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| Virgin Islands National Park, Cruz Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands |
A quick
overnight brought us from the US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico over to the US
Virgin Islands, a small island chain east of Puerto Rico, purchased from
Denmark in 1917 for $25 million to provide protection for the newly opened
Panama Canal. As we anchored at Cruz
Bay, St. John, US Virgin Island, we looked out and we were among small islands
in every direction. Chicago and its
seven inches of snow just a week ago, seemed like a distant memory in this
warm, sunny climate.
There were
only three excursions available on this cruise, one of which was a ride to a
beach to spend time relaxing there, a second was a shopping tour to St. Thomas,
and the third (which I selected) was St.
John Eco Hike and Beach. Barb didn’t
find any of the three met her capability for this trip, so she elected to stay
on the ship and would decide later both how she felt and what my
recommendations were for a possible tender ride.
I tendered
with 17 other people to the Virgin Island National Park Visitors Center located
right off the tender at Cruz Bay where we began our hike. As we began walking, I chatted with a nearly
84 year old man, in excellent physical health, who was also doing the
trek. We climbed some stairs and began
climbing higher and higher on a dirt, stony path and we both wondered if we had
made the wrong decision. A few minutes
into the climb, our guide, a young woman from Kentucky who had lived in the US
Virgin Islands for 5½ months let us know the hardest part of the walk was
over. Though we had some stony surfaces
to walk on, the climb was done. It was a
hike that kept one looking down and paying close attention to where each foot
would be planted since some of the stones were very loose and slid. Sometimes we had to grab tree trunks to keep
from slipping. Happily no one fell or
twisted an ankle – even more happily because all of us had to sign wavers not
to hold the tour company responsible for any injuries.
Every so
often, our guide stopped us to point out wildlife such as hermit crabs
slithering along the ground and mentioned how weather conditions could be
predicted from the direction crabs were moving. There was also a mongoose near
us which helped deal with the problem of mice and even insects on the island.
Various trees were used for different purposes from using the inedible fruit as
bowls as well as one that had fine thread-like strands for sewing.
After a walk
of about a mile we arrived at Honeymoon Beach, a beautiful sandy beach with
pleasure boats and with beach and Adirondack chairs, hammocks, snorkel
equipment, and of course, swimming available to any who wanted them. We spent an hour there, just enjoying the
warmth and the beach before heading back to our starting point. We passed the ruins of an old 18th
century Dutch sugar plantation and factory, a reminder of a bygone era when the
sugar industry was supreme rather than tourism of today. As we took a short ride back along the
highway, we noticed an unusual feature of US Virgin Islands driving laws. They drive on the left side of the road
“because it has always been that way.”
But the driver always rides in the left seat “because nearly all cars on
the US Virgin Islands are made in the US.”
After the
tender ride back to the ship and a quick lunch on this beautiful sunny day,
Barb and I discussed whether she could handle a tender ride to shore. I told her the tenders were different from
the Amsterdam with seats down three steep steps. She decided to see what the logistics were
and make the decision based on the waves and the boat itself. Fortunately she found it no problem getting
on the tender and going down the three steps which had a grab bar that made it
easy for her. She set foot on US Virgin
Islands soil and went the short distance to get the US National Parks passport
stamp for the Virgin Islands National Park and immediately went back on tender
while I explored the interesting small town of Cruz Bay before tending back
“home.”
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