St Kitts
Salamander
Tue 16 Feb 2010 16:09
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Arrived 9th Feb too late to clear customs,
immigration and the other hoops. Often we have green taxes to pay too. Only one
place has actually charged for the forms separately - BVI asked for 20c for
checking in and 60c for checking out.
You will remember the Barbuda customs
story?
The guide book says you can check in with Customs
at the Deep Water Harbour, so we anchored near there, which happens to be near
the biggest supermarket too. Found Customs in the secure compound, but he
suggested we should go to the main port as Immigration was there
too.
Went to Port Zante which had two Cruise ships
docked with 5,000 passengers coming and going. The Customs Officer was at lunch,
so I went away for an hour and came back to wait another 20 mins. Cleared
Customs, and Port Authority, but no Immigration. Directed to the Police Station,
to find no Immigration Officer there either 'he must be at lunch, come back in
15 mins'.
Returned to find all the Immigration Officers were
in a meeting at the airport and hadn't told the Customs Officer.
Fortunately, a local bar owner (Reggae Beach on
Cockleshell Bay) needed clearance for a day trip and he gave me a lift to the
airport where it took two immigration officers, a couple of crib sheets, 2
computers and about an hour to clear the two of us!
Despite this the people on St Kitts are Caroline's
favourite to date - friendly, open and we have not seen any of the blazing rows
we have witnessed many times on other islands in the street. The locals chat
away with you, but the island is heavily in debt and Labour have just been
returned for their 4th term.
The bus 'system' here is great, the buses are all
request and drive pell mell around the island's perimeter (only) road all
the time. Painted with names such as 'Mr Humble', 'Ooh Hoo', 'Sweetie Boy',
Superdoc' and one we're not quite sure of the meaning of - 'Love Sponge'. The
food names are great too. Murray has just eaten Smuckers Jam and a Spunkermeyer
Muffin.
We are spending a few days in St Kitts because we
really like it here. Our bay has 2 wrecks, lots of fish life - ray, turtle,
moray eels etc, so great for snorkelling.
We took a trip to Brimstone Hill to see the
fortress built by British Army engineers with slave labour to fight the French
(why else?!). It's seriously impressive and too big to photograph in its
entirety (Shaz and Ed, you could renew your vows here!)
   We've eaten at the Golden Lemon Inn in a serene
garden setting. Caroline had Banana and Lobster salad - strange but tasty. We
visited Rawlins Plantation for cocktails and walked round the most gorgeous
gardens. Each 'room' is in fact a cottage and there is space for just 14
couples. Rawlins had a fantastic aura. As you can probably tell, this is one of
our favourite places so far.
The island is also strangely full of African Vervet
monkeys - brought over by the French (dunno if they like cheese).
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