St. Kitts

St Kitts

The Atlantic Side of the island

Enticed by the call of monkeys that come out of the wild, we picked a particular beach to go to today.  After commandeering a cab, he informed us that beach is now part of a resort, and directed us to another beach that also had monkeys.

Our cab drivers' name was Elvis, which should have been a hint as to the entertainment value HE would provide US that day.
Luckily, we were at the beach early, so it felt as though we were the only people on earth.  The little place there (the Shipwreck Bar & Grill) had chairs and canopies to rent, and wasn't even open when we arrived.  The canopy did not provide the shelter needed from the rains of the morning, though.  We ended up under the cover of the restaurant, and stayed there until the rain passed an hour or so later.  
The monkeys did not disappoint.  Luckily we had brought a banana with us, and Aspen was able to feed them.  There were a dozen or so and they would come out of the trees and the forest, right down to the road to eat.  Momma monkeys and baby monkeys, monkeys in trees, hiding in the rocks.

A native islander came around and offered to braid Aspen's hair.  After she did (and we paid too much for it... but we felt bad for some of their conditions), her son, who was 6, played with Aspen for several hours on the beach.  It was hillarious to watch.  They played chase, drew pictures in the sand, and shared some Cheetos.

There were a couple funny and scary parts to the day.
**Our cab driver apologized for having to stop by his house on our drive back to the ship, to "feed his baby" who was home alone.  Thinking he was talking about a wife and family... we asked how old his baby was.  13 weeks.  Huh?  13 weeks and he is home alone?  Yeah... our cab driver took time out of his job to take some scraps of food to his 13 week old DOG.  Yeah.  We laughed.  On the drive to his house, we drove on a paved one lane road, with a car parked off the shoulder, with sugar cane growing all through it.

**We stopped at a convenience store in town, and were checking out with 3 drinks and a couple candy bars.  You would think, to watch them check our items, that it was a movie playing in slow motion.
One item picked up.
Item written down on tablet.
Item cost put into register.
Item put into shopping bag.
Next item picked up...
and so on...
SLOW MOTION!!!
As was the speed of every island we were on.  Very laid back and un-rushed.

**Town was a bit scary.  Some of the natives are not very happy about all the tourists invading their space.  We were yelled at by a passing car to "Go back to the ship", and some of the people walking around in town seemed as if they were in a trance.  Cops sat outside certain stores.  We can only assume that those stores could afford the extra cost of paying for the extra security.

Pretty country, but not one we probably would go back to for a lengthy stay, unless we stayed out of the main part of town.