Today we took a day trip to Nevis, a smaller island right next to St. Kitts. Both islands make up the smallest country in the Americas. The closest distance between them is two miles… a channel called “The Narrows.” There is a yearly channel swim during which several people swim the distance, along with kayakers just in case someone needs help.
We caught the eight o’clock fairy along with the “rush hour” work crowd. At Port Zane, there was a man selling food out of his car right next to the fairy station. After people paid him, they would pour themselves some juice from one of his two coolers and walk away with something long and skinny wrapped in foil, similar to a breakfast burrito. After an hour, we met our driver at the port on Nevis. His taxi name was “Smile on Me” but his real name was Sedroy, a common name on these islands.
Our first stop was at the Four Seasons golf course where Billy, Gayle and Preston played a round of golf during the morning. When we got to St. Kitts, we heard that the Four Seasons on Nevis had closed down. This is the only large hotel on this island and it seemed sad that such a large building would stay vacant on a small island, like a waste of space. We found out what happened though, in little pieces throughout the week. It closed because it is built on the beach and when hurricane Omar hit, it filled the pool, restaurant, bungalows and grounds with trash and sand. They are planning to reopen in October.
The Four Seasons also had damage during another hurricane before Omar. It brought in palm/coconut trees from The States to replace the trees that were lost on the property. These trees had Yellow Leaf disease, which, like the name says, causes the leaves to turn yellow and fall off. It spread throughout the island, killing all of the palm trees. Some of them still have leaves which are starting to turn yellow, but most of them are now just tall, skinny bald things, reaching into the air above all of the other greenery on the island. We were told that the Four Seasons saved their own trees by injecting them with something, but did not extend this courtesy to the island, but I am not sure if this is true.
The next stop was the Nevis Equestrian Centre, where I scheduled a two and a half hour horseback ride. The centre was actually a small house with barely there stables in back, a few horses, a goat, a pig, some chickens and geese, a rooster and a few peacocks. Erica, the owner, was my guide. Thankfully, there was no one else there that morning so I was able to trot and canter on the beach and gallop along the back roads in the mountains and rainforest. Nevis has some beautiful beaches, soft sand and crystal blue water with the mountain rage of St. Kitts just a few miles in the distance. While we were riding on the beach, we past a sea turtle next. We could see where the turtle climbed up the beach, almost to the grass (I call it grass, but it is more like a sand weed, which I do know the name off), made and covered her nest and then made her way back down to the water. She had stopped at one point, turning around I guess, and there were big indentions in the sand almost 6 feet apart. She must have been big! This is the point where I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera on the ride; I was afraid I would lose it because I didn’t have any pockets.
After the ride, Sedroy dropped me off at a beach bar and grill to wait for Preston, Billy and Gayle. I found one lounger on the beach and stationed myself there, realizing that for the majority of the morning, I had not seen anyone else on the beaches on the north side of Nevis.
After the rest of my group arrived, we set off again with Sedroy on a driving tour of the island. We past neighborhoods and houses on the island side of the road and churches and hotels along the beach side of the road. We stopped at two churches that were built in the 1600’s. Preston pointed out that they were very small compared to the Catholic churches built on the islands that were colonized by the Spanish… His Latin American Religion class in action. Also, underneath the carpets, there are tombs inside the churches.
The history of these islands is tightly woven with the genocide of the native people by the colonists in the 1620's and the colonists use of slavery that followed. Another church on the island was built shortly after slavery was "abolished" on the islands. Plantation owners were reluctant to release slaves. One owner allowed his 131 slaves a day off to go to church. A church was built for them. This initiated the end of slavery on the islands. Unfortunately, we were unable to see this church because it is in need of repair and blocked off to visitors.
Something that was strange was that we passed several police stations, maybe three, on our drive. Each small neighborhood has it’s own police station. Also, we saw several houses that were concrete on the lower level and wood on the upper level. These are called “a skirt and blouse” house… I’m guessing they are built this way to provide some safety from hurricanes and also probably to save money.
Our last stop was an amazing restaurant in the mountain. It used to be part of a sugar cane plantation, the building where they prepared food for the workers. Remnants of sugarcane plantations cover these two islands, everywhere you see old, dark colored crumbling rocks, you know that was a structure built in the 1600’s. St. Kitts was producing sugarcane up until two years ago, but the plantations on Nevis closed a long time ago. In Nevis, geothermal energy is the “new big thing.” Anyway, back to the restaurant… we ordered refreshing fish sandwiches and lobster salads along with banana daiquiris that were made with real bananas and not Oasis brad banana puree. The tables were dotted with square, red umbrellas that contrasted nicely with the lush greenery growing around the dark stones of the building. I felt like we were in a travel destination magazine.
This day was very draining… when we got back to the hotel, we stayed in and ate pizza, very un-Blevins like! But we were all so tired. We finished the night off with a game of dominos and a dip in the pool, all in all, a good day.
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