St.
Thomas!
Our last port of call was St. Thomas in the
U.S. Virgin Islands. We docked here on Thursday, May 29 and took a
tour with Godfrey, an
independent tour operator. He was fantastic. I highly recommend him.
His tour included time to shop
downtown, a ride to Mountaintop with stops along the way for pictures, photo opportuities galore,
and our choice of beaches for a couple of ours in
the afternoon. All for a very reasonable price!
Godfrey
Here's
our tourguide, Godfrey. He was extremely knowledgeable
and professional, really a pleasure.
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Havensight Mall
This mall, literally steps from the ship,
is full of the duty-free shopping St. Thomas is famous
for. I got off and did some shopping here before Joe
even got
off the ship. Plenty of jewelry, alcohol,
linens, and souvenir shops here.
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Bluebeard's Castle
It's an infamous scam in St. Thomas. A
seemlingly well-meaning guy comes up to you in a "Bluebeard's
Castle" polo shirt and asks you if you want a 60-minute tour.
You agree and head up the hill to the castle, where you have
to listen to a two-hour presentation selling the timeshare
condos that surround the castle. When you want to go back to
downtown, you find
out your free tour was only free
if you bought the timeshare.
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Governor's House
This
is a nice shot of the Governor's
home
as well as the highest point on
St. Thomas, known as Mountaintop.
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Pretty in Pink
This shop-lined alleyway
is typical of
downtown St. Thomas. Pastel colors, shopping and
palm trees everywhere you look.
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The Old Fort
The fort, founded in the
1600s, is still standing,
and the tour is free.
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Views from the Fort
Views looking toward the shopping
district (there are T-shirt
stands under the blue tarps)
and looking up toward Mountaintop. The yellow
building is the Post Office.
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Main Harbor
Partway up the mountain, we look back
across the city of Charlotte Amalie toward the main harbor of
St. Thomas. The Paradise was the only ship in port
that day, but wack in the early 1990s, the
record was 13
ships in on one day.
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Hurricane Damage
In a 12-month period in 1995-96 there
were 6 hurricanes that hit St. Thomas, including two major
hurricanes (category 4 or higher). Following a hurricane a
couple of years earlier, most property insurers left the
island, so 70-80% of homeowners were uninsured after that.
Here's one of many homes left unbuilt after the '95-96
hurricane season. It takes over a year of cleaning and
rebuilding for cruiseships to return to tourism-dependent St.
Thomas
after a major hurricane. This season is
expected to be quite bad.
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Mountaintop
Joe and I pose with on Moutaintop. The
world-famous
Magen's Bay (regularly rated one
of the Top Ten Beaches in the
World) is in the background.
It was breezy and somewhat cooler on this
side of the island, particularly at this elevation. You're
looking out over the Atlantic, here, rather than the Caribbean
Sea, which accounts for the temperature
shift.
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Goofball!
Joe mocks the Absolut
man.
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Magen's Bay
The turquoise blue waters and powder-soft
sand are
only a couple of the reasons this
beach is so widely acclaimed.
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Coki Point
We chose Coki beach for our beach-time.
This beach has water so clear you can see a pin on the bottom
in 10+ feet of water. It was better cleasing action than
Magen's Bay, resulting in clearer waters.
It's a great area for SCUBA,
snorkeling, and other beach-y stuff.
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