St. John rocks!

Just a few of the many amazing rock formations on the island. The striations in the bottom-most photo are natural cracks, not score marks -- ahem, where are my geo-geek girls to tell me what caused them? My enthusiasm for minerals sadly does not replace the fact that I've never had any formal study of them...

(side note: mid-90s Smith College Geology Department T-shirt: "We've seen a million faces, and we've rocked them all." Love it.)

Tropical depression

No, I'm not talking about how it feels when you discover the bar is out of your favorite cold beverage. Lest you think it's all fun and games here in paradise, let me introduce you to the humble beginnings of Hurricane Kyle. Before Kyle grew up and headed toward coastal Maine, he was a leettle baby disorganized low-pressure system. He hung around St. John for four straight days while he got his act together and organized into a tropical depression. Four days later, when the rains finally stopped, the road up to my house in one direction looked like this:


That's a tree across the paved portion; there are some bowling-ball-sized rocks around it. Note the river still running swiftly down the hillside at left, a full 24 hours after the rain ended!

Fortunately, there are two ways to access Cocoloba Trail (my street). Here's how things look on the other end -- this is more than a week after the rains:

Fortunately or unfortunately, while all this was going on, I was horribly sick with a cold and clueless about much of the world located more than six feet beyond my bed. My upstairs neighbors warned me that, should I one day feel well enough to leave the house again, I should not ride my scooter as I would surely meet impending doom. In fact, however, once I did venture forth, I found it far easier to go around the obstacles on two wheels that I would have on four.

On the upside, the hillsides are very, very green; everyone's cistern is full; and there are some beautiful waterfalls around the island.

snorkeling Waterlemon Cay

First off -- that's "Waterlemon", not Watermelon. I had been reading it wrong for more than 10 years and didn't pick that up until someone pointed it out to me. Doh! Anyway, here's a view of it from the Leinster Bay trail:

The little island that's foremost on the left is Waterlemon Cay. I swam out there on advice from my Charlottesville electrician, who wanted to remedy my lack of starfish viewing. (If you don't have an electrician who doubles as an underwater naturalist, you'll need to upgrade. Email me for Kurt's number.)

The reef around the cay is beautiful, and I swam with huge parrotfish longer than my forearm. Alas, despite following Kurt's directions meticulously, I found no starfish. Maybe it's the time of day I'm going (late afternoon)? Are they all heading home for tea or something?

I'll be coming out here again when I have time to do some hiking. Lots of great trails. And I found a bunch of seaglass on this visit, too.

St. John traffic

So, despite the fact that it can take a good 30-40 minutes to get from one end of the island to the other, and despite our in-progress traffic roundabout (met the engineer running that project at the Gecko Bar the other day; nice guy), St. John still doesn't have too much in the way of traffic. We usually slow down for obstructions in the road (potholes, speed bumps, and large rocks). We brake for animals (goats, donkeys, wild pigs, iguanas, and mongoose dem -- that's the island plural of mongoose). There's exactly one place on the island where you could go more than 40 miles an hour if you pushed it. Nonetheless, St. John has a traffic light.



Ready?

Here it is:

That's right; it's hanging like a hunting trophy on the side of the public works building at the top of Gifft Hill Road. The story is that even though St John has no place to put a traffic light, nor enough traffic to justify one, at the end of one fiscal year, somehow there was money that had to be spent on traffic lights in some government transportation budget. So the legislature, not wanting to see cold hard cash go to waste, spent it, and St. John received not one but three lights.

Down the hill a ways, you get to this sculptural gem:


Yup, it's what you think it is. Any doubts are erased by the nearby signage.

flight to SJU

People love to complain about flying on tiny planes. But the St. Thomas-St John San Juan [thanks Ari] leg of my flights back to the States earlier this month was way fun. The planes were Cessna 402Cs:



and I got the second-best seat, both outbound and inbound:





Shotgun, baby!



So, I'm a total 4-year-old kid when it comes to how much fun I think it is to take off in a plane, every single time. Wheee! It's even better when you get a front-row seat. And even better than that, in my view, when you get to spend the flight talking motorcycles with the pilot (thanks, Okke!).



Takeoff:


Island views from the air:

This is Culebra, off the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico. Sarah, I took this one for you!

morning island-cat montage

Bacio is the black kitty; I don't know what the tabby-and-white number is called. Our lack of formal introduction makes him no less intent on receiving my affections several times a day.

Check out those dashing white whiskers!

