We Wind Down Our Cruise with Stops in St. Lucia and St. Kitts

Overnight we arrived in the port of Castries, the capital and largest city on the island of St. Lucia.

St. Lucia Harbor

Our second most favorite island in the Caribbean, St. Lucia covers a land area of 238 mi.² with a population of over 180,000. We have always found St. Lucia to be the lushest and greenest of all of the islands due to its tropical rain forest climate.

Historic Home

Also, being close to the equator the temperatures do not fluctuate much between summer and winter.

 For this visit we booked a shore excursion which was identical to the one we had previously been on, but which would take us around the island with stops that would highlight the island’s Creole culture. Our bus ascended 900 feet above the harbor stopping at the home of a very prominent St. Lucian family who contributed much to the island’s development and culture.

Cocoa Pods and Beans

We toured the home and had some fantastic views of the island and surrounding features from the home’s porch. We next drove past the island’s governor’s home and then on past a community college and a university.

Nutmeg

Our final stop was at Howelton Estate, a former working plantation established in 1896. Here we were told about Creole farming traditions and shown some of the crops that were produced on the plantation, including cinnamon, cocoa, and nutmeg. We were also given a demonstration in the art of Batik, a cloth dying process originating in Indonesia. Next came a demonstration of traditional Creole dance followed by refreshments of cassava bread, fig jam, and punch.

Jane and Her New Scarf

After the tour and demonstration we had some time to peruse the gift shop, and Jane was able to find a dyed scarf that was calling her name.

We return to our ship just as a deluge of rain was ending. We spent the afternoon relaxing and in the evening we had dinner at Caneletto’s Italian specialty restaurant.

Sunrise Over St. Kitts

Basseterre, St. Kitts was our last port of call before returning to Fort Lauderdale. St. Kitts and the neighboring island of Nevis constitute one country: the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Welcome!

The land area of St. Kitts is 65 mi.² being approximately 18 miles long and 5 miles wide with a population of around 40,000.

Since our last visit to St. Kitts, a new cruise ship pier had been built along with a modern and expanded duty-free shopping area featuring an extensive selection of shops.

New Duty Free Area

We made our way off the ship and started to shop some of the gift shops. Jane thought that a couple of the shops had some real bargains so that is where she focused her energy. She made a couple of purchases and then we walked out of the duty-free area and into the old town.

Park and Catholic Church

We came upon Independence Park which was located next to a Catholic church. It was Sunday and church was just letting out, so we went inside to take some pictures. Over the rooftops we could see the belltower of another church, so we ambled off in that direction.

Inside the Anglican Church

We arrived at the church, another Catholic Church turned Anglican by British troops. This church was also just ending services so we were able to go inside and capture the moment.

We made our way back to the duty-free area where Jane made a couple of additional purchases before heading back to the ship. We will spend the next two sea days attending some presentations, spending down our cabin credit, and thinking about packing and getting ready to disembark the ship. All in all it was a pretty enjoyable cruise and we wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

 

Up Next: Martinique and Barbados

Our next stop was in Fort-de-France, the capital and largest city on the windward island of Martinique.

Coming to Martinique

The island is a French territory with a land area of approximately 436 mi.² (43 miles long by 19 miles wide) and a population of around 361,000.

Royal Clipper

The economy is primarily driven by tourism, but the growing of sugarcane, bananas, and rum production are also important contributors.

During our last visit here we had extensively walked the city to see the featured sites and were not terribly impressed with the offerings. However, Jane did remember a great crafts market next to the pier. We decided that we would walk off the ship and explore the market and then possibly stroll into downtown if we felt up to it.

Calypso Band

As we were having breakfast, a tall masted sailing ship, the Royal Clipper, pulled into the berth next to us. It was a beautiful ship and cruising on such a vessel was something we thought we might like to try.

We disembarked and walked off the pier and were greeted by a calypso band entertaining the passengers.

Street Protestors?

We listened for a few minutes and then headed over to the vendors. Almost immediately Jane found some goodies that she felt she had to have. We hit all of the vendors next to the pier and then saw another market not too far away. We went completely through the market, but as we have seen with other such markets, all of the vendors offer the same merchandise for a collectively agreed upon price. At this point we thought about heading downtown, but some activities in the street changed our minds.

Stealing the Show

When we first got off the boat we saw and heard people marching and carrying flags in the street. Initially, we figured that this was some kind of parade, but as we got closer it appeared to be more of a demonstration or protest. That took going downtown off the table!

We headed back to the pier market and Jane was hot to buy a sarong that she had spotted earlier. The vendor pulled out a tub of packaged sarongs and Jane picked a black one with some pretty green flowers.

Jane's BLM Sarong

The sale was made and we headed back to our ship, but not before we stopped and listened to the calypso band. Suddenly, this old guy sitting next to us jumped up and approached the band asking for a microphone. Painfully off pitch, he began singing “Yellow Bird” and “Marianne” (old songs but Jane knew them all!). The crowd went crazy over this and the band looked pretty startled.

Back in our cabin Jane opened up her sarong to get a full view of the pattern. Lo and behold, emblazoned along the top of the cloth in big bold letters were the words “Black Lives Matter” complete with a clenched fist rising up through the center!

Rotterdam and Royal Clipper

Obviously, we would try to return this get something different. We had lunch and then headed back off the ship to exchange the sarong, hoping that the vendor would be understanding and remember us as we had no receipt. We found the vendor and Jane explained that this is not which she had in mind (the vendor was black!).

