A Slice of Life
Bill Lites
On the next day of our trip to St. Kitts we took a long stroll along the beach, picked up a few shells, and did some exploring of some of the old ruins not too far from the hotel. We learned that St. Kitts has the oldest written history of any island in the Caribbean, and that Sir Christopher Columbus was the first European to see the islands and the Island Caribs (natives) during his second voyage (1493) to this area. He named St. Kitts San Jorge (Saint George) and Nevis San Martin (St. Martin) and claimed the islands for Spain (see Wikipedia for island name changes). We stopped to take a picture beside a small submersible of some kind that was just sitting there on the beach. There was no one around, to ask what it was used for and why it was just sitting there. Later that day we visited the hotel’s garden area and ran into some of the other folks from our group and went to dinner with them.
The next day we rented a car and took a drive around the island. It only took us about two hours to do the whole island, and we were amazed at the difference between the resort area where we were staying, and the way the island people lived. At the time, the majority of the island was devoted to the raising and processing of sugar cane. There were cane fields everywhere we looked, and the method for harvesting all that sugar cane seemed very primitive.
The road was very narrow and cluttered with all manner of animals, children, and trash. We saw open communal toilets alongside the road, and people carrying water jugs to collect (what we assumed was) drinking water running from a pipe that came out of the side of the hill, right there on the side of the road.
Once we left town, we were not sure we had made the right choice to drive around the island by ourselves. We didn’t have a map and were concerned about what we might run into if we got off the main road. However, all the locals we encountered during our little trip were friendly and willing to help us whenever we took a wrong turn.
Back at the hotel we had a nap and then walked the hotel property, collecting a few more souvenirs, before heading back to the hotel for dinner. I’m sure we did more relaxing and pleasurable things on that trip, but the details escape me now. Overall, we enjoyed the restful atmosphere, and it was a memorable trip. The flight back to Orlando was uneventful and after we got home and unpacking we were ready to head back to work on Monday. That trip to St. Kitts was one of the most enjoyable adventures we had experienced in some time, and it left us with some wonderful lifelong memories.
Epilog: My creative artist wife, DiVoran, took many of the souvenirs we collected, during our trip to St. Kitts, and arranged them in a beautiful collage that hangs in our studio to continually remind us of our one and only ‘Caribbean Island Adventure’ all those many years ago.
—–The End—–
Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 63 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing. He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville. Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.
One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is: John 10:10
Old Things R New 
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