Nevis is a beautiful volcanic island just east of St. Kitts. It is much less populated than St. Kitts, with only 11,000 people living here. Everyone seems to know everyone, and, according to the taxi driver, everyone is related. The island is very beautiful and has a few interesting historical sites. (Make sure to see the photo slideshow at the bottom of this post).
One site is the Hamilton Museum which we visited on Tuesday. The museum is a tribute to Alexander Hamilton (the guy on the US $10 bills and founded our US Treasury), who was born here in Nevis. The museum is located a short walk from Charlestown. Unfortunately, the usual tributes to Hamilton were covered by a special display to pirates. Although, it was interesting reading about 18th and 19th century pirate rogues of the Caribbean!
On our walk, as in many islands in the Caribbean (although less so on the French islands), we saw mabt signs of trash in the town. I’m not singling out Nevis, they seem to be cleaner than some of the islands, but remarking that trash is an ongoing problem on the islands down here. In particular, I noticed a water sluiceway out of town to the sea which had trash and plastic bottles ready to be washed out on the next heavy rain. A bit of netting to catch the debris at the mouth, with regularly scheduled cleaning, would go a long way to reduce the amount of trash going into the ocean.
On Wednesday, we started the day with lots of little rain showers at the boat. Check out the cool rainbow shot in the photo gallery. The rain eventually wound down, and we went into town and hired a taxi to take us on a tour. I asked for a scenic tour so I could take photos – thinkng I would get some nature walks – and viewpoints looking at the shoreline. Shortly after we left, I was bummed to realize I forgot my tripod, so the 360 panoramas I planned to take were a no go.
Instead of a scenic tour we were taken to some tourist sites. The first one, called “Peak Haven” was a brand new site half-way up the peak in the tropical forest. They were highlighting what was once a hiding spot for escaped slaves. The main problem I had with the site was they charged too much $12/person, considering the place was barely open. They had a tourist guide who mostly read the signs for us. 
But, they did have some pretty scenery, and a lookout point with a great view to the east of the ocean and lower lands of Nevis.
We also were taken to the Nevisian Heritage Village, which includes a sugar cane mill ruin, and several houses built and fixed with antique furniture simulating the way of life during the sugar cane processing days. They also had some buildings simulating Carib Indian style houses. They charged a much more reasonable US $3/person.
We asked to have lunch next thinking it would be somewhere nearby. But, he ended up driving us the rest of the way around the island. I finally asked him to stop so I could take some pictures along the way. He took us to a nice place called Sunshine’s Beach Bar and Grill for the lunch. After lunch, instead of taking us somewhere else, he said the tour was over. I was a little disappointed in not getting the scenic tour I expected, and an abruptly ended tour – so I didn’t pay the taxi driver a tip or offer to buy him lunch like I had planned.
Despite the tour issues, Karen and I still enjoyed the sites we saw. And, after a lot of work this morning, I managed to GPS tag and process the photos, and create a Google Earth file 
(showing GPS track and the geotagged photos). Check out all the photos in this slideshow (I recommend the “Full size” version):
View full sized slideshow
