hey guys so on this channel the
Caribbean countries usually get the
least amount of views and they're kind
of pushed off to this side with minimal
anticipation because everyone thinks the
Caribbean nations are all the same so
you know what screw it I'm gonna go to
this country I'm gonna get good footage
interview the people and put them in the
spotlight we are covering the Caribbean
triplets the Saints and today we cover
the smallest nation in the Americas st.
Kitts and Nevis what makes this country
different from all the others well for
one they have drunken monkeys that fight
each other but you gotta watch this
episode to find out st. Kitts and Nevis
I had the honor of meeting you guys the
geography was from this area you helped
me with this video and by the way if you
go there hit up my girl Lynette she's
got an awesome company what do you what
do we got here this is a country that
everyone should know about but the
locals kind of don't want you to know
about them yet it likes keeping a low
profile for now reason being because
well it's kind of like whoa it's a
little cheaper than the other islands
here and way less crowded whoa people
live in converted windmills here that's
pretty cool wait Beyonce and Mick Jagger
were here last week why were they here
oh look at the cute little train No yeah
st. Kitts has a lot of Secrets that they
don't want too many people to know about
and I'm about to expose some of them
sorry
geography now if you come to this
country you'll notice that everything in
st. Kitts and Nevis is kind of
improvised and capitalized off of I mean
even the name of the country is kind of
like a choppy English bastardization of
Spanish words it literally was like okay
so what should we name this country well
Christopher Columbus first name them San
Cristobal and nuestra senora de las
nuevas but you know we're British so
forget the whole Spanish thing so do we
name them st. Christopher Chris Chris
kiss Kitts st. Kitts and for the other
one uh in Nieves Neve nee nee nee nee
vez Nevis there we go st. kitts and
nevis weird way to get there then but
it's official yeah that's kind of how
they got their name anyway first of all
st. Kitts and Nevis is located in the
Caribbean and more specifically in the
region known as the Lesser Antilles
which is basically all the small islands
of the archipelago past Puerto Rico it
is also located in the sub region of the
leeward islands which is basically all
the small islands north of Dominica
their closest neighbor being the Dutch
overseas department of st. Eustatius or
Stacia only about 15 miles or 25
kilometres northwest at only about 101
square miles in total land area it is
the smallest sovereign state in the
Americas and the Western Hemisphere the
country is a dual Federation made up of
st. Kitts the larger of the two islands
shaped like a drumstick which has its
own prime minister and Nevis only about
two miles away which has its own premier
the country is divided further into 14
parishes nine on st. Kitts and five on
Nevis with the capital and largest town
with about 16,000 people Basseterre
located in the southern pocket of st.
Kitts otherwise Kiana bit North is the
second largest town with only about
3,000 people the country has one main
International Airport Robert L Bradshaw
international just above best ter in
Nevis island has the second vance W
Emery International which operates
mostly private and seasonal charter
flights from nearby islands each island
has its own Ring Road that essentially
traces the entire perimeter of the
coasts but if you look at st. Kitts they
actually have this long narrow stretch
known as the peninsula that extends into
a bowl-shaped landmass at the end
at less than 10 kilometers long and only
a fifth of a mile wide or 1/3 of a
kilometer this narrow part with a road
passing is disputable the world's
smallest and narrowest isthmus at the
top of timothy hill you get the best
view where the Atlantic and Caribbean
Sea meet don't swim on the Atlantic side
though the
tide is way too strong and it will
probably kill you anyway in addition st.
