St. Thomas 2019 - Day 3

I was late for porch breakfast this morning.

As we were getting ready to leave, we listened in disbelief to a truck going by outside, down the crazy road. It turned out to be a water delivery truck. (Someone's rain-catchment cistern must have run dry?)

I would very much like to see how this thing traverses the switchbacks, as long as it isn't while I'm trying to drive up them.

Here's another view of the rental (top floor only). It was another picture-perfect morning.

We headed cross-island, via Skyline Dr, towards the east coast. The road runs along the top of the ridge, affording alternating views of both sides of the island, but there aren't many places to stop for photos. On the left, the view is of Magens Bay; on the right, it's Charlotte Amalie and the harbor.

We made a pit stop at the grocery store, and it takes some serious time to get around here (with an average speed of about 20 mph), so it was about 11 AM by the time we found Secret Harbor beach.

The snorkeling here was much better than it was in Magens Bay, in my humble-ish opinion.

There's some wreckage from a sailboat not far from shore. The location seems too convenient for it to have ended up there, upright, by itself.

Farther out along the edges, there are some interesting rock formations to explore.

It got somewhat tricky to navigate around these, in the waves, without fins, but I think it was worth the risk.

I didn't see any turtles today, but the fish were more abundant at this location.

It wasn't crowded when we arrived, but there were two cruise ships in port and Secret Harbor is a quick taxi ride from the dock, so it began to get busy in the afternoon.

We grabbed a late lunch at the beach bar, then headed out to find a more peaceful spot for the remainder of the afternoon. Thankfully, just up the road is Lindquist Beach, which was nearly deserted. Apparently a $5 admission fee (and lack of a bar) is all it takes to keep out most tourists.

We spent a few hours here in relative tranquility, and then headed back across the island in search of sustenance. About halfway "home", we stopped at Sib's on the Mountain for burgers alfresco.

Tomorrow's weather should be beautiful with a chance of a day trip to St. John, if logistical requirements can be met.

I, for one, am getting used to being lulled to sleep by a chorus of tree frogs.

St, Thomas 2019 - Day 2

I'm fairly certain this is the first Airbnb we've ever rented where the host has stocked the fridge for breakfast. Maybe they're just really nice, or maybe they sympathize with the non-triviality of getting to a grocery store from here.

We slept in and ate breakfast on the porch. The first course was coffee, tea, and fresh mango.

The second course was scrambled eggs, blueberry bagels with cream cheese, orange juice, and... I want to say grapes, probably?

After lounging around for a bit and doing some research, we ventured out; our destination: Magens Bay park/beach,

I forgot to mention yesterday that I convinced Sabrina to film some footage of the road leaving the rental, headed up the hill to Crown Mountain Rd. She gave up before the halfway point, I think, claiming it was too hard with the car bouncing around.

The drive along the hillside is winding and scenic, with a few spots where it's possible to stop to admire the view (of Magens Bay).

As we got closer, the beach at the head of the bay occupied more and more of the panoramic view (it's nearly a mile long).

We managed to find some premium parking, near the bathrooms and not too far from the restaurant/bar. It wasn't exactly "crowded" at this end.

The beach was lovely, but I was there for the water.

I'm not built to withstand the daystar that close to its zenith, so I fled into the soothing ocean with a snorkel and mask while the sun worshipers set up camp.

There are small reef areas on either side of the bay, and we happened to be near-ish to the side. I drifted along, looking for fish. I found lots of them.

To be fair, it felt like some of them found me. It might be my imagination, but it almost seemed like the small fish were following me (or my yellow shirt). Almost every time I turned around, I was swarmed by a school of them. It's possible the fish have learned that people will feed them; there are plenty of posts on TripAdvisor mentioning that dog biscuits are a great way to attract them...

Either way, I spent a lot of the time swimming through a shimmering vortex of thousands of small fish.

One of them, I'm fairly sure, was not a fish.

I followed this turtle around for a good while. It didn't seem the least bit concerned about my presence. If you have 60 seconds with absolutely nothing better to do, you can experience some of what that was like.

After a few hours, we got some overpriced lunch and adult beverages from the beach bar. There were waitresses making rounds on the beach, but we made the 100-yard trek to the covered deck to see the menu.

We spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between reading, lounging, and swimming.

I enjoyed a short walk down the beach, and admired some of the locals' taxi engineering.

Around 4:30, the angle of the sun was making it difficult to find shade. We left just after 5.

Having eaten very little at the beach, we aimed the Nissan up and over the hills, down towards the waterfront on the east side of Charlotte Amalie.

We sought out a casual place where we could dine in bathing suits, and ended up at The Smoking Rooster for some BBQ.

Picture unrelated, except that it was taken between the car and the food. There are still lots of Christmas trees in full bloom here. They will forever seem out of place to me, at this latitude.

I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring, except more crazy driving. And probably more sand.