Shame on the Marriott

A quick 'shame on you' to the Marriott chain of hotels who charge $11 for a day's worth Internet access while charging up to $225 a night for a room. I don't mind an 'EasyJet' low-cost, pay for add-ons approach, but to charge that for a room -get this - also charge for a support call when the service is down - is shameful.

I shoulda stayed at Antigua airport - choice of 4 FREE wireless networks!

A Kittitian volcano hike

Mt Liamuiga is St Kitts tallest mountain at 3,792ft, and a 'potentially active' stratovolcano with a very well defined crater that contains a lake which varies in size according to the season.

I went with Royston of Roystontours.com, who picked me up from the hotel and did a couple of side trips to viewpoints of the island en route.

The hike starts from the north of the island, so it's about an hour's drive from Basseterre. We drove up a track to about 1,000 ft, and started the hike from there.

It's a well defined track that just goes up for 75 mins - quite steep but no real clambering. If I was to compare with a Dominica hike, it's like Morne Anglais (without the part when you go down-hill before the part where you go uphill to the summit).

The vegetation is almost identical to Dominica's rainforest, a little less lush. We heard but didn't see some of St Kitts' famous monkeys.

At the top, there's a rock formation called The Devil's Tooth. Clamber partway up and there are some great views north towards the island Saba.

It is possible to climb down into the crater, or up to the pointy peak. We sat on the rim of the crater (at 2,861ft), ate the subways that Royton had kindly provided, took a breather, then descended - it took just an hour going down.

Al in all, a good half-day work-out on a beautiful Kittitian mountain!

See also http://www.peakware.com/peaks.html?pk=2174