St. Kitts

Sunday, December 1st
Seabourn Sojourn
Basseterre, St. Kitts
Arriving:  10:00 AM
Departing:  11:00 PM
Partly Cloudy - 84 Degrees

St. Kitts was the first British settlement in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, a colony of the Crown until it attained self-governance within the United Kingdom, along with Nevis and Anguilla, in 1967.  St. Kitts and Nevis are "The Beautiful Sisters," two islands, two miles apart, and one independent nation since 1983.

Sojourn is docked at the foot of Basseterre in Port Zante, a modern 27 acre marina and cruise ship terminal on land reclaimed from the sea.

The St. Kitts Scenic Railway was once a working railroad, circumnavigating the island on narrow-gauge track beginning in 1912 to deliver sugarcane from the fields to the mills in Basseterre.  It's now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Caribbean, and has recently been purchased by Orient Express with the intent of total refurbishment.  The two-story sightseeing cars, built in Seattle they say, can accommodate  all passengers in climate-controlled comfort on the lower level, as well as on the open-air upper level covered observation deck.

We went straight up top to the back of the first car.  As the train and the wind changed directions, the diesel fumes from the locomotive were at times overwhelming, and the ride was more "ICKITY-YACK" than "clickity-clack."  With narrow gorges and high trellises, any obstruction on the tracks, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, could prove disastrous.  A scout car rode the rails just ahead of the train to check the track.

It was a pleasant tour of the island with many lovely vistas.  Lush and green, St. Kitts is an oval bisected by a mountain range from the northwest to the southeast, sloping from a height of 4,000 feet down into the sea to form a tail.  Sister island Nevis is just beyond the end of the tail.  The mountains are flanked by rainforests, the foothills give way to sugarcane fields, the cane running all the way to the coast.  The train winds in and out of the farms and villages of the island, as tropical beverages are served and an a cappella choir moves from car to car singing local and spiritual classics.

The poverty is evident around the island in the ramshackle homes and the endless series of stripped-down cars and junkyards that mar the landscape.  But there is ample evidence of progress too.  St. Kitts is a higher education magnet drawing students from throughout the Caribbean, Europe and the United States to programs in veterinary, island, and infectious disease medicine.  The government of Taiwan has sponsored an agricultural institute to help island farmers maximize yields.  St. Kitts is the headquarters for the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, in charge of monetary policy for the islands that use the Eastern Caribbean Dollar.  Bassetere is "rundown," the streets of the capital radiating out from the "circus," an octagon they modeled after London's Piccadilly Circus.  No one has yet to get them confused.


Next Stop:  Antigua