stuck here for three days. Nevis, you certainly aren't what we came all this way to find.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
