The Culps of the Caribbean

Donkeys, often overlooked and underrated, are animals with an incredible spirit and a heartwarming ability to bring joy and healing to those who care for them. These gentle creatures have been domesticated for thousands of years, serving as beasts of burden, transportation, and loyal companions. However, not all donkeys are fortunate enough to have a loving home. Many find themselves in dire situations, neglected, abused, or abandoned. This is just such a donkey. His name is Biscuit. I live and work on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.  St. Kitts is rich in history and we are surrounded by that history daily, some of that history is painful.  Peppered all across the island are remnants of sugar cane processing structures that date back to the 1700's.  Notably these are stone windmill foundations from the 1700's and from the 1800's, in very close proximity, are 50' tall stone chimneys. It was exploring the site of one of these ruins a few years ago when I came acro...

The cruise ship "Freedom of the Seas"

At the foot of the Brimstone Hill Fortress on the island of St. Kitts, the St. Kitts Marine Works stands ready to shelter and repair your mighty craft. The tug boat Uranus is currently in drydock for hull repairs.  Interestingly, some of the crew remains living on board.

From Undeveloped to Developing St. Kitts is widely considered undeveloped for the tourist industry.  This is despite that between November 1 and April 30, at least 1 (and up to 5) cruise ships dock here for the day.  Typical cruise ships carry 2500 passengers but it varies between 300 and 4,500 passengers depending on the ship.  A single day can bring bring 10,000 tourists to an island of 40,000.  Cruise ships are here for the day and those passengers that come on shore have about 6 - 8 hrs to get their sight-seeing completed.  "Undeveloped" also means that when a passenger leaves the cruise ship port (mall), there are really no retail businesses set up for visitors.  They are just regular stores that you would find in your town and they really don't carry souvenirs.  The cruise ship port (mall) area is a large collection of jewellery stores and t-shirt shops.  Of the 80 businesses, 65 are jewellery stores and 15 are t-shirt shops.  I am not...

We took a trek to Sofa Stone... About 5 miles from home is a 1000 ft high mountain which has a rock formation on it called Sofa Stone.  It is shaped like a sofa.  It is rumoured to have spectacular views but very few people can accurately describe the route to get there. Our friend Mike, formerly an American resident of St. Kitts, had returned for a visit.  He took us on what he recalled was the route there.  He was 85% correct.  Fortunately Mike had brought along his machete and he bushwhacked his way to the top of the mountain and we followed his newly blazed trail. It was quite a climb with a rise of about 500 feet from the trail head.  But the result was spectacular. Despite the cloudy day, the view was great. Sofa Stone Selfie Looking to the south peninsula, the cloudy day obscures the site of Nevis. Looking to the Atlantic to the east. Looking at the valley below us to the north. The sof...

On Sunday a cruise ship anchored off shore in a large cove nearby.  It was the most unusual location.  We had to go take a look.  I also tried out the panorama feature of my camera.

Today, I had to head into town (5 miles) to pick up a few items in the downtown area and then grab a couple of items at the grocery store.  So, kind of boring.  I did capture a few things of interest. This is "The Circus" downtown Basseterre. At the grocery store at 11am a guy is pissing in the parking lot.  I would expect this from some bros at 2 a.m., but not in the middle of the day. Here's the close up Went down to the beach at work.  You have to navigate over some rocks to get to the black sand beach.