Wednesday 6 April 2011

St. Kitts & Nevis

This morning, we docked alongside the Star Princess in Basseterre, St. Kitts. Also in port is the Fred Olsen Braemar.  According to our tour guide this afternoon, the official name of these islands is St. Columbus and Nevis, however, for some unknown reason it has come to be known as St. Kitts and Nevis.

The two islands are separated by as little as 2 miles in one spot and 11 miles in another. The British originally “owned” the western part of the island and the French “owned” the eastern part and the two countries apparently fought many battles, however, most significant is a battle called Bloody Point. In 1626, the countries joined forces to massacre the native Caribs. The few Caribs who survived the massacre escaped to other islands making this island the only one without a native Carib population.

Jamie – this island has the Ross University of Veterinary Medicine. This is a private university that has 600 students most of whom come from North America.

Today we took a “Countryside Tour” today which was interesting – we had the opportunity to see some of the island without having to do a lot of walking. People on this island appear to be poor or wealthy – we didn’t see any “in between”. 

Our tour had 2 stops on it. The first stop was a batik operation. The second stop was an overlook – to the right was the Caribbean Sea; to the left, the Atlantic Ocean. Both very beautiful.

Two partial dances tonight – a rumba and a waltz. Dinner (crème brulee) anfd the casino where we finally finished giving back all the money that Princess has kidly lent us over the past week and a half. Tomorrow night is the final night of the cruise that the casino will be open – a real disappointment, however, perhaps financially prudent!

I do apologize that there are no pictures from our last three stops – for some reason, Blogger is not recognizing my Picasa account.

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