I enjoy Alex's Podcast from Paradise, and particularly enjoyed the reading from Jumbie on the Loose. I searched around a bit and found sources of the CD and book here:

'"Jumbie on the Loose" is available on St. Thomas at Dockside Bookshop in Havensight and The Owl and the Seahorse in Sub Base and on St. Croix at The Freudian Slip in Sunshine Mall, the Whim Museum in Frederiksted and Undercover Books in Gallows Bay.'

I ordered the book and CD (must have the CD!) ... OK, I ordered 3 of each from Dockside and already sent one to my sister..., and had a great walk on Friday listening to not only the jumbie-related folk tales but a discussion about the role of the folk tales in Crucian culture. I got homesick for the islands, and am counting the days until my next visit at the end of June (STX) and early July (STJ).

This is only my second visit to St. Croix (but have been visiting St. John and St. Thomas since Mongoose Junction was new). I'm in a bit in a rut on St. John (snorkel, eat, sleep), and have recently added hiking on St. John and visiting St. Croix to bring new vistas. I miss the sense of place I had in oh-so-quiet St. John of the 1980s, but can't tell if it is the island or I that have changed more. I don't mind the conveniences of modern Cruz Bay and like that I can choose from two different grocery stores.

The Trail Bandit Guide is a terrific map that has GPS coordinates as well as a detailed topo information. It proves an excellent resource while we're hiking, and I have one pinned to my corkboard at work for those hectic days when I need a quick trip to St. John to decompress.

The hike to the old Sieben plantation off Centerline Road was great! There's a baobab tree that I found spectacular and an interesting bit of African history and roots that survives at a plantation house that is long in ruins. There are bay rum trees at the ruins of L'Esperance near the trailhead that make the air smell fantastic after a rain (or if you pinch a leaf). The monkey-no-climb and mango trees along the old plantation road are spectacular. I can't help but marvel that I'm walking on a road that was built by hand, by forced labor, hundreds of years ago. I have to admire people who were strong enough to survive, and wonder how much knowledge (for example of bush medicine) is slipping away as generations pass and as we live in relative ease now. I think one of the reasons the jumbie tales mean so much to me is that they connect me to the rich linguistic and cultural heritage of the islands.