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| St John's White Sand Beaches |
Most visitors to the US Virgin Islands arrive via cruise
ship in St Thomas, whose main city is a cluttered conglomeration of Caribbean
Must Have jewellery shops, souvenir shops and rum bars. It is usually so
crowded, that pedestrians overflow into the traffic from narrow sidewalks. We
were fortunate, that Prinsendam, being a smaller ship, could anchor off St John Island in Cruz Bay, a much quainter
and quieter destination, only invaded by limited battalions of tourists who
take the inter island ferry from St Thomas to St John.
Together with half a dozen other people I jumped onto one of
the many brightly coloured open sided buses and enjoyed a short familiarization
drive around the Island, visiting many of the picturesque
white-sand-emerald-sea palm fringed beaches. Some are only accessible on foot
or by boat, all being lapped by incredibly clear wavelets of the Caribbean Sea.
Small armadas of charter yachts and private vessels are tied to moorings or –
fewer – anchor amongst the corals in scarce spots of anchor grabbing sand.
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| Bays dotted with sail boats |
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| Sugar Cane Workers of Old |
A few now abandoned sugar mills are converted into
historical sites, which illustrate the past wealth of the Islands based on
sugar, molasses, rum and slave labour. Slaves were emancipated here in 1848,
and sugar cane was no longer planted.
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| Remnant of a Sugar Cane Mill |
It appears to me, that an extensive expatriate community
from mainland USA is making up a large
part of the upscale commercial scene in a few ‘exclusive’ enclaves such as
Caneel Bay Resort (parking for lunch US$20), with born and bred Virgin
Islanders keeping the local economy in a couple of micro shopping and restaurant
centres alive and well.
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| You never know what you find behind a rum shack in mid island... |
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| Reverse tourism - pets travel north quite frequently as legal immigrants |
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| Store Front of the road side shack, with above painted lady hidden in the backyard... |
Some residents live on Billionaire’s Hill in splendid
mansions with views across all the British and US Virgin Islands. Most of the
Island is preserved as National Park, keeping its appearance lush, unspoiled and relatively
uninhabited.
This visit provided the quintessential Caribbean Experience
with brilliant sunny skies, multi-hued sea, waving palms, mangrove swamps and
endless picture perfect beaches, some lined with al fresco bistros, rum shacks
and upscale restaurants.
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| Good time to kick up ones heels and just look around |
Luckily for a few staff and passengers aboard Prinsendam,
lost luggage and supplies have made a magical re-appearance on board – so all
is well again. One more port, Saint Maarten, tomorrow, then off for 5 days
across the Atlantic to the Island of Cape Verde.
