Part 3 Trip Report

Thursday was king of a blah, ho-hum day, nothing spectacular, the usual stuff, walk around town some more, look at stores and shops. We did want to get some cold drinks for our small fridge so we went in search of a close by market. We found one that was about a 15 minute walk going toward out of town. A Jiffy Mart. It was only a 15 minute walk, but I don’t think there are any flat straight roads on St. Croix.

We got to the Jiffy Mart, got some Carib beer, and a bottle of wine and a water, and headed back to HOTC. It wasn’t a bad trip back, it was mostly down hill.

Before we left on our trip, we got new dry snorkels, the ones that swivel around the mouth piece, and I got a new mask. There is nothing as irritating as snorkeling with a leaking mask. We also went on line and ordered some “quick dry” shorts/swim suits from Lands End and had to try these items out. So off to the pool and the “swim” beach in front of the bar at HOTC. I felt kind of funny getting into a swimming pool with mask and snorkel on. I could just hear it…”Call the pervert police, some old fart is in the pool with a mask and snorkel….” So, instead I opted for the swim beach in front of the beach bar.

There is nothing to be seen under the water in front of the beach bar. The good news was, my new masked worked perfectly. The bad news was, the new dry snorkels weren’t so dry. We were going to snorkel over to the right of the swim beach, toward the sea wall, but it was so shallow……….”How shallow was it?”……let’s just say, it was only about 9 or 10 inches deep, and it’s a good thing I had on swim trunks, or it could have gotten bad.

But enough about that stuff. We were ready to take on Buck Island!! We couldn’t wait! So we headed up to the room to clean up and head out for dinner.

Tonight we decided on Rum Runners. We heard it was good, but, man it was GOOOOD! We started out with Conch Fritters, excellent, and then I had Manchego –Crusted Scallops with Primavera Frittata in White Honey Butter. $25.00. Barb had Jamaican Jerk Pork Tenderloin, Garlicky Tamerind Ginger Sauce and Grilled Banana. $19.00. Whoa! It was wonderful!

That ended a pretty good day, so we waddled back to the ferry and home to HOTC for a night cap of Iced Tea (for Barb) and a single malt scotch and a cigar for me. I found a shop in King’s Alley that had cigars in a walk in Humidor, so I got a couple of Arturo Fuente’s 8-5-8’s to enjoy in the evening. Couldn’t ask for a better night cap!

Friday, day 4

We heard a lot of good things about Sweeny’s Safari Tour of the Island, so we called Sweeny and booked the tour. I am so glad we did. We started out on King Street, and headed out of town toward the first stop, St. George’s Botanical Gardens. We learned more history of St. Croix and all about the Island, the churches (there are a lot of them) in that ride from town to the gardens, than I ever could have learned just by reading books.

I must take this opportunity to comment on a rental car. We had planned on renting a car for a couple of days and exploring the Island on our own, but it turned out that renting a car is a lot easier than trying to find a place to park it. If you are staying at HOTC the closest parking lot is by the Fort, but it is Government controlled, so no parky there. You have to find a place in front of one of the stores (like that’s possible) and hope it is O.K. over night or doesn’t get ticketed or towed. So we rented a car for one day, the day before we left, and it turned out fine.

Back to the tour. The botanical gardens were magnificent. Every tropical tree and flower you could think of was growing there. Unless you are a horticulturist, I won’t bore you with all the details.

Then it was off to the Whim Plantation. The only sugar cane plantation house and out buildings that have been restored on St. Croix. They have period furniture pieces through out the great house, the kitchen building (they never cooked in the great house for fear of a fire and the heat) and several of the slaves quarters.

Then on to the Cruzan Rum factory/distillery. YUM. A tour of the facilities ended with a visit to the tasting room. Several rum drinks were prepare for us, and we could sample any and all of the rum that they produce. And we did.

Time for lunch. We went into (and I mean into) Fredricksted, and visited a friend of Sweeny, and picked some mangos off of his tree. It is mango season on St. Croix, and they are delicious. Juicy, sweet, just plain good. So we had some freshly picked mangos to go with our scones in the morning! Lunch was at a place called Turtle Beach, or something like that. Really good. They bake their own bread, so we had a couple of BLT’s and my usual Carib w/lime.

On through the Rain Forest, and we stopped at Dominoes Bar to see the beer drinking pigs. Fun stuff. They stopped feeding the pigs alcoholic beer some time back, I guess they were hassled by PETA or something.

On the way back to Christiansted, we stopped on a hill overlooking Salt River, where Columbus landed, after he named the island Santa Cruz. Very picturesque.

Time to get cleaned up and head to dinner. We liked Rum Runners so much we paid it another visit. We both had the Pan Seared Grouper with Shrimp sauce topped with Mango Jerk Chutney - $25.00. We started out with an appetizer that was truly to die for. Yucca wrapped scallops, lightly fried with Spicey Grape Tomato Salsa. This night we splurged and had a desert, their famous Rum Cake. Chefs Simon and Ashley are to be commended for their cuisines! Excellent stuff!

Waddle back to HOTC, a night cap, and bed………