Last day in the Virgin Islands. We packed up and headed to Fredericksted, the other main town on St. Croix. Our plane departed in midafternoon, so we had time for more exploring.

The town is set up for cruise ship tourism, but no ships were docked this day. The town was deserted. It was also a holiday, MLK Jr. Day, which might also account for the shops being closed.

We walked along the shore a bit, somewhat laboriously, hauling our luggage. It looked like a nice town. We found an open hotel with restaurant, called Fred, and stopped. The heat and humidity were tiring, and Fred’s looked nice.

We stayed at the outdoor bar for a while, mostly cooling down and rehydrating. Angela, the bartender recommended the food there, so we stayed for an early lunch. We hadn’t seen any other place that was open!

The caterpillar was near the restroom at Fred’s. Angela knew right away what we had seen, so they must be fairly common. Then another taxi ride to the airport.

We had three flights to get back to Denver, connecting in Charlotte, and staying overnight at Dallas-Fort Worth airport prior to the last leg of our journey.

Yesterday, we couldn’t go to Buck Island, so we signed up to go today. We didn’t know that the winds that forced the cancellation were expected to last all week, and the trip was a bit disappointing.

We got up for early breakfast, got our taxi and were off again. The taxi dropped us at the same spot in Christiansted as yesterday.

Here’s our boat, the same one we would have ridden yesterday. About 40 passengers were aboard, more than any other snorkeling adventure we had participated in.

After about 45 minutes, using the engine against the wind, we arrived at Buck Island. Two other boats from the same company were anchored at the beach where we stopped, which made the captain believe that the waves were too big to go to the reefs on the windward side of the island. This ended up being true.

Getting off the boat onto the steep beach was a challenge! But all the passengers made it safely, with the help from crew members. About half chose to take a guided hike on the island rather than brave the waves to try snorkeling. But not us.

Getting in and out of the water was hard. The waves were strong and confusing, coming from different directions. And the water was murky.

We got back to Christiansted in the afternoon after sailing, silently, full sails. Going with the power of the wind rather than against. Fantastic!

Our planned excursion to Buck Island to snorkel all day was canceled due to weather! A bit of a downpour occurred after breakfast, and we received a message that our Buck Island tour was canceled.

We got up early, ate breakfast as soon as they opened, pulled our stuff together to catch our scheduled taxi and got the text. Dang! We decided to take the taxi anyway, changed into normal clothes, and took the half-hour ride into Christiansted, near Gallows Bay where our ferry first landed on St Croix. We had unexpected exploring to do.

Christiansted has a long history, as many Caribbean Islands do. Native people built quite a town around 2000 years ago, including a ball court and ceremonial plaza. Then Columbus visited in 1493, got into the first battle between natives and Europeans and subsequently named the island Santa Cruz. Fortunately, the battle showed only one soldier killed on each side. France took over later, changing the name to St. Croix.

The Danes purchased the island from the French in 1624 and started building sugar plantations and importing slaves from Africa. They also built forts to protect their investments.

The statue is of David Hamilton Jackson, known as Black Moses, who was the Martin Luther King Jr. of this island, advocating for civil rights.

One of the three forts built by the Danes in the town is in good repair, and we visited it.

A tour group from a Viking cruise visited when we were at the fort, so we listened to some of the stories. Many cannons were set up for display.

The fort itself was used in many different ways through the years.

Many other buildings are part of the National Historic Site.

After the historic site, we joined the present and walked along the boardwalk looking for lunch.

The crabs were hungry, too! The food was excellently prepared, delicious.

We wondered if a savant was a fortune teller, but the business was not open.

After wandering more, we called a cab and went back to the hotel. We signed up for the Buck Island tour for the next day and needed to get up early again.

This lovely resort is somewhat isolated, since we know walking on streets is frightening. But, we were in the mood for a rest day and enjoyed exploring the grounds.

Of course we wandered along the beach, looking at the waves and rocks, and comparing bug bites received on previous islands. They ITCH! A lot.

The beach is narrow, short walk from grass to water. But it is not crowded, giving it a peaceful ambiance. We easily found empty lounge chairs for our towels and stuff.

Clare loves the beach!

Later that morning, we decided to try a trail that led to famous tide pools. It would be 2.5 miles each way, and the description was full of dire warnings: path easy to lose, steep in many places, often wet and slippery. But we decided to try it.

Near the start of the trail was a fork. The left was marked with ribbons and the right had none. We took the left when the right was right. Sadly, we ended up at a road only 0.7 miles in. There, we found a sign naming the trail. We spent a while re-perusing the maps on our phones, realizing that if we took the road down, we would end up back at our resort! When we spoke to the gate guard, telling her of our dilemma, she said that we needed to take the right fork. Sigh.

So we went to the bar and reheated our leftover half pizza from the other night. We had planned to eat it near the tide pools, folded in half to lessen the mess.