South America, 2014: St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

18 Feb 2014

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

The ship docked about 8 am and we were off on our respective tours. Russ took his flippers, snorkel, mask and GoPro camera for a scuba session while I boarded a small bus along with about 10 other folks for a drive around the island. Both were half day excursions, so theoretically, we had time for lunch and a short visit to the nearby shops. Of course, that was assuming that we could reconnect. We did manage to find each other after the tours, but after 45 minutes of waiting, I gave up on Russ getting his stuff dropped off on the ship and getting back to me for lunch so I went off on my own. He did eventually find me and we enjoyed a lunch of delicious local food – BBQ’d chicken, rice and fried plaintains. I looked around in the jewelry shops and discovered the same thing I did on our Panama Canal trip – there are no good buys on jewelry or watches. I did find a nice silver and Mahlango fish necklace charm for a price that didn’t choke me.

The U.S. Virgin Islands was purchased by the U.S. in 1917 for 25 million dollars. As with other Caribbean islands, St. Thomas was the location of a barbaric plantation system which relied on slavery. Through the combination of huge tropical storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and cholera epidemics, the plantation system died. The population was decimated and as late as 1950, the population was only a few hundred on the whole set of islands which make up the Virgin Islands. As of 2010, the population of St. Thomas is around 51,000.

My tour took us up to a high lookout and some beautiful views of the island and the surrounding waters. There were some other cruise ships in the port today so everything was crowded. The island is beautiful but I don't know how the local people can afford to live there, everything was very expensive.

Russ had a good time on his diving trip. It was a beginning scuba class and the skill levels were quite a range. Russ and another guy were very experienced and one gal was a total newbie. She ended up not being able to join in the dive because she couldn't get the breathing down right, which was too bad. The waters were warm but a bit murky, but all in all Russ got to dive and got to see some fishes and interesting corals.

The weather was pretty close to perfect – nice tropical breezes with the temps in the mid 70s. All in all, it was a nice start to our tour of Caribbean islands.

This is the terminal we docked at. There were very nice modern facilities on the dock.

A pano shot of the ship at the St. Thomas terminal.

A view of St. Thomas from our balcony.

This is a self-balancing unicycle, similar in concept to the Segway. The fellow using it is the designer and owner of the manufacturing company and fellow passenger.

This island played up the pirate history a lot. Plenty of pirate statuary to pose alongside.

From a view point atop one of the many peaks making up St. Thomas.

The island’s airport.

Magens Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world as selected by National Geographic. The spit in the distance is the location of multi-million dollar mansions for celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey. In the distance is Tortola, a mostly unpopulated island. Most of that island had been purchased by Nelson Rockefeller and turned into a National Park.

The tour took up to Mountain Top which is the supposed home of the world famous banana daiquiri. Much too early to sample for me.

I read a statistic that only about 2% of the islands in the Caribbean are populated.

One of many chickens I saw running around the yards of the local houses.

This was a very large iguana hanging out in a tree alongside the road.

The tour guide said that this modest home of lava stones would sell for around $800,000. Housing is very expensive which makes it pretty much impossible for the locals to own land.