Good bye from St. Thomas

March 23rd - Well, plans have changed.  I’m very sad to say COVID has postponed our travels for now.  Southern Europe is not allowing travelers into their countries at this time.  We are leaving St. Thomas this morning and will be back in Minnesota by midnight, if all goes as expected.  When it’s safe we will continue our journey.  (I’ll let you know in case you want to continue to follow along)
BTW; one of the options we considered was just staying here until the pandemic settled.  There are currently only a hand full of cases on the island.  People here are aware of the pandemic of course but no one panics.  The stores are full of food including meat and TP etc.  People don’t hoard stuff, they just buy what they need.  They explain it this way.  They have been through devastating hurricanes that effect every man, woman & child.  They have no choice but to work together and help each other  through it.

The last 3 months have been amazing, I couldn’t have asked for anything more.  I’m touched by the number of people who have joined me virtually on this adventure.  Thank you.

What do I miss in the US?

What do I miss in the US...two beautiful girls!  Lauren is an English teacher, I’m sure she has rolled her eyes several times reading my blog with my poor grammar & spelling.  Danielle is a CPA, if algebra was needed in this blog she would be rolling her eyes too.  We do share one trait, we all love an adventure.  This is us last fall at Yosemite.  Our motto is; we can do anything!

I believe; out of all of the daughters in the whole world I got the very best ones :-).

PS; Happy Birthday Lauren!!!

Wild donkeys

March 21st - St. John’s  has hundreds of wild donkeys that roam the island.  As I mentioned earlier most of St. John’s is a protected national park so they are free to feel at home.  The donkeys love the tourists and they are happy to stick their heads in a car window for a pet or a carrot.  No social distancing needed :-)

Social distancing

Reef Bay - Because of “social distancing” we are not as connected to the locals and their conversations - I hate that!

One macho frog..

March 20th - They grow some very big frogs here!  I googled this one and they will actually eat mice.

Safari taxis

These safari taxis buzz around the island for a few dollars a ride.  They were originally a pick-up and they customized them with 4 rows of bench seats.  When tourists get on them they quietly take a seat.  When locals get on them they say a big, cheery “good morning” to everyone on the taxi.  Since we have been here 3 weeks now and we consider ourselves locals, we get on the taxis and say a big, cheery “good morning” to everyone on the taxi :-)

St Thomas High School

 

There is a high school close to our home so every day we see students coming and going.  They look cute in their matching pink and plaid uniforms.  They also deserve an A+ in hair braiding & design!

Pedophile island

There are two smaller islands next to St. Thomas (at the top of this picture) that the locals call “pedophile island” because they were owned by Jeff Epstein.   The judge for his estate has stopped any construction or changes while his estate is being sorted out.  There estimated value is $86,000,000.  Personally, I think all proceeds from a sales of these islands should go to the prevention of human sex trafficking.

Underwater photo

Alan took this picture of sergeant major fish.  He bought an underwater casing for his I-phone and took the plunge.  We saw a school of large brilliant blue tang fish, Alan took a picture but discovered he had the camera on “selfie” so we have a picture of Alan instead...LOL :-)

We also saw a caribbean reef shark, sea turtles and a graceful spotted eagle ray.

Rainbow

Sunday, March 15th - we had a brief shower yesterday but we were rewarded by this beautiful rainbow.

The Shaving Brush Flower

 

June is the owner of this VRBO, she’s a lovely person and works hard to make our stay as wonderful as possible.  She lived on a sail boat with her husband for over 20 years and then they sold their boat and built this home.  Several times June has brought us this flower they call a Shaving Brush Flower.  It starts out looking like a hot dog (if you think it looks like anything else you should get your mind out of the gutter).  At 7:07pm it bursts into the beautiful flower you see in the second photo.

The Caribbean - Living on the Top!

There are over 7,000 islands in the Caribbean but only about 100 are inhabited.  One of the locals here said “just think about the islands as a string of mountains between Florida to South America with only the tops exposed.  And we are living on the top!”

Strong legs & hearts...

March 12th - Our place is the white one in the middle, it’s half way up a small mountain.  Everything we need is at the bottom by the ocean; grocery store, restaurants, the ferry etc.  So at least twice a day we walk down & up...no rental car for us!  We have also started hiking to the top most days for a little more exercise (Rona you would be proud).  The best views are at the top!  I am predicting strong legs & hearts by the time we leave for Portugal on April 3rd.

Full Moon

There was a full moon last night, it’s called a Super Moon and is said to be brighter than most.  It was challenging to let enough light in without moving the camera.  It definitely brightens up the sky over the ocean.

A little rain must fall

We had a rare rainy day yesterday so we cozied in and watched an old movie (The Intern) with pizza.

The locals love it because they do not get enough water here and they are careful to conserve it.

Life is good!

March 9th - This is definitely my favorite place in our home here in St Thomas.  Without that silly, annoying thing called employment my brain is uncluttered and I have the time to read many great books.

La vita es buena!

I hate snakes!

We love the great hiking in St. Thomas & St. John’s.  This trail is much more jungle”y” if that’s a word than the others we have hiked.  There were snake holes as big as my fist!  This made me a little nervous...no scratch that, it made me very nervous because I HATE snakes.  Fortunately, we only saw birds and turtles and lizards.

Beaches

We have briefly visited a few beaches here and they are unbelievably beautiful!  The sand is soft & white and the color of the water is a lovely aqua blue.  We’re looking forward to snorkeling as well as just laying on our towel and watching the afternoon go by...

An odd thing about St. Thomas..

March 6th - There are chickens everywhere in St. Thomas.  Rumor has it, most of the locals had chicken coups and a hurricane came along and freed all the chickens.  They breed quickly and there are not many predators so before you know it there are chickens everywhere!

I thought roasters only crowed at sunrise; nope, they crow all the time; morning noon & night but you get used to it.

St John’s Island

We went to St. John yesterday, it’s only a 15 minute ferry ride from St. Thomas.  It’s a small island with a population of only 5,100.  The really cool thing about St John’s is 2/3 the island is a national park.  In 1956 Laurence Rockefeller donated this generous gift to protect the island for everyone to enjoy.  (Laurence you rock!!)  There are 27 miles of wonderful trails and beautiful beaches.  We hiked in the morning and then hung out at Honeymoon Bay.

Sunrise in St Thomas

St Thomas is about 25 miles across and has a population of about 50,000.  90% are locals and 10% are expats mainly from the US.  Unfortunately 22% of the locals live below the poverty line.  From the looks of the yachts and some of the homes in the mountains many of the expats are doing quite well.

St Thomas tree house

March 3rd - this is our home in St Thomas for the month of March.  They call it the tree house because it’s elevated on the side of a hill and is surrounded by trees so it feels like we are in a tree house.  It has a beautiful view of the marina and St. John’s Island in the distance.

Got there safely..

Yup, I’m the co-pilot.  Anybody nervous??

Today we leave Belize tomorrow St Thomas

March 1 - Kind of sad to go!  I think if I had one word for this island it would be Sea-Breeze, ok that might be 2 words but who’s counting?  There is always a breeze here, it changes directions, it’s more intense at times but it never stops moving.  We kept all of the windows open all the time so it was free air conditioning in the day and at night there was a soft breeze that sailed over our bed as we slept....aahhh.