Barbados Rainbow

The vendor laughed and then gratefully accommodated Jane with another selection. So it all worked out.

Bridgetown, Barbados was our next port of call— the island’s capital and largest city. Gaining its independence in 1966, Barbados was formerly a British territory. With an area of 167 mi.², Barbados is approximately 21 miles long and 14 miles wide.

Along the waterway

The current population is around 281,000 with 90% of all Barbadians being of Afro-Caribbean ancestry.

We didn’t schedule any excursions for Barbados, choosing instead to walk to town as we had during our last visit.

Parliament Building

We left the ship and made our way through the duty-free area and headed for the downtown area. We walked along a waterway that connects to the ocean and across a couple of bridges for which Bridgetown gets its name. We walked to a park and sat and people watched for a while and then made our way to the government district where we saw the beautiful parliament building.

Processing Fish

We decided to return to the ship and not revisit some of the churches that we had seen on our last trip to Barbados.

On our way back to the ship we detoured to a sidewalk café situated on the waterway that we had stopped at on our last visit. We relaxed and people watched over a couple of beers before we made our final push to get back to the ship.

Fisherman Repairing His Net

Along the way we encountered a commercial fish market where the fresh catch was being cleaned and packaged for purchase. It was quite an operation with the processing of huge quantities of fresh fish.

Back at the duty-free area, Jane decided that there were a couple of shops that she wanted to browse. However, the browsing didn’t last long as she decided that there were just no bargains to be had! Back on board the ship we had a late lunch and then spent the afternoon relaxing.

A Bunch of Saints--We Visit St. Thomas, St. Maarten and St. Martin

Today we returned to St. Thomas— our most favorite place in all the Caribbean. We had visited here several times on past cruises and we spent 3 weeks on the island in 2015 celebrating our completion of visiting all the national parks.

St. ThomasHarbor

Just coming into the harbor stirred fond memories of our past visits and we immediately began to recognize familiar sites. The harbor was filled with transient sailing boats and mega power yachts.

A Tall Dude to Greet Us!

The site brought back memories of our boating days. We decided not to take a tour here because most of the tours went to various beaches and this is not where we wanted to spend most of our time. We are also glad at this decision when we pulled into the harbor and saw two other cruise ships along with ours.

The Obligatory Welcome Pic

With three cruise ships in port there's no question that the beaches would be tremendously crowded. Not having been off the ship for the past four days, we were eager to get off and stretch our legs, and Jane was eager to spend some money. In lieu of our morning exercise walk, we decided to walk the approximate 1 mile distance to the downtown area.

Walking to Downtown

 

We arrived at the crafts market which was located in the same place we have always known it. Nothing there was really speaking to us so we ambled over to Main Street and headed down the jewelry store gauntlet. Everybody and his brother must own a jewelry store in St. Thomas to the point that it is difficult to find a regular store or gift shop.

Private $$$hip w/Heliopad

We roamed some streets and alleyways until Capt. Larry spotted another Mr. Tablecloth. Jane was in heaven and perused the offerings until she found a set of placemats that she wanted along with a knit cover to wear over a camisole top. We made our way back to the crafts market and found a taxi stand that would take us back to our ship.

Sunset Over St. Thomas

We looked at some of the duty-free shops next to our pier, but didn’t find anything else that we felt we had to have. We had a delightful lunch and then took a power nap to get ready for tonight’s specialty restaurant— Tamarind Pan-Asian curisine.

The next morning we awoke to find our ship docked at a pier in Philipsburg, St. Maarten (French: St. Martin).

Sailboats in St. Maarten Harbor

The island of St. Martin is divided roughly 60:40 between the French Republic (20 sq. mi.) In the Kingdom of the Netherlands (13 sq. mi.). The Dutch side with approximately 41,000 inhabitants is more populated than the French (~32,000). The site also has the bulk of the island’s commercial and economic activity.

 We had reserved a short excursion for this island which was basically a two hour circumnavigation of the island.

Marker Dividing French/Dutch

Dominic, our guide for this excursion, got everyone loaded on the bus and off we went. He pointed out that much of the land that we were traveling on had been reclaimed from the sea and that this reclamation process was in full swing to accommodate and encourage coastal development.

Waves Breaking in Shallows

As we drove through the Dutch side, Dominic described all of the commercial and residential development that had occurred since Hurricane Irma had devastated the eastern part of the island. As so often happens after a major storm, Dominic observed that many people were still fighting with insurance companies in order to rebuild.

We crossed the boundary separating the southern Dutch side from the northern French side. Dominic described how there were two of everything on the island— one for the French, and one for the Dutch.

Hilly French Side

In fact, this even extended to babies born to mixed Dutch and French parents who were granted dual citizenship and issued both Dutch and French passports. Topographically the French site is much more mountainous than the Dutch and also had more natural beaches.

Open Air Crafts Market

We stopped at an area where Atlantic Ocean waves broke over an extended shallow area of land.

We proceeded to our last stop of the tour, and open-air crafts market where Jane was able to find some “bargains” that she had to have. The market was huge with respect to the number of vendors, but the type, quality, and price of the offerings varied very little among them. We re-boarded the bus and headed back to the cruise terminal.

A St. Maarten Beach

Along the way we spotted the Princess Julianna International Airport on the Dutch side and a couple of popular bays.

Back on board we got cleaned up for dinner and afterwards attended a BBC Earth concert presentation entitled Seven Worlds One Planet with live orchestration.

Sunset Leaving St. Maarten

The program was really enjoyable and entertaining.