St. Kitts Part II

People reading Part I of the St. Kitts post might have realized I erroneously referred to St. Lucia when describing St.  Kitts. That should be corrected now, so those early readers should treasure the memory of me confusing the wo islands.

Edited to add: I also erroneously referred to St. Kitts as St. Kits. Making all sorts of mistakes.

Anyway, here is a reminder of where we’re heading next in our St. Kitts excursion.

Brimstone Hill Fortress is listed as an example of 17th and 18th century fortress design. The reason is the fortress itself took, depending who you listen to, anywhere from 50 to 100 years to build. As was oft the way back then, slave labor imported from Africa was used to advance the construction. I believe one of the reasons slave labor was imported was because the indigenous population was wiped out through disease and conflict.

Regardless, the place is impressive. Over two hundred years old, and still holding up pretty well.

Notice the climb to the site itself. There are ruins at the lower level, where I took the above photo, but the main stuff is a mere fifty steps up . . . . Fifty very deep, very sloped, and climbing quickly steps.
We are in pretty good shape, and we live at a higher elevation, and we made it up there without stopping (unlike many climbers), but let me tell you, we were breathing a bit harder.

Then again, I am carrying more weight than usual, and have not done serious exercise going on seven weeks now. Regardless, we made it up there.

Where’s all the people, you ask . . . Well, I’m pretty good at choosing my compositions so as to eliminate them pesky nuisances from my photos (something my readers might have already noticed from my past photos).

OK, so sometimes the flow of people is such that it’s a tad difficult eliminating all incidental humans from the photos. I blame them who stand in one spot, soaking in the place.

Not that I don’t try keeping humans from my photos . . .

. . . but I will capitulate in my standards when expedient; I had only 45 minutes, and while the flow of people dictates that eventually the square will be empty,  that requires more patience and time than I had.

But, you know, I can control smaller photo arenas.

Still, it’s surprising how often I can get photos with people just off frame . . .

Even with the amount of time we did have (45 minutes!), I did not get to photograph all I was interested in.

However, since people were late in getting back, I snapped a few shots of the lower ruins. Well, not exactly ruins – more like preserved historic architecture.

You have to hand it to the builders; the place is really solid . . .

Well . . . mostly solid.

To be fair, these were very localized, and the damage was to unsupported walls, probaby from tourists leaning on them.

Anyway, the visit was worth the discomfort of getting there and heading back to the ship.

By the way, once again I was soaked in sweat, despite not moving around a whole lot. Luckily it was overcast, and the cloud cover kept the temperatures in the low 80s (much like the humidity).

I will end this post here, lest the WP app realizes it’s still working, and decides to punish me for no good reason at all. Next up, getting back to the ship, a shower, and some snacks.

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