Kitts also has a railway yeah a long
time ago it was used for sugarcane
transportation but now it's used for
tourism three hour-long guided ride
starts in Connery village close to the
airport with fun stops along the way and
ends in Sandy Point about 18 miles away
fun fact the country just got their
first street lights in 2018 with a
whopping 3 in Basseterre in addition the
country also has a plethora of
interesting sounding town names like
hard times brick kiln Canada monkey Hill
ginger land did somebody say ginger land
the only major islet the country owns is
booby Island which has booby birds and
as the locals will clearly point out
kind of looks like a boob and then
there's I kid you not
ahem Bay fun fact despite their small
size st. Kitts can handle a lot of sea
vessel transport regular cargo ships and
ferries between st. Kitts and Nevis dock
between Bassett Airport and port zante
is in charge of berthing all the large
cruise ships in fact they can host up to
300 a suspicious at once making them the
smallest country in the world capable of
this massive feat of Engineering in any
case from the top notable spots to check
out in case if you decide to visit
include romney manor rum distillery and
the petroglyphs saint kitts Chocolate
Factory the National Museum the karabell
batik works Independence Square the
Berkeley Memorial st. George's Anglican
Church the Eco Park Botanical Gardens of
Nevis Alexander Hamilton's birthplace
the tomb of Sir Thomas Warner bloody
River Connell Church and the top most
famous notable sight probably being
brimstone Hill fortress a unesco world
heritage site in addition though there
are tons of natural sights as well like
the black rocks on the north side Nevis
has these cool hot springs but we'll
discuss all that later in
the collie NACO natives of this country
called the island of st. Kitts lie amiga
which means fertile land and Nevis was
called Walley or the land of clear water
anyway getting ahead of ourselves the
country is located on the Caribbean
plate in the sub region known as the
Antillean arc which converges into the
North American plate this is why
multiple islands in this part of the
Caribbean are still actively volcanic or
have geothermal activities and kitts and
nevis being one of them essentially both
islands are tropical and the entire
length of st. Kitts has a mountain spine
with the highest peak being Mount ly
Amiga a dormant volcano on the northwest
side hidden at the top it has a small
geothermally heated crater lake at the
summit Nevis island on the other hand
has Nevis peak which is almost always
covered in clouds year-round which is
where it's got its name the Spanish word
Nieves or snow alluding to the white on
top out of both islands Nevis is the
more geothermally active one with hot
springs in your Charlestown many small
creeks and two major rivers flow out of
these mountain chains including the two
longest and only permanent rivers k-on
and Wingfield rivers the country has
many small ponds but the greatest inland
body of water is the Great Salt Pond at
the tip of the southeast Peninsula
otherwise generally the west part of the
country is more lush and wet as they get
around 60 inches of rain a year whereas
the further east you go on st. Kitts is
a little more dry with only about 16
inches of rain annually and you see some
cacti plants along the peninsula
otherwise the Narrows is the space of
water dividing the two islands which has
the choppy astray v'
the reason being because if you zoom out
this is essentially the point where the
warm Gulf Stream converges into the
colder Atlantic jet stream meaning that
most of the waves on the north side of
the island are bigger and crazier
whereas the south Caribbean side is more
tame in docile yeah my favorite place is
shipwreck beach it's like the calmest
place ever with a great view of Nevis in
the background go to shipwreck I love
that place and speaking of calm it's
time for my triple shot of espresso
break which means no one comes in for
the rest of the segment I think you need
to clean that mug out just saying yeah
well either way you can get a jug of it
now mugga geography now is calm st.
Kitts and Nevis is a tropical island
nation in a warm climate that has an
abundance of rain in fact almost daily
you will get short five-ish minutes
purtz of rain from large cumulus clouds
at hovering clusters all over different
parts of the island it's like yeah how's
it going over there Nevis a little wet I
see
I don't know you tell me how's it going
over there and Sandy points for much of
its early history st. Kitts and Nevis
was a major producer of sugarcane in
fact the nickname of st. Kitts is sugar
city and burn Eva's Queen City as at one
point they were the richest British
crown colonies since the seventies
whoever the sugar industry has faded and
even though about 40% of the land is
voted to crops the agriculture industry
only makes about 11% of exports
you can still see remnants with the
former sugar industry with converted
mills now serving as restaurants hotels
and homes and massive copper bowls used
for molasses production scattered all
throughout the islands this means that
most major food and branded products are
imported
however most families also have home
gardens and fruit trees today the
service sector employs a majority of the
population at over seven percent mostly
in high-end tourism especially from sea
bound cruise ships also fun fact to the
lignin bite a tree known as the Ironwood
is grown here it is an endemic tree
species with wood that is so dense and
strong it is one of the few types that
actually sinks in water and speaking
nature st. Kitts has quite a unique
structure when it comes animal species
and they discuss that here's our
favorite animal correspondent - Caleb
wait a second you're not Caleb yeah
Caleb's filming a documentary he's busy
today this is the best we got Jason take
it away when visiting st. kitts and
nevis no no I'm not gonna do the accent
sorry you'll notice a lot of goats sheep
and donkey wandering around nonetheless
the country is a bird Haven with over
200 species found like the ensuing
crested hummingbird the yellow Warbler
the green heron the national animal the
brown pelican and of course the country
has beautiful reefs containing marine
