The plantation inns of Nevis - and Alexander Hamilton

[Tripatini]

A few years ago, the fact that an island was the birthplace of one of the USA's Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton, would have elicited very little excitement. But in recent years, since the advent of the hit Broadway musical Hamiliton, Nevis is all of a sudden a must-see destination.  The very first line of the musical leads you here: “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean… That spot would be Nevis.  But more on that later.

Nevis is the baby sister of St. Kitts, two tiny islands in the West Indies. St. Kitts is the more outgoing, gregarious of the two; Nevis, more shy and retiring. Whereas I won $100 at a casino on St.Kitts, the only things worth counting on Nevis are an assortment of goats, sheep, donkeys and monkeys. Lots of monkeys.  But Nevis now has a star -– the aforementioned Hamilton -- who is making her irresistible to throngs of others. They’re known as tourists.  And now they’re coming back! Nevis having happily escaped the scourge of Covid during its peak, re-opened to the international public the end of October -- and has since worked hard to maintain all recommended protocols.

But before Hamilton brought reknown to the island, its main claim to fame was the old sugar plantations. Sugar was king from the 17th to 19th centuries, and what remains of several of the plantations are now housing all those Hamilton-seeking throngs. History begets history.  

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