Every now and then someone will ask me “What is your favorite port?” Until this year I have always answered, “Haiti, St. Croix and St. Lucia”. I guess I have a top three….except, now I have a top FOUR! I have added St. Kitts to the list of favorites.

We parked the ship in port and wove through the maze of Tour guides looking for their charges for the day. Our guide was a tall Island Native wearing rainbow sunglasses named “Zulu”. Our destination was twofold. The Caribelle Batik house and also the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park.


We began our journey driving through St. Kitts while Zulu told us about his homeland. I have decided that in the future I really need to bring a notebook for these adventures! I apologize that I cannot remember what all of these buildings are, shame on me.






I felt bad for those Monkeys, it doesn’t seem like a happy existence.
After about 45 minutes we started heading UP UP UP to the fortress.
Brimstone Hill Fortress
The Fortress was designed by British Army Engineers and constructed by African Slave workers. In 1690 in an effort to recapture Fort Charles from the French Occupation on the coast the first Canons were mounted by the British.

Although the clouds were threatening the desire to climb to the top was strong. We made our way up the long ramp/steps to the gun deck.
The view from the top was worth the climb!

Some more from the top.

There was another even higher level about six or eight steps up. I made it to the top step when a big gust of wind blew and I chickened out and went back down.

That Wind! All week!! In addition, it started to rain while we were at the top so I headed back toward the bus. Once we were all back onboard we took off down the hill toward the Caribelle Batik House. Christine climbed into the co-pilot’s seat and quickly discovered that the narrow mountain roads made for a nail biter of a ride.


The ride to and from the fortress took us past a HUGE lime kiln.
We also drove past the limestone outcropping.

Then we were off to the Batik House.
Caribelle Batik
On our way we passed a beautiful tree FILLED with Egrets but sadly I was not in a good position to take a decent picture.
Caribelle Batik is a short ride from the Fortess in the forested hills. We saw remnants of sugarcane crops and many beautiful trees and plants.


When we arrived we wandered the grounds a little before heading inside for a short demonstration on how Batik is made.

In a nutshell, Batik is all about waxing the material. First, wax the parts that will be left white and then dye the entire fabric the lightest color of the design. The next day after the fabric has dried wax the part that is to remain the lightest color and dye the entire fabric the next shade darker and so on. If your design has five colors it will take five days to dye. Once the dying is complete scrape off most of the wax for reuse and boil off the rest.


We popped out on the other side of the building and enjoyed some more of the landscape.
Then it was back to port. There was so much to see on the Island of St. Kitts, if you haven’t been you should go, take notes!
- Have you been to St. Kitts?
- Favorite port(s)?
Thanks for stopping by!