I have the St. Kitts by Rail and Scenic Drive tour today. I booked this tour through Carnival for $105 one month before the sailing. It was showing as sold out. I kept checking back and a couple days later it showed up as available. Since this is a Carnival excursion there should be a sign for it somewhere around the pier.

Just off of the pier to the right is where I found my sign.

They are taking us to the buses.

It’s nice and comfortable as long as they don’t bring more people on. You do not want to be in one of those fold down seats on this type of bus. I sat there in Grand Cayman. It was very uncomfortable.

The air works good.

We were just about to leave when six people came up to the bus.

We were nice and comfortable. Now we’re too close for comfort.

Carnival Magic, Celebrity Apex, and Marella Explorer 2 are the ships in port here.

It was a short drive to the railroad. They are sanitizing all hands prior to boarding.

You want to make note of which bus you came in on. There are a lot of them and you will need to find yours for the return trip. A picture I took is what helped me.

Each car has the upper and lower level. Here is a look at the lower level which is equipped with a bathroom.

These are the steps to the second level.

I went with the second level. I think I’ll have a better view up here and no glass reflection on my pictures.

The first thing they did was take drink orders. Drinks are included in the price of the tour. They had pina colada, rum punch, rum and coke, rum and rum, or rum on the rocks. They also had sodas and virgin pina coladas. Each car has a server.

Our server made the frozen drinks for our car and the car behind us. The server in the car behind us made all of the non-frozen drinks for both cars.

And we’re off!

The scenic railway started running in 2003. Prior to that it was a part of the sugar industry. When the sugar industry left the government made sure all sugar workers had jobs. Most of them are farmers. The government provided land for that. Some work in tourism or drive taxis.

This is the rock quarry. Yabba dabba doo!

The first round of drinks are ready. 

I got a rum punch.

This tour covers 18 miles and takes 1 hour 40 mins. I’m going to limit my beverages since I don’t want to use the train bathroom.

This is the house of a wealthy businessman.

This area is designated as a sea turtle area like the east side of Cozumel.

Natural bat caves.

I noticed they have quite a few solar panels.

This is one of their soccer stadiums.

This is the first major bridge.

These are ruins from one of the old sugar estates.

I believe people are taught to waive at the train because everyone does it.

This is a black sand beach. The farther you get from the volcano, the lighter the sand gets.

This is the second major bridge. It is the highest bridge on St. Kitts.

Now we’re coming up on the third major bridge.

This is rough sand which is used for building homes.

This is an old sugar estate that is now used for private research.

They passed out cookies that taste kind of like oatmeal raisin…without the raisins.

This is government housing.  On the bus ride we passed some government housing with an ocean view. The driver called them $20k homes with a million dollar view.

Sheep.

They have manual rail crossings. There are guys who sit at the crossings and close the gate when the train comes. 

This is one of the village cemeteries.

Everyone stops to waive.

Almond trees.

St. John’s Church is 300 years old and hosts a lot of weddings.

Caribbean cedar trees with exposed roots. The exposed roots are the result of a hurricane.

Another rail crossing.

This is where the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans meet.

The blue building is the police station.

Some leave their homes with an unfinished roof like this because they don’t have to pay full taxes until it’s complete.

The pink building is a hurricane shelter.

These are some of their crops and that’s a soccer stadium behind them.

Pigs.

This is the highest point of the railroad tour.

This is the Ramada which is the newest hotel on the island. It has a casino.

This is a playground with a basketball court and soccer field.

Twice they had dancers entertain us.

This is their Eco Park.

And we’re back. It’s time to find my bus.

It took a minute to find my bus. I had to refer to a picture of my bus driver I had taken. Someone took my seat so I’m stuck in the middle this time. It’s not going to be a great spot for pictures.

Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is 800 feet above sea level. That might be something I look into my next trip here.

That was an Anglican Church.

There are 82,000 monkeys on the island. The train guide said French brought them as pets and now they’re pests. The bus driver says they came from Africa. Both agree they steal the farmers’ crops. The bus driver said if they have a beer drinking competition the monkeys will be there for the beer.

This is where “Bloody River” was located. In 1626 the French and English fought here. Thousands died. Some say the river ran red for days. That battle led to the splitting of the island in 1627. 

I’m not going to take a picture of it but we just saw a bad accident. A hummer hit a tour bus and took a chunk out of the side of the bus. The hummer was missing it’s front passenger side wheel. Hopefully everyone comes out of that unharmed.

This is the Carib brewery. They make very good beer. It’s up there with Belikin (Belize) for me as my top two port beers.

This is the largest Anglican Church on the island.

And we are coming back up on the ships. I enjoyed the tour. I thought it was a great way to see and learn about St. Kitts.

We stopped right next to the bathroom. They charge $1 here. If you go through the food court they have free bathrooms in the back left.

 

• St. Kitts