10 St Kitts Thursday Nov. 20

Ships in Port: Noordam (Total passengers 1918)

Saint Kitts (also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island (Saint-Christophe in French)) is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The island is one of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. It is situated about 2,100 km (1,300 mi) southeast of Miami, Florida. The land area of St. Kitts is about 168 km2 (65 sq mi), being approximately 29 km (18 mi) long and on average about 8 km (5.0 mi) across.

Our destination, Cockleshell Beach is at the bottom of the South Peninsula.

Saint Kitts has a population of around 35,000, the majority of whom are mainly of African descent. The primary language is English, with a literacy rate of approximately 98%. Residents call themselves Kittitians.

"De King" William Wilson was our driver today. We negotiated a price of $14 ea for our return trip to Cockleshell Beach at the southern end of the island.

Room for two more! We met Joanne and Ken from Saskatchewan from our ship.

2 Chairs and an umbrella for $15.

We later found the cabbie dropped us off at a spot where he gets a cut of the action.

Cockleshell Beach is worth the trip 

The Island of Nevis is not far in the distance.

Taxiis won't bring you to Debbie's Bar because she doesn't grease them.

We found that  chairs were $4 ea with free umbrella and drinks are cheaper.

Debbie pours a mean rum.

John and Mark "signed in" upside down.

A big new resort hotel with a marina is under construction.

Cheryl catches up with free internet.

We caught up with Abi and Cliff at the cruise terminal. They were off in another direction today.

Waiting while Wendy did some last-minute shopping.

When you notice the place is EMPTY, you should check the ship. We were the very last ones on and were scolded by security. Apparently they had been paging our names on board. When I checked my watch it was 4:35 with "all aboard" at 4:30. Ooops!
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09 Martinique Wednesday Nov. 19

Ships in Port: Noordam (Total passengers 1918)

Martinique is an island in the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of 1,128 square kilometers (436 sq mi) and a population of 386,486 inhabitants (as of Jan. 2013).[1] Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. One of the Windward Islands, it is directly north of Saint Lucia, northwest of Barbados, and south of Dominica.

As with the other overseas departments, Martinique is one of the twenty-seven regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the French Republic. As part of France, Martinique is part of the European Union, and its currency is the euro. The official language is French, although many of its inhabitants also speak Antillean Creole (Créole Martiniquais).

It was raining when we arrived but soon cleared.

We walked down the pier to where the taxis wait and were fortunate to find our old driver Felix from a visit years ago. Unfortunately his vehicle could only hold 10 and there was 12 of us today. He said, for insurance reasons this could not be exceeded. He offered to find us another cab if we could split up to 8 + 4. This would increase the cost from $25 ea. to $35 ea and we felt this was unacceptable.

We took the ferry to Pointe du Bout in search of a good beach, hoping it was better than the last time we came here and took the ferry to Des Trois Ilets. Last time Jeannie and John from UK told us there was a better beach at a resort at another ferry stop. We will attempt to find it today.

Check out the Hotel Bakoua. This upscale resort is just what we were looking for and they changed their pricing from Euros to US Dollars. Instead of 15 Euros as the sign said, they took $10 for one chair and an umbrella.

A Frangipani Hornworm that will turn into a Giant Sphinx Moth ambles by my chair receipt that you can see has been changed from 15 Euros to $10 for one chair and an umbrella. CLICK HERE to read about the Frangipani Hornworm.

Everywhere there was signs of hurricane damage that has never been repaired. Although the resort hotel was in perfect condition, there were signs that the economy was not recovering well.

The Bakoua Hotel was spotless and spacious with it's partially outdoor common areas..

The pool and grounds were lovely.

Hotel bar at the end of this dock. Too expensive for us. We found a beach vendor and $2 beer.

CLICK HERE to visit the hotel's web page.

Down by the beach, each hotel unit has its own enclosed patio. Very nice.

We started the day with rain and now we are ending it with rain. A hefty thunderstorm waited until we were ready to go back to the ship.

At the marina harbour everything looked like it had seen better days. How lucky we were to find the Bakoua over the hill behind these deteriorating buildings.

The rain held off as we got back to the ferry for our 15 minute return trip. A great deal for $10 each way.

Holly, Sharon and Greg.

An arrow on the glass appears to point to Holly.

Two Martinique Coast Guard boats show off for us in the wake of the ferry.

Another fine dinner awaits us in the dining room.

Cheryl hams it up for me. I love this picture.

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