Straight to the point! Thanks Ric. Was someone selling Ts and shorts at brown bay?

Hey Blu

We hike Brown Bay every morning (well hubby does anyway 🙂 )and there is noooo one there - especially not selling clothes 🙂

This is the beach where all the illegals are dropped off in the bay, they then swim ashore and change into dry clothes that they bring with them in plastic bags discarding their wet clothes on the beach and trails 🙁

Pia

Ooooooh my!!

Not sure if i am more disturbed by the illegal entry or the potential for vendors selling clothes.

Thanks Pia.

Learned something new today!

So Ric and his crew were walking around STJ wearing the discarded clothes of illegal aliens. Ric, did they leave good designer brands? 🙂

I am only assuming these were the clothes they found as they are everywhere - bathing suits, jeans, t's, shorts, shoes etc some quite far into the bushes but alot just off the beach and along the trail.

I know - weird to think about.......gives me the heeby jeebies 🙂

Pia

Oh my God!
Had no idea where the clothes came from when I was there last time. First time never saw any.
I just imaged someone had a hell'va party, and the participants would be back to collect the stuff.
That is very weird. Where'd those people go??

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a great trip. Seeing turtles is a thrill, seeing dolphins is more than I ever dare to hope for. We like Fire Foods, too. They're very interesting guys. There are a lot of good local places that few tourists ever get to. Sweet Plantains and Miss Lucy's draw tourists with their upscale West Indian menu, but the other places at the triangle in Coral Bay also put out good local food. The Sputnik bar sometimes has food, too. The Sputnik is also a good place to stop for a drink and a very, very local experience. Inner Visions were playing there regularly last summer and it would have been a great venue to hear them.

The word "local" can have different meanings. These are local places that are worth checking out. It's a "local" experience that most tourists miss.

There are a number of places for local food in Cruz Bay, too. For dinner we like Sogo's (West Indian) and Sosa's (Latin Caribbean). For lunch, Hercules has pate and there are still small stand/truck operations around the pavilion and the post office (Shela's Pot, Patrick's). "Progress" has tried to move them, but they've managed to endure. And Mooie's is a good place to stop for a drink and a local experience. More tourists should give these places a try.

We first came upon discarded clothing up on the Johnny Horn trail some years ago. A few piles, really in the middle of nowhere. It creeped us out . We asked when we got back and the illegals explanation was kind of a relief----less disturbing than any of the explanations my mind had come up with. We also came upon some the last time we were at Haulover.

Yes, discarded clothes. Love free stuff. 🙂

On this topic of discarded clothing---there is one thing that I've wondered about. From what I understand, illegal immigrants are dropped off and swim/wade ashore carrying dry clothing in a plastic bag. Once ashore, they change into the dry clothing and just leave the wet stuff behind.

What I'm wondering is why they come ashore dressed. Why not strip down to a swimming suit or underwear to come ashore. Why not bag up the jeans and shirts, keep them dry along with the other stuff in the plastic bags? If you have to have your bag ready when you first get on the boat, why not just take your clothes off before you get in the water and just toss them overboard? Why swim to shore dressed?

Lex,

I can only imagine that they're in too much of a hurry to undress on the boat.

I had heard about the boats coming in with illegal people and substances, at night...but not the discarding of clothing.

Again, if you think it is romantic to be on the beaches at night under the moonlight, think again.

All they have to do is sit on the boat and wait to reach the destination where they're being dropped off. They'd have time to undress. I wonder why they don't.

It seems the drop offs are at isolated, remote beaches, usually those on the Drake Channel. There doesn't seem any such activity at the north shore beaches.

Are you sure people aren't just being beamed up from the beaches at night by a
spaceship??
Wouldn't need your Earth clothes anymore. Besides, those spacesuits in the movies look
pretty tight, and would probably look a little lumpy if you wore clothes underneath.

Alien abduction!!! People just being vacuumed right out of their clothes and beamed up to the ship.
It sounds unlikely, but who can say with certainty?

Or, maybe they've been raptured away!!!!

Lex, I think you're misunderstanding the people who are in fact trying to enter the US illiegally. They are poor and probably uneducated desparate people. (Who by the way, have probably never owned a bathing suit in their life.) These are people with only the clothes on their back (and in this case a second set in a plastic bag to change into once they reach the shore). Think about it.

I tend to agree with Diane. Here I go - about to get flamed...

BUT, isn't the Caribbean island area (incl the latin basin and Haiti) a culture where they do not wear special suits to bathe? I don't think swim suits are common. Even if they are going to the beach to bathe, they mostly tend to wear their regular clothes. This is not itended as an insult to anyone - it is just my exprience and is fine with me. Even in the states, when I go to the NJ beaches, the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are bathing in shorts and T shirts. Even if they can well-afford a Ralph Lauren swimsuit, they won't buy one.

Also, I'm sure there's some kind of netowrk telling people exactly how this is done. They are desperate and just following instructions that have worked well for those gone before them - bring a plastic bag of dry clothing - ok. I don't think I would say "nah, i think it is better for me to wear this swimsuit under my jeans and change on the boat - I have a better way of doing this".

No sir.....if the rules say bring a bag of dry clothes, that's what they do.

I can see Lex's point, though.

How about the illegal lady whose toddler daughter drowned off of Coki beach a couple of years back when they exited the boat and she lost hold of her toddler. The folks "in charge" of the boat assured her that he daughter had been taken to the hospital and she should continue on the trail to wherever they hide on the island. In reality, he daughter was dead and left in the brush behind the beach. Her story was in the STT paper. A HUGE price to pay for freedom. Sad beyond belief.Here's the article from 2006 - look at the mother's face - how horrifying!
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=13143463

Gee Diana, thanks for the education. I guess I'd assumed the people who were entering the US by this route would be wealthy, educated people. Thanks for setting me straight. I hadn't realized what a knucklehead people on this forum must think of me as being if they feel a need to point such things out to me.

My point was, if I'm going overboard, rather than wearing the clothes that I'm going to ditch once I'm ashore, I'd strip them off before I got in the water. I wasn't stressing the choice of a nice swimsuit. Again, I hadn't realized that people here thought of me as being such a knuckle head as they apparently do. I did mention swim suits or underwear. Another option might be to be naked. The point was to get out of clothes that would make it harder to get to shore since I'm ditching them anyway. I've never been swimming in jeans and a shirt, soI don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that it makes it a whole lot harder to get through the water.

Ric

Let me state again that I enjoyed your report. And now let me apologize for highjacking and turning it into this silly business. It's impolite. I'll step back.

Nothing silly about it!

I thought a the illegals were Chinese. The label in my new shorts is in Chinese.

My info is that there are two types of illegals. Chinese that have lawyers waiting for them after being arrested and transported to PR, and those from Haiti and the like that do not want to be found. The whole thing is very sad. We are a lucky bunch.

If my daughter ever sends me the pics, I'll post one of me at the ruins in my new shorts. I am more attractive than Beer Hunter with straws up his nose.

Ric