The second part of the original St. Kitts posts (HERE) concerned itself with our visit to Brimstone Hill Fortress. There are two sources I suggest people read to get a sense of the history of the place.

Once again I suggest playing some music while reading THIS and THIS.

If you don’t bother reading the material in either links, here is a passage giving the flavor of the history of these islands.

“St. Christopher, the first Caribbean island to be permanently settled by both the English and the French (who shared the island between 1627 and 1713 ), was a model and a springboard for English and French colonialism in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

The native Amerindians were virtually exterminated, and African people brought in as slaves. The plantation system, based upon sugar production and slavery, which came to characterise Caribbean ( or “West Indian” ) society, had its beginnings in St. Christopher and the other early colonies.”

However, before heading to this historic site, here’s a photos from our drive there (I had more, but while OK for small versions, they suck in a larger format).

A house we drove by, interesting for its construction . . . 

. . . and another church, this one St. Thomas Anglican Church. 

Funny how so many of the people who thought nothing of slaughtering natives and using slaves were also very religious. Pious, even. Not just there, of course. To this day some of the most hateful people in the US are the ultra-religious. 

Anyway, I best not go down that particular path, lest my calm, such as it is, gets damaged and I say something that might offend believers of fairy tales.

After driving through some more poor areas (all with churches of their own), we arrived at Brimstone.

The cliffs are impressive . . . and so is the fortress. From the parking area you climb steps to get to the upper fortress level. Very wide, very deep, and angled steps (meaning the steps themselves are not horizontal; the surfaces of the steps are angled downward). 

Here are a couple of photos showing the climb (the lady is smiling at her husband  next to me).

Melisa and I are in pretty good shape (although I was still recovering from my leg injury and six weeks into a break from daily workouts), but we were breathing a bit hard at the top. Of course, we sort of raced up.

The construction is impressive, both from afar and up close.

The views are spectacular, and the defensive position is well-chosen.

It goes beyond the location, of course . . . it is an impressive monument of what can be accomplished by people who have no regard for the lives of other humans.

Here are a couple of shots from the top level . . . first, a panorama of the courtyard and surrounding walls.

Then, an overview of the lower fortifications . . . 

. . . and of a sorry-looking cat that apparently lives on the premises. It did not look well.

Here is the entry to the courtyard, and a couple of the signs adorning the place.

As usual, readers can click on the photos and larger versions will open up in new tabs or windows. Intrepid readers can go see the original-sized photos in THIS SmugMug Gallery.

Here is one of the passages leading from the courtyard to the upper levels.

And here is a photo at the courtyard level.

So, here’s more photos . . . not all the ones I have as people’s eyes would just gloss over (if they haven’t already). All of the photos can be seen in the SmugMug Gallery.

Too soon, it was time to depart . . . I descended to the lower level and snapped a few photos of the lower fortifications as we waited for all the people to return.

And, just like that, we left. 

Our time back at the ship and our departure from St. Kitts will be documented in an upcoming post.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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. . .  my FP ward  . . . chieken shit.