Check out what he's eating

On our very last day, we were walking over to the restaurant for lunch, and we say this egret land on a bush - yes, that's a big bush he's walking on. We walked over to check it out, and the bird was hunting anoles! Amazing. He wasn't even all that perturbed by us being there - I have a decent zoom on my camera, but we still had to get pretty close for a photo like this.

Photo credit: Betsy Jenkins 2006 

The View

Those rocks down there are actually one of the places where we went scuba diving - it was totally cool to see them from above. And you can sort of see the different kinds of ocean bottom we swam over - rocks, sand, coral. Very fun to see it up close and personal underwater, and then from above in this giant overview.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

That must be me

since Ryan had the only camera, but I'm so far away I can't see me. Yikes! It wasn't actually as scary as I'm making it out to be. Granted, I didn't let go of the handles after I was higher than about 10 feet, but it was so spectacular, and a completely smooth ride, that it was overall way more fun than scary.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

Hold on!

Here I go! So they drive the boat up wind and let the parachute out, close in to the boat. Then the "sailors" climb out on this big platform in the back, wearing a harness that sort of looks like a swing. They clip you in to that bar you see above my head, and then they let the chute out, and up, up, up you go!

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

Self Portrait While Parasailing

Is that a grin of fun or of fear? Actually, since this is Ryan, I'm sure it was of fun. But mine was definitely a mixture...it's very cool to be up there, but it's so very high.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

Parasailing!

This is the parachute we used when we went parasailing. We had actually tried to go the first day we were in St. John, but it was too windy. Unfortunately, when we went out, it wasn't windy enough for both of us to go together.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

Look closely - check out the bigger version, and you should be able to see a whole row of petroglyphs just above the water line.

Photo credit: Betsy Jenkins 2006

See the reflection? According to a National Parks service sign, the Taino indians based a lot of their religion on the duality of body and spirit, and they think that this reflection is their way of portraying that duality.

Photo credit: Betsy Jenkins 2006 

Can you see them? Try clicking on the photo - it should come up larger. There is one large one right under my left foot, and then several more just above the water line on the right side of the photo.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

The Petroglyphs

This is the pool that is right above the petroglyphs - in wetter parts of the year it is a waterfall. It's totally beautiful, and in a place where fresh water is so scarce, I completely understand why the Taino indians thought this place was sacred.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006

Is that a cactus???

Yup - that's a cactus. St. John is actually covered with them. It doesn't rain very much on St. John; I think it only rained three times in the 7 days we were there, and each time the rain lasted for just a couple of mintues. Fresh water is a precious commodity on these islands.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

Self Portrait

This is us on our private beach at Reef Bay. It was really cool, after being overwhelmed by tourists at The Baths, and even being annoyed by the number of people at the Westin, our hike down the Reef Bay Trail was blissfully unpopulated. We saw a total of 6 other people, and they were all headed up by the time we were going down. So we had the beach and the ruins, and most of the trail completely to ourselves.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

Hermit Crab on the Run

They didn't move ALL that fast, but you still had to be paying attention or they would disappear into the tall grasses.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

Doing Nothing's BIG Brother

Ryan's shoe is included for scale. This guy was quite far from the beach - maybe 100 yeards, and we saw several more that were a mile or more from the beach. Impressive.

Photo credit: Betsy Jenkins 2006 

Steam Engine

This is the steam engine that ran the big crusher wheel (I think) that used to smoosh the sugar cane. You could actually see quite a bit of the old machinery, and they had lots of signs posted explaining the process. Very interesting.

Steam power was added to this plantation in the late 19th century, and by the early 20th century, sugar production was no longer economically viable. The Reef Bay Plantation was one of the last factories to close.

As a random side note, this steam engine looks very, very similar to many of the steam boilers I see in nyc basements. It's amazing how little the technology has changed.

Phot credit: Betsy Jenkins 2006 

Bats in the Reef Bay Sugar Factory

There were lots and lots of bats hanging from the rafters of all the buildings in the old sugar factory at the bottom of the Reef Bay Trail. They were squeeking and sort of milling about. That one with his wings open couldn't get comfortable.

Photo credit: Betsy Jenkins 2006 

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

Reef Bay Trail

This is a cool tree we saw right towards the beginning of the Reef Bay Trail - check out the size of that root!

Photo credit: Betsy Jenkins 2006 

Bordeaux Mountain

Ryan wanted to go up to the top of the island, and a different taxi driver (they became our local pals and guides) recommended this lookout. It's somewhere near the top of Bordeaux Mountain, which is the highest point on St John, but I don't actually think we were at the top - the road definitely seemed to curve up from where we were standing.

This is the view looking north - that's Great Britain right up at the top of the horizon. Who knew you could see all the way to England from the US? :) I think all of the separate islands you can see from here are in the BVI - they are less than 2 miles from St. John.

Photo credit: Betsy Jenkins 2006 

Adorable Anole

One of the million anoles we saw. They were so cute! And they were everywhere. I swear we saw more lizzards than insects. That can't really be right, because I think the anoles eat insects, but it definitely seemed that way. I'm not complaining - I'll take cute anoles over creepy crawlies any day!

Photo credit: Betsy Jenkins 2006 

At the Westin

This is the view from our room. We had a little porch with two chairs and a table. The place where we took out sailboats and paddlewheel boats is just to the right of center in this picture; the pool and restaurants are over to the right.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

Caneel Bay

Our third lookout spot - Caneel Bay Resort. I think it must be in Hawksnest Bay, but I can't seem to confirm that. At any rate, it's a super-fancy, exclusive resort that didn't have as nice of architecture as the Westin. :)

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006

Trunk Bay

This is Trunk Bay, rumored to be the most beautiful beach in the Virgin Islands. Having only seen a couple of the beaches, I can't say for sure, but it definitely looked lovely from above. And it was definitely one of the most photographed beaches - every postcard stand had several variations of this shot. We thought about snorkeling there, but our taxi driver thought Leinster Bay would be less crowded (it was!) and that the snorkeling would be better. We were glad we followed his advice, but we were also glad he was willing to pause and let us oggle it from afar.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006

This is another shot of Cinnamon or Maho Bay.

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006 

On the way back from Leinster Bay

we asked the taxi driver to stop at this out look we had seen, where we could see one of St John's beaches from a long way above. Our driver took our request to heart and actually stopped at three different lookouts to show us the view.

We think this first one must be either Cinnamon Bay or Maho Bay, which are directly west of Leinster Bay on the north coast of the island. Look how clear the water is - you can guess at what's on the bottom from way above!

Photo credit: Ryan Jones 2006