So I finally
decided to step out on faith and take my first solo international trip. After a little research I decided to travel
to St. Kitts, an island in the Eastern Caribbean that is extremely laid back
with very little crime (hey listen, a girl has to take certain precautions). As
the date of my departure approached I thought several times about canceling but
decided to stop being a punk and go, I needed this trip, I needed to get away
to clear my head, to regain focus. So I hopped a plane and took off on this
journey alone.
Day 1
I travel
often so getting there wasn’t an issue.
After clearing customs I grabbed my luggage and jumped into a cab and
headed to the hotel. Visiting a new place is always an experience. I will
always be in complete awe of people that drive on the “wrong” side of the road.
As we made our way to the hotel I cringed as we wound our way around curves and
cars whizzed by to my “right” (yikes!!!). Fact
– there are no stop lights on the island of St. Kitts. Traffic flow is
dependent purely on common courtesy (would NEVER
happen in NYC).
After
checking in my first stop was the tour desk. I had been advised by a friend to
tour the island of Nevis by taking the ferry over and grabbing a taxi but I
wasn’t sure I was too comfortable doing this alone so I instead signed up for a
“sunset dinner cruise” to Nevis that night. I ran to the room, changed and came
back to the desk ready to set out on my excursion. Being the oddball of the
group (the single girl) I expected it to be a quiet night of taking in the
sights. BOY was I wrong. I met an
awesome group of people that “adopted” me in. We spread out on the catamaran
taking in the breeze, the landscape of the hillsides of St. Kitts, the clouds
hanging over the mountains and drinking rum punch. As we pulled up on the beach
on Nevis we got off of the boat and waded thru thigh high water up onto the
beach then off to dinner.
I spent the next few hours eating, drinking,
sharing my history as well as learning about the adventures of the rest of the
group. We laughed at the folks trying to dance to the calypso music of the
restaurant, a few of them even tried it themselves (I hadn’t had enough liquor
to do this). I indulged in jerk shrimp,
with rice and beans, watched a local performer that kind of resembled Abe
Lincoln perform a song which I’m not sure but may be have a little
inappropriate for dinner. Before I knew it, it was time to head back to St.
Kitts. We waded our way back to the boat and settled in for the hour and a half
long trip back to our resort under the moonlight.
Day 2
Good move going
on the dinner cruise. I met a few folks, specifically an elderly couple from
Massachusetts traveling with a widowed sister who sort of adopted me as a
pseudo-grandchild. After speaking with a
bellman they hired a taxi driver, the
Original Anthony B, and for the next few hours we traveled the island
taking in some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen in my life.
As I stood on
a cliff and looked out over a thin portion of the island that featured the
Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other I thought it does
not get any better than this. We visited
another site where I saw the most amazing black rocks that were formed by a
volcanic eruption in the 1500s and was a witness to the fighting tides where
the two bodies of water physically met. We stopped on the roadside to pick fresh
fruit, wandered around a closed rum factory and I climbed to the top of a fort to
view neighboring islands while learning the history of how this beautiful
island was inhabited and developed.
Afterwards we returned to the hotel where I
separated from the group to have a late waterfront lunch as I listened to steel drums serenade me with Donnell Jones – yes that one. I then retired
to the beach with my drink and promptly fell asleep in the ocean breeze.
The Finale
The next two
days I spent lounging on the beach and taking in the sun and doing as little as
possible. I enjoyed the solidity, the peace and fresh air. What I found most amazing is how much I did WITHOUT the company of someone else.
Meeting new people and exploring a new place alone turned out to be not as
scary as I thought it was going to be. I feel extremely blessed to have
experienced this journey and cannot wait
to try it again. All suggestions for a new destination are welcome ;)
