good talk

To St. Kitts and Nevis, my 117th Country.  Be grateful to the local monkeys, this is where the Polio Vaccine you all got came from.  St. Kitts is 68 sq. mi. with a pop. of 39 thou while Nevis is 36 sq. mi. pop. 11,500., Independence from Britain in 1983.  I stayed at the "Seaview Inn" the only hotel in Basseterre, Capitol of St. Kitts, decent flop for 75 U.S. National Museum was interesting, in the 1894 Treasury Bldg. Berkeley Clock Tower and Independence Square are in the center, to Immaculate Conception Cathedral with the ceiling evoking a ship's hull, to St. George's Anglican.  Went to Warner Park Stadium and saw Cricket.  Good cheap Eats abound.  Went to "Bloody Point" where in 1626 the English and French massacred 2000 or more Caribs.  Walked a half-mile up to the magnificent Brimstone Hill Fortress, employees smilingly said, you walked?  The 3 hours I was there I was the only one I saw who did, gee.  The huge complex, the "Gibraltar of the West Indies" was taken in 1782 by the 8000 French besieging the 1000 English for 30 days, however just the next year the British regained it by "The Treaty of Paris."  For 150 years primarily the English and French fought over the Caribbean Sugar Islands made bountiful by the huge rainfall and volcanic soil, look at the map and see the total area that was much more valuable to the European Powers than all of North and Central and South America combined.  Swam at Friar's Beach, beautiful, went around entire island in a collectivo.  Took ferry 12 miles to Nevis, the Capitol, Charlestown, is the birthplace of that erstwhile economist, Alexander Hamilton, enjoyed the "Alexander Hamilton Museum," was in the "Nelson Museum" dedicated to Lord Horatio Nelson whose wife was from Nevis. To the Bath Hotel, once the most palatial hotel in the Caribbean. Swam at Nisbet Beach, there's a hotel there but all the beaches in the Caribbean are public and you can even use a hotel's facilities, I changed inside.  St. K and N is a wonderful destination.