As you may recall, I had intended to take a ferry from Charlotte Amalie to the island of St. John on Day 3, but that ferry isn’t running. So, on Day 4, I took the ferry from Red Hook to St. John. Of course, that required a taxi ride to Red Hook first. During this taxi ride, I spotted a real, live Kmart! I queried the cab driver, who informed me that Kmart is still alive and kickin’ in the Caribbean. There are TWO of them on St. Thomas alone. A quick check of kmart.com reveals two more on St. Croix, and three on Puerto Rico. Who knew? If I find myself in the vicinity of any of the island Kmarts again, I will stop and buy something so I have evidence of their existence.
And now, back to our story…
I got on the passenger ferry to St. John with no problems. The water between the two islands was a little choppy, causing the boat to do some lurching, so I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked. Most of the pix that I did snap were no good due to the motion of the ocean, but here are the few that turned out OK…
After disembarking, I made my way uphill to The Tap & Still, a local chain restaurant. I had an acceptable spicy chicken sandwich as an early lunch, then walked back down to the dock to look for a taxi to take me to the ruins of the Annaberg sugar plantation. As it happened, I encountered not a taxi, but a “safari tour” truck. I decided to join the tour, and it’s probably a good thing I did because (a) it took me to some cool spots I didn’t know about, and (b) I likely would have spent a LOT of time waiting for a taxi to take me back to the dock once I was finished with the plantation. The first of the cool spots I didn’t know about was Neptune’s Lookout, home of the Windmill Bar. Like Annaberg (my original destination for today), Neptune’s Lookout is the site of a long-abandoned sugar plantation. Unlike Annaberg (which is located inside Virgin Islands National Park), Neptune’s Lookout is a commercial operation: an open-air bar with live music and amazing views. Here’s a bit of what I saw there:
On our way from Neptune’s to Annaberg, we stopped at a few scenic overlooks, including this one:
Und finally we arrived at the ruins of the Annaberg sugar plantation, considered the best-preserved of the hundreds of sugar plantations that once covered the Antilles (which the Virgin Islands are part of). Check this place out…
The tour made several more stops on the way back to the docks. Some were historic, most were scenic. Enjoy some of the scenic stops below (note: most of these images are cropped to fit neatly into the “gallery”; click any image below for the full version)…
On the return ferry trip (as on the outbound trip this morning), I chose to sit on the upper deck, which is completely exposed to the elements (i.e., no roof). Just as we were pulling away from the dock, it started raining. And it continued raining until we were pulling into the dock at Red Hook. Fortunately, I had checked the weather forecast before I left the hotel this morning, so I had my water-resistant windbreaker with me. But thanks to the rain, I got zero pictures on the return trip.
After a quick stop at the hotel, I walked to Greengo’s Restaurant, where I ordered an appetizer for dinner. It was seasoned nachos with queso and two salsas. The chips and the red salsa were pretty typical. The tomatillo was deliciously limey and the queso, though it had the consistency of curds and whey, was delicious as well. Thus endeth Day 4.
Voyages with Parkinson's 