St. Thomas taxi tour

Day 7  Saturday, January 26, 2019   Charlotte Amelie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Another beautiful, warm day, where we took a late-afternoon taxi tour. This looks northeast from the island's mountain top, down at popular Magan's Bay, where many of the excursions went for the day.

This was the only day we did not schedule an excursion (on the day with the most options offered). Thus, we had a nice relaxing day on the ship.

We awoke late, had a late breakfast, and then went to the pool. After a bit, I went to do my cycling in the fitness room. When I eventually returned to the pool, there was Janet at the hot tub. I swam and hot tubbed, and then drank and read. By lunch, we went again to O'Sheehan's, and sat with a couple from Jersey Shores who spoke at length about the effects they suffered from Hurricane Sandy.

After lunch, at about 1:30, we departed the ship to see if we could find a short tour. Before walking very far, we did. A 2-hour taxi tour for $25 per person. Funny, when we inquired about it in the midst of several taxi drivers, no one seemed too anxious to take us. But one guy eventually did, and off we went.

As he talked about the island history, we drove up to this overlook. I noticed right away that they DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD! The cars are from the U.S. with the steering wheels on the left, but they drive on the left side of the road. I remarked about this, but our driver defended it by saying he could see better just how far to the left he could go to avoid oncoming cars.  I was pretty freaked out.

Same view as the previous photo, but with famous stars. This southern side overlooks Charlotte Amelie, the capital city. 

The U.S. purchased these islands from Denmark in 1916. The inhabitants became U.S. citizens in 1927. The current population is about 107,000. As with the other islands, Hurricane Irma caused much damage, and killed four. Also similar to all our islands on this cruise, the leading industry is tourism. The next biggest industry is exporting Cruzan Rum.

 We next drove to the north side of St. Thomas. This is similar to the picture at the top of this posting, looking a little more eastward, with some British Virgin Islands in the background.

 From the previous picture, behind us was Drake's Seat (it says so on the plaque between us!). Sir Francis Drake, who was a pirate supported by Queen Elizabeth (our taxi driver said they were lovers), used to hang out at this spot on the island. He is said to have sat here watching to the north to find any ships he could go plunder.

We drove to the highest point on the island so that we could purchase souvenirs from our driver's  cousins (so we suspect). At the very least, we were inspired to order banana daiquiris once back on the ship. According to their story, the banana daiquiri was created in 1953 by a British sea captain from Barbados who came here to find the "ultimate Caribbean cocktail."

St. Thomas's big export. We had a bottle of the brand a couple of years ago.

A touristy shot in front of the gift shop, which was empty this late in the day. Earlier, we were told it had been jammed with tourists.

So, with no other tourists around, we had to do our jobs and be silly visitors.

At the back of the large but empty store was a deck with a view. Interestingly, only the close island on the far left and distant one far right behind Janet's head are U.S. Virgin Islands. All others are British Virgins. The fairly large one way back there (above her hands) is Tortola, 20 miles away, where we were the day before. But as I said, the ship cruised for 15 hours "around in circles" to pass the night away.

Our driver then drove eastward to Coki Beach for a quick look at some resort areas.

A few feet to the other side of the peninsula was Water Bay, where Janet went searching for shells and coral pieces on the primitive boat ramp.

Across Water Bay, on the right, was the Wyndham Margaritaville Hotel. Man oh man, Jimmy Buffett is everywhere!

Janet is holding her coral treasures, which we brought home. Behind on the left is a pier from Coral World Ocean Park, which was the destination for a few of the ship's excursions.

No more pictures from our taxi tour. We continued to the far eastern end of the island and saw where the ferries depart to St. John's Island, four miles to the east where 4000 people live. Most of it is a national park. On the drive back to the ship, we passed many lagoons, coves, and marinas, most loaded with boats at anchor. Janet was getting a bit worried about the time, since it was about 4:15 and the last call for the ship was 4:30. But our driver drove us right up to the gate, and we still beat several passengers back.

We found seats at the 5 o'Clock Somewhere Bar on Deck 8, and enjoyed the views as we sailed off to the east. Another marvelous day!

No captions for those seven photos, just beautiful scenery sailing away. I will mention that the island in front of us was Little St. James Island, and the distant one was Dog Island. Woof. Still about 200 miles to the east was our next port, Antigua.

We had dinner at The Supper Club, where we watched JR perform his Elton John songs. We loved it. We did arrive with too few minutes to spare before the stated start time, because everyone else had been eating their dinners for about 20 to 30 minutes. (Thus, we were never offered a drink, since the waiters were too busy serving and clearing tables.) We learned for our two future shows there that you're supposed to arrive at least 20 minutes early.

We went back to the room earlier than usual. Janet read, and I used my computer for the first time, uploading and editing all my pictures so far, which took a long time. Janet fell asleep before I was even half done!