species ranging from spinner dolphins
hawksbill turtles angelfish spiny
lobster and the most endemic species the
Flamingo tongued calorie the most famous
animal though is probably the vervet
monkey brought over by the French in the
17th century they multiplied there and
there are now more monkeys than people
on the island fun fact the monkeys are
famous for getting drunk and stumbling
after stealing drinks from the tourists
often they even fight each other and
pass out after having one too many those
monkeys will never steal my drink by a
mugger geography now come back to you
Noah thank you and speaking of things
that are consumed food some of the top
normal dishes from st. Kitts and Nevis
include goat water black pudding spicy
plantains
seasoned bread fruit coconut dumplings
wobba cheese
conch fritters gooseberry jam sugar
cakes coconut fudge
this is the killaby five minutes in the
national dish
stewed salt fish which is actually
usually only sold in public on the
weekends or special occasions
fortunately the people here have lots of
special occasions which will be
explained in thank you Noah
you're welcome get a monkey geography no
calm so first off the people here are
called kittens and new visions like new
vision but if you're my buddy from here
full disclosure I'm just gonna call you
a kitty anywho now we've already
explained how the islands of the
Caribbean have their own unique trait
that sets them apart from the others so
what is st. Kitts well for one st. Kitts
is often referred to as the mother
colony as it was the first place to be
colonized by the British in the French
it's the smallest country yet it kind of
starts everything and takes the biggest
risks they're kind of brave they know
that they're small but they have nothing
to lose so it's like hey let's build
massive ocean liner ports and luxury
villas to compete with the countries and
ten times our size anyway here's the
demographics graph the country is made
up of about 54,000 people about
three-quarters of whom live on st. Kitts
and the remaining quarter live on Nevis
the country is predominantly
afro-caribbean at about 92 percent of
the population another 2.2 is mixed by
racially mostly between blacks and
whites about 2.2 are european whites
mostly from the UK and about 1% are East
Indians and the rest are other people
groups mostly Asians and Middle
Easterners and it's important to note
that today less than 20 people that are
actually descended from native Amer
Indians live in the country they use the
East Caribbean dollar as their currency
however they do accept US dollars but
just keep in mind they will most likely
give you back change in East Caribbean
money they use the american-style a and
B plug outlets and they drive on the
left side of the road as they were once
a British colony English is the official
language and they speak with a soft
Caribbean accent no thick patois like
Jamaican here's an example same gives is
a little dot on the warm up but we are a
fabulous place to visit so whenever
you're ready come on down to st. Kitts
and have a nice vacation here so it
makes me really proud to be conditioned
with small or large now you have to
understand even though this is one
country there still is a slight
difference between what it means to be
kitchen and neave
some of you guys explaining the
conditions tend to be pushing more
towards you know things towards the
future while divisions are more focusing
you know like with the preservation of
their history and their past revision
people more laid-back people divisions
have lots of pride they don't appreciate
like if you try to shorten the name of
the country and you say said kids alone
they don't appreciate it at all explain
how you feel when you say you are and
I've actually been killed I'm I'm a
black lady in a white skin but if you
weren't over to st. Kitts and you went
to the merrier it's and places like that
they'd all be very busy yeah long story
short st. Kitts is the hustle-bustle
Island and Nevis to select the chill
let's just take a nap Island one
controversial issue the nation deals
with though would have to be the golden
visa or the citizenship by investment
program what exactly is this well it's
kind of like this I'm a small country
with a small economy and nobody pays
attention to me how can I make money
fast and get attention quickly hello
there I'm from fill in the blank with
country that has controversial relations
with the Western world or NATO allied
countries I hear you need money why yes
yes I do I'm an individual who has lots
of money and I see you guys have been
very diplomatically level-headed and
have the 26 most powerful passport in
the world which has access to certain
places I do not well yes yes I do have
that what if there is a way you could
like do some good things for my country
and help develop it and in return I had
a policy that made it easy for you to
like maybe get residency or something a
little more citizenship that's great
let's start construction on this new
hotel you've been working on all right
Construction is moving along
that's good here's your passport Thanks
and actually I think I'll stop
construction for now
oh why hey I'm kind of bored with this
and all I really needed was this
Passport are you for real dude you're
just gonna bandage this half-finished
building I mean at least give it back if
you're not gonna do anything with it
sure for three times the price I bought
it for otherwise don't touch it as a
citizen it's my private property oh you
little No yeah this is probably the
biggest controversy which has led to
many
residents demanding of reform and real
estate policy aside from that
oscar-worthy skip we just did st. Kitts
is a nation flourishing in tradition and
customs and with that here's random
Hanna to explain nobody here for their
segment fine art takeover okay it's
important though that originally the
islands were inhabited by Native Cali
Nago people that were found on various
islands in the Caribbean known for their
warriors and herbal medicinal practices
the Kali Naga were found scattered
across much of the Caribbean as far as
South America oh yeah eight sorry guys
uh so this is my son Mick il and my wife
Reina is a little too shy to come on
camera you want to say hi no you're too
