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I find myself coming back to this board daily. I guess I miss you guys!
Trip report 8/8/07- 8/15/07:
Arrived with two teenage daughters on STT for the taxi to Red Hook. White knuckle ride as always and longer than expected as someone wanted to be dropped off at K-MART as their luggage was lost by the airline.
Ferry ride just fine, but realized one daughter left her camera in the taxi van. Called them but never found it. Bummer.
Ran to the jeep rental place to get the jeep before they closed and went back to the dock the get the girls. Quick trip to the market for food. Every thing you need is there.
Drove to Maho and found the cabin, and immediately hit the water. Best moment of the trip was when the girls jumped into the water and genuinely thanked me for bringing them there. Priceless!
Snorkeling: Best visibility this trip was Cinnamon Cay due to conditions. Most fun was Francis Bay as three dolphins came to swim with me one early morning, and I swam with turtles every day. Scariest was Hurricane hole when I ran into a blacktip shark, she would not go away, so I did. That was a hell of a hike out of there! Best adventure was Waterlemmon, long swim, great reefs.
Beach: Brown bay as I got a new pair of shorts and the girls each got a tee shirt out of the deal. Free! Also no one else was there, so nice and quiet. Great ruins to explore. One mile hike in.
Hikes: Lamshur to the petroglyphs. Very hot but the side trip to the reef bay estate was cool. Ignore the ‘stay out’ signs, but please do not actually enter the building. Lots of bats there and looks unstable.
Went to Rams head by myself and left the girls at salt bay. TAKE WATER as it takes a while, but worth the trip. I ran into some college girls without water and asked how far the smoothie stand was. They were not amused. J
Food: Two bests:
1) FIRE FOODS. Roadside place on the road to drunk bay just at the right turn off from centerline road on the left. No menu. You get what they cooked that morning. Best Tofu this side of heaven and wonderful local juices. Very nice young men own the place. Get there early as it is a breakfast/ lunch place. HIGHLY recommended.
2) Café Roma in Cruz bay. Had a birthday diner for my 18 year old. Food was great. Try the ravioli over spinach. Bring your own birthday candles and order the chocolate cake. One piece will serve three!
Jeeps: Can not go wrong with Donald Schnell.com Tell him I sent you!
Souvenirs: We ended up on east end one day and happened upon Sloop Jones’ place. Great stuff and a friendly artist. I bought a hat. Loves it.
I miss the island already. I would say more but want to save some of the secrets here. Beer Hunter needs to come there with me for some great snorkeling. I know the good places.
Ric
One time when we were staying at Maho some years ago, people told us about a group of Asians passing through who appeared to have just come ashore. I'd always assumed that the illegals coming ashore on STJ were Caribbean people. It struck me at the time that some of the illegal immigration traffic is a very complex business, much more sophisticated than I'd known.
We are indeed a lucky bunch.
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_archive?id=221139
Article about chinese immigrants caught in Smith Bay.
Lex, I just wanted you to know that I didn't think you were a knucklehead :o)
The illegals who are transported here are from all over the world. When they do catch them and list nationalities in the paper, they are not only from Haiti and the DR, but Jordan, China, Malysia and many more places. The VI are not far from St Martin, where most of the smuggling rings are centered.
Also sorry to hijack the thread... 🙁
Ric....I do not see how anyone is more attractive then myself. I am a damn good looking man straws or no straws.
Just wait till I get the pics from my daughter. 🙂
And Pia: Where do live that you can hike Brown Bay everyday? I want to live there!
Ric
Beer,
Did you learn that straw thing from aliens??
If I'm on the Rams Head trail and just see a couple of straws, I'll know who it is.
Beer uses his straws as a disposable snorkel. Maybe he has some ideas for the illegals.
Hey Ric - we live in Coral Bay (St John 🙂 ) 5 mins from the start of the Brown Bay Trail - gotta luv that - and we do and are thankful everyday 🙂
Pia
I would like to put a pic up but it is not working for me.
Working on it. We will see.
The pic of me is not so great, so working on one of my daughters' pics.
Ric
Ric,
THese are the instructions that worked for me today.
1. Open a free account with photobucket.
2. Save the photos you're going to post to 640x480
3. Save the photos to your "my pictures" on your documents file
4. Right click the photo.
5. Upload it to photobucket
6. In photobucket, use the IMG option at the bottom of the photo you uploaded. Rt click it.
7. Paste it to VINOW post.
8. Type text before or after the photo
9. Preview it and it should show you what you're about to post.
I tested it on both sites (ruh roh) and it worked fine.
E.L. (Terry)
