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.

Travel day.

Moses took us to the Cruz Bay ferry dock, our last ride with him. I think we’ll miss him. He enjoyed surprising us with bizarre proclamations about humanity or fate or where our hearts really lie. He would pound on the steering wheel until we reacted, arguing when we didn’t say what he wanted.

The first ferry ride was about 45 minutes and uneventful. We went to the inside area for the air conditioning. When we disembarked we ran into a geology professor from Fort Collins and discovered that we had many acquaintances in common; it is indeed a small world! We left our luggage with the ferry people and went for lunch at the French Quarter Bistro during our 2 hour stay before the next ferry ride.

The next ferry was two hours of bouncing in rough seas. See how narrow the boat is? We were amazed that no one seemed to get sick. Don’t watch the video if you tend toward seasickness!

Finally we made it to St Croix, our final island on this journey. Gallows Bay was the site of public executions in Danish Colonial (1733-1848) times.

We got off the ferry and onto a taxi for a half hour ride to our hotel.

After a taxi ride from Gallows Bay, we arrived at the Carambola Beach Resort around sunset. We ordered a pizza and drinks for dinner. It was a bit surprising that the bar was sold out of local VI beer!

Our first morning on St John, we woke to what sounded like a deluge. We looked out the window to see rain pouring down. It lasted about ten minutes. When Moses, our taxi driver, picked us up we mentioned the storm, but he said, “That was no storm, it was just a sprinkle.” I guess perspectives are different if you’ve lived through hurricanes. We experienced another sprinkle the next day and joked about what to call it.

This day, Moses drove us to a trailhead in the national park.

The trail was super steep at first, but Jenn had told us it leveled out, so we weren’t worried. The views were nice.

At the top, Clare took a break in part because she got blisters snorkeling yesterday. Her feet were hurting, and she wore tennis shoes rather than the water hikers we bought for this trip.

Nice hike, and it did level out somewhat. Very interesting plants!

Then, it started sprinkling. Pouring. We were drenched in minutes, but it kept coming down. We kept walking—what else are you going to do? We yearned for our umbrellas which were left in the room.

The plants looked different with a coating of fresh water.

On the way down, the trail got steep again and very slippery because of the rainwater on the fallen leaves. It took a lot longer getting down than going up!

We enjoyed fresh Grouper for dinner, with rice and squash. We then made preparations to leave in the morning.