shy you're too shy alright alright so we
should get back to the video right okay
much of the architecture follows a
colorful neoclassic 19th century
colonial style with wooden stone
exterior with wooden window panels to
protect from high winds most people on
the island are Christian with the
Anglican branch being the largest
denomination with about fifth of the
population adhering to it
cricket is probably the most popular
sport in the country the largest stadium
in the country Warner Park was
deliberately built as a cricket pitch
but can also be converted for soccer or
football in March they have a
cross-channel swim in which people swim
the two-mile wide channel between two
islands to raise money for turtle
conversation Comper conversation yeah
turtle conversations turtles talking you
know it's very important for the world
turtle conservation the country is also
famous for its botique cloth
specifically produced at karabell batik
at romney manor and speaking of which
Saint Kitts and Nevis is well known for
their festivals the two largest probably
being the culture AMA Festival on Nevis
dressed up characters like moko Jumbies
clowns and mascar hates and the most
popular on being Carnival which is
unlike other countries actually happens
during Christmas not during Lent
it's the largest celebration and lots of
music is played during the two week long
event and speaking of music that brings
us to mr. Florida man Keith
all right so you guys I'm wearing a
low-pass shirt all-time favorite
progressive metal band due to fair use
loss please don't sue us because you
guys are awesome and I love you and
that's my commentary yeah whoo okay
music is a huge part of the everyday
life in st. kitts and nevis the two main
genres that dominate almost every single
festival and celebration would have to
be calypso and soca calypso is known at
for its slower pace steel drums and
social commentary and lyrics stirring
clips of competitions the winner is
crowned and given the title of king or
queen soca on the other hand is a little
more up-tempo usually accompanied by
Cajon and a bass often you will hear
soca being blasted on speakers during
parades and parties today so many
national and regional festivals exist
and the largest one in the last week of
June being the Saint Kitts music
festival that features artists from all
over the world
thank you I'm Keith and that is Thank
You Keith and with that it's time for
the incredibly condensed history segment
and the quickest way I can summarize
native carob and Calina cold settlements
Christopher Columbus spots the islands
about 130 years later the British come
in and make their first colony soon the
French follow after many natives were
killed
Nevis colony established the French
relinquished their claim they join
Anguilla as a British dependency
self-governing member of the West Indies
associated States Anguilla splits as a
dependency stays with the UK
independence Nevis almost tries to break
away as independent but it doesn't pass
government closes the sugar industry
officially in 2005 they highly switch
things up to tourism and here we are
today some top notable people from st.
Kitts and Nevis
include Kennedy Simmons Robert Llewellyn
Bradshaw all these cricket players a
tonne of famous sprinters but the most
famous one probably being Kim Collins he
has a highway named after him Keith
Cayenne becomes atiba Harris Livingstone
bramble John Gorrie Joan Armatrading
Cicely Tyson Carol Phillips Nell Bea's
father was from Nevis Lady Lesure
Corinne Bailey Rae Alexander Hamilton
was born in Nevis anyway as you can see
st. Kitts and Nevis has a lot of history
intertwined with British and a little
bit of French and a lot of Caribbean
let's see how they make their way around
the world stage and
st. Kitts and Nevis is small yet knows
how to stay alive and relevant there
like the motivator of the Caribbean it's
like hey st. kitts and nevis is doing
what now well if they can do it so can
we
for one the UK has kept relatively close
ties even after independence it is very
easy for UK residents to move by land
live and eventually file for residency
and eventually citizenship to st. Kitts
and Nevis there are also lots of
conditioned migrants in the UK
especially in Liverpool for the
Dominican Republic many conditions went
to find work in the early 20s and 30s
especially in the town of San Pedro de
Mer quarries today the two countries
work closely and have good trade in
business especially for imports the USA
and Canada are of course the largest
business partners and contributors to
the tourism industry Americans make up a
majority of cruise ship passengers
usually departing from Miami or Puerto
Rico there was a little bit of drama
with Canada though after an incident
with an individual that caused problems
after entering Canada through the
citizenship by investment program which
caused Canada to change their visa
policy on condition citizens still they
are overall cool with each other in
terms of their best friends though most
kitchen and Navision geographies I have
talked to have said usually one of three
options Antigua and Barbuda the UK
overseas territory of Anguilla and
Taiwan Taiwan donates a lot of money and
completed project investments in Saint
Kitts and Nevis including the cricket
stadium and there's even an entire eco
park which has the flags of the two
states in front of it to show the
friendship in return st. Kitts and Nevis
recognises their sovereignty over the
People's Republic of China the Taiwanese
military personnel served deployments in
st. Kitts and Nevis regularly and the
two get along pretty well Antigua and
Barbuda and the UK overseas territory of
Anguilla are usually the closest family
though all are former British colonies
lumped together as the Leeward Islands
colony they are the best rivals in sport
and tourism lots of inter connecting
flights operate between them many have
families in each other's nations and
islands and if anything happens these
three know they can depend on each other
in conclusion st. Kitts may be the
smallest of the Western Hemisphere but
it has the heart of an oasis class
cruise liner massive accommodating
high-end and aesthetically pleasing stay
tuned the second sister triplets st.
Lucia is coming up next
[Music]