Caribbean Summer 2001
St. Kitts - Turtle Beach

The isthmus of St. Kitts.

Where're the crowds on these beaches?

The taxi left the relatively undeveloped port town of Bassetere pretty quickly, passing through pretty empty, dry grazing country. Saw a mongoose, some bony cattle, the usual goats, and lots of empty bays and beaches.

Part of the Great Salt Pond, with Nevis rising up in the distance.

  The Great Salt Pond is still used by some locals for sea salt, long ago it was a booming business.

  The last stretch of road to the beach was a gravel road; I don't think we passed more than 1 or 2 cars in the entire drive from port.

Turtle Beach and an iced bucket of Carib beer, ah! Live de life, mon.

  We were met at the parking lot by our server for the day, she took our drink orders and started a tab. The beach consisted of a very cool and airy beach bar/restaurant, one t-shirt hut, a snorkel rental place, and the beach and sea. The rest of the landscaped was refreshingly undeveloped.

Beach guy Bob! Reminds me of a famous statue. Larger version

We snorkeled with the surf through the seaweed out to the coral, this spot had great coral about 8-10 feet deep, lots of fan coral, tons of fish as usual. Took a break for a tremendous meal at the beach bar, then one more taxi ride and the Caribbean Cruise '01 was more or less history.

Turtle Beach has it all. (Yeah, I know I've said it before.) Larger version

I decided I could live at Turtle Beach, eat conch fritters every day, dive for sand dollars and sell 'em to tourists from my own little hut. That's what vacations usually do to me, though, so I'm sure it'll pass. But what a great time.