We just got back from a week in St. Croix, USVI. We spent the week diving, eating and relaxing.The picture to the left is from a beach cafe in the town of Fredriksted at the west end where we ended up after an afternoon drive & hike in the "rain forest" on the wetter side of the island. We stayed on the north shore, towards the east end near the other main town, Christiansted. The names reflect the Danish colonial heritage of the island, which came after the British colonial period, which followed the French and Spanish colonial periods and preceded the US colonial period. Thanks to the Brits, cars drive on the left.
For some reason, although Denmark sold the USVI to the US about 100 years ago, it's still a destination for Danes on holiday. There are charter flights non-stop from Copenhagen to St. Croix. On one of our dive trips we met a young woman from there who came, among other things, to visit her ancestral estate. According to a waitress in one of the restaurants, Danish tourism keeps the local economy afloat (barely). Some of the restaurants have Danish menus.
We were surprised at how low key and quiet the tourist areas were, even though it was the peak spring vacation time. Restaurants were at most half full and often less. We actually appreciated the quiet and absence of spring break rowdiness, but it also gave the tourist areas a depressed vibe. Some of this might have to do with the legacy of hurricane Hugo which apparently damaged or destroyed something like 80% of the island's structures in 1989. The hotel on the cay in the main harbor has still not been fully restored, and there were abandoned buildings scattered all over.
Slavery was abolished on the island by the British in the 1830s, but the slaves' descendants still live here along with hispanics from neighboring islands, wealthy American retirees and a handful of younger wanderers. Front line service jobs like wait-staff were mostly filled by white US expats, with the occasional Cruzan local.
The diving was so-so. Visibility was never more than about 50', and sometimes as little as 20-30. I think both Grand Cayman and Bonaire are better. A lot of the reef structures are overgrown with algae. We did see reef sharks, a few turtles, a couple of rays and a moray out of his crevice. Also lots of fish carrying what I think were parasitic isopods under their gills, which was kind of creepy. We also did a night dive in the shallows under the Frederiksted pier, where we saw sleeping turtles, an octopus and a sea