The Culps of the Caribbean

WE LOVE NEVIS. Here is why: We took the Sea Bridge car ferry to Nevis       Lot's of unusual signs           Found a beautiful beach a few miles from the ferry dock.  Of course, as usual, there was no one there but us.  The water was crystal clear, warm and a sandy bottom.       A very typical church here with accompanying cemetery.  The shutters on the windows are opened on Sunday, there is no glass, just open air.  The graves are somewhat above ground. This was the last operating sugar mill (before the modern era).  I am certain it was constructed and operated by slaves.     A huge set of gears turned wind power into the force that would squeeze the juice out of the sugar cane stalks using the press below.     Once the juice was extracted it was diverted to a series of metal vats called "coppers" where the sugar cane juice was boiled to reduce the water content became thicker

The annual agricultural exposition began today on St. Kitts.  It highlights the different examples of farming, agriculture and aquaculture on the island. 

Saturday's weather was blustery with the rain and the wind, although still 80 degrees. Once it cleared in the afternoon we made it down to the nearest beach which is about 1/2 mile from home.  The surf was all worked up from the wind. On Sunday, the weather was perfect.  We went down to Key's Beach which is about 4 miles away.  It is a very long stretch of a sandy beach that faces a wild Atlantic Ocean.  Amy spent a lot of time picking up beach glass.  My day was made when I spotted the trail of a sea turtle that had laid it's eggs the night before. To read more about the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network click the link below: http://www.stkittsturtles.org/www.stkittsturtles.org/Welcome.html Lastly,  I had spotted a large boat that was parked on a street in town.  Amy wanted to see it.  Here it is:   Nope, not on a trailer. On the street.

The link below is a great video of St. Kitts shot from a helicopter.  My workplace can be seen starting in the lower left corner beginning at 1:02 and then moving to the center of the shot at 1:06.  The entire video is also nice. http://vimeo.com/63857848 Here is a screenshot from the video of my workplace.

Bootleg rum.  It's everywhere here.  You can buy it openly in the market or at a roadside stand. I am thinking about changing the name of this blog to "Bootleg Rum". Here are instructions on how to make it. How to make bootleg rum. Here's what they are saying in the Caribbean press. Bootleg Rum - It's everywhere.

Today I went to the beach at work and visited the tidal pool on the far northern end.  Fascinating. A small Moray eel is the king of this tide pool. "Chain Moray" is the proper name for this guy, who is full grown here at about 2 ft. long. The road to the beach is through a sugar cane field.   This rope fell off of a ship and washed up on shore.  It is about 4 inches thick.

Some roadside fascinations.  A Toyota Prius has nothing on this car for being an Earth-friendly hybrid. There was a scared cow running down the road near Frigate Bay this morning.  Frigate Bay is a tourist area, so clearly the tourists are a scary bunch.  I couldn't get the camera out in time. The Drop Off Not far from home there is a drastic drop off, which if one did not know better would be just another turn-off from the road.  No guard rail stops a car from careening off this cliffside. So, when coming from the North. DO NOT make a left-hand turn. The drop-off is about 300 ft. to the bottom. Caves Near Key's village there is a set of cave openings right next to the road.  Someone has recently cleared the brush away from their mouths.  The tallest opening is about 30ft.   Huck Finn and Jim would have found these desirable.

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.

These two Easter parades took place in my neighborhood.  Both were sponsored by local churches.