Laundry day

St. John clothes dryer:




Here at Delfini, sun-dried linens create an ideal napping spot. Black cat Spiffy has no idea how I discovered where he was hiding, though....

Jumbie Bay

Great snorkeling here today. Jumbie Bay is between Hawksnest and Trunk Bay on the North Shore, both popular St. John beaches, and perhaps the beauty of Jumbie's reef life is in part attributable to the fact that these other two beaches get most of the traffic. There's nowhere good to park near the steps down to Jumbie (unless you drive a scooter :)). I arrived an hour before sunset and had the beach to myself once more. Swam through an enormous school of little neon silvery fish. Followed a smooth trunkfish

for a while before turning to find several enormous jacks (I think; some sort of jack-shaped fish with a yellow belly) noodling around for dinner. Then I swam with a school of blue tang

passing parrotfish, angelfish, and all sorts of other beauties until I got to the highlight of my snorkel today: Something reddish pink with long limbs was staring at me from the reef floor. At first I thought it was a ginormous starfish, and I was excited because despite islanders telling me "those huge starfish are everywhere!", I haven't seen one yet. But it had too many appendages, plus it was definitely staring -- and suddenly I realized I was face to face with an octopus!

Allow me to illustrate my excitement via this portion of a chat with my motorcycle-borrowing friend Dan.

me: Paradise is good! I saw an octopus today!
Dan: Octopus? That's awesome I was pretty thrilled with the sea turtle I saw... it had nothing on an octopus
me: The octopus had other thoughts on the matter, it appeared. I was regarded with a great deal of suspicion.
Dan: Smart critter ;-)
me: Haven't seen a sea turtle yet. Shaddup! :P
Dan: Did it socialize with you? or whatever it is that octopus-like creatures do...
me: Well, we didn't exactly have tea and watercress sandwiches. It seemed concerned that I might want to eat it, or perhaps take food from it. So after a couple of minutes, s/he retreated beneath a rock.
Dan: I don't know... I've never encountered one. Though. as far as finger sandwiches go, I would think cucumber....
me: Sea cucumber?!! Sigh.

As for the coral -- Jumbie has pillar coral, fire coral, brain coral, and gorgonians galore.

Photos nabbed from Wikipedia but are decent representations of what I saw today. Not having an underwater camera, I'm unable to personally document many of the island's most interesting sights.

More relaxing than a margarita

Today I literally worked from sunrise to sunset. To wind down, instead of fixing the stiff drink my colleagues suggested, I took a quick hop over to Rendezvous Bay, which is on the other side of the point shown in the photos from my first two days on island (western side of Ditleff Point).

The waxing moon was rising, and looking east I could see just how the bay had looked to the pirates and smugglers who sailed here three centuries earlier. No pirates tonight, though. Once again I had a whole beach to myself, so I went in the water sans bathing costume. The moonlight made bright lines across the surface of the sea as I floated, swam, and spun like a dolphin.

Paradise Interrupted ...

... by work (when I'm on the computer or the phone, I'm in job-space. Whether I have a view of the woods or of the ocean makes no difference; I don't notice either until I step away from my computer)...

... by storms (tonight's thunder was loud, but the sound of Dusty crashing through my screen door to hide from the storm was louder)...

... by the cycle of life (flying back to C'ville for the weekend to be with dog Looie, whose body is failing her rapidly this week).

Sunday night tidbits

• Today's acquisitions were a delicious Belgian waffle at Jake's, two ferry tickets, laundry detergent, a used scooter of my very own, a slightly sunburned nose, and the skill of getting around via "safari taxi" on St. Thomas.


• My housemates upstairs are ribbing me about bringing home three different vehicles in less than 24 hours. I've promised this will be it.


• Gas prices in Coral Bay are about 20 cents lower than the island's only other station (Cruz Bay) and only about 10-20 cents higher than on St. Thomas. The Coral Bay station is cash only, no plastic.


• I found a ninth cat today. It's like a never-ending Easter Egg hunt. Perhaps there's a prize for seeing them all?


• Back to work tomorrow! I'm looking forward to getting out of "tourist mode" and on with the reality bit.

Scooter!

Had to take the rental car back today -- I'm long overdue for buying my own set of wheels but haven't yet found what I'm looking for. Getting closer, I hope; am checking out a Jeep Cherokee and a Suzuki DR350 tomorrow. Meanwhile, it seemed like the perfect time to get my butt over to Beach Scooters and onto the new Kawasaki KLX 250 I was petting over there last week.

I arrived before the scooter place opened, so I munched on a spinach croissant nearby. Fortutiously, the croissant came with a brown paper bag. This came in handy when Roberto, who co-owns Beach Scooters with his brother Richard, was opening the shop. "Ee-yahhh!" he said. "That is the biggest spider I have ever seen! Isn't that the biggest spider you have ever seen?"

It was not (although it was a tarantula about half the size of my hand), but rather than saying so, I took over the arachnid extrication process. With a copy of the Island Trader and said paper bag, I soon returned the shop to a spider-free state. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to snap the creature's photo before it scurried out of the bag and over the parking lot wall. I think it was of the Avicularia genus, though. Handsome stripey little thing.

Sadly, the KLX wasn't licensed for rental yet, but I picked up a scooter instead. Despite several thousand miles under my belt on "real motorcycles", I'd never ridden a scoot before. It feels weird, like I'm sitting at a desk chair with handlebars and a lawnmower engine. But I have to say, it does the trick. What does not do the trick is the name of this Chinese brand: it's a Wussi. Which pretty much sums up my disdain for scooters. Oh well; at least it's Audi Yellow. :)




I had so much fun riding it around the island, I almost didn't make it to the beach today! Finally settled on Francis Bay on the northeastern part of the island, which is great for swimming.

The water was so smooth and clear that I didn't even put on my mask and snorkel, just paused every so often to float and watch the reef life below me. The downside was the time of day I went -- at 4 p.m., the skeeters come out in full force. They don't bother you when you're in the water, but on the beach they were swarming happily; it was a mad dash to get dressed and back on the scooter.

Today was also filled with good food and more of my new friends -- a beer and a veggie burger at the Beach Bar and a spectacular dinner at Waterfront Bistro, where the fingerling potatoes with my tuna nicoise were to die for. I am definitely thriving here. :)

A Coral Bay day

This afternoon I headed out to Coral Bay on the eastern side of the island to pick up silk painting supplies. I was beginning to mentally kick myself for not making the time to pack up my own art supplies before leaving Virginia. But the planets aligned when I stepped into Syzygy Gallery earlier this week. Owner/artist Barr Lewis cut me a sweet deal on her silk equipment because she's preparing to return to her native Canada next year. I'm psyched to start painting again!

I made an afternoon of exploring the Salt Pond and Ram Head beaches and trails. Ram Head is the southernmost point of St. John, and the views are amazing, with plenty of flora

and fauna

along the way.

The view from the early part of the trail

was lovely, but staring at it too long can be hazardous if you're not watching your step on this rocky beach. Of course, the rocks are lovely themselves,

and they inspire scuplture:

(I'm pretty sure that's meant to represent a Hawksbill sea turtle, but use your imagination as needed.)

The view from the end of the trail is way more lovely than a photo can capture.

To quench my thirst after several miles of hiking, I stopped at Aqua Bistro for a Bushwacker. There I discovered pit bulls Ginger and Otis (sorry, Allison, no photos), whose introduction led me to meet a number of friendly folks. From there the evening progressed to a delicious home-cooked dinner at a beautiful villa overlooking Coral Bay--a splendid finish to a delightful day.

Denis Bay

How do you get a white-sand tropical beach, like this one,



all to yourself for an entire afternoon?

Well, apparently you drive from Cruz Bay



to the north shore of St. John,




park at the Peace Hill trailhead, and hike the unmarked trail ~10 minutes through jungle switchbacks




filled with night-blooming cerius





and hermit crabs the size of your fist (sadly, not pictured; camera sucks at low-light close-ups).


And then, you arrive here:

The snorkeling off Perkins Cay (foremost island to the left) is divine. Ginormous coral, fish of all colors and stripes. All without another human being around. This is the stuff they sell in the guidebooks. Bliss!

Critters

I don't know how it happened, but once again I am sharing a home with nine animals.

This is Dusty the dog.


Dusty apparently has no problem being dominated by any of the eight cats, who quite literally walk all over him. Sample culprits below.

Not shown are the three black cats that apparently come in tall, venti, and grande, with an inverse degree of shyness. Feral cats in the Virgin Islands are called "bush cats". While Trap-Neuter-Release programs may actually worsen the problem on the mainland, they make all the sense in the world on a 9- by 5-mile island, where there's no further supply of felines to move in and take over the neutered kitties' territory. The St. John Animal Care Center works hard to care for the island's bush cat population.

Whereas these guys don't know the meaning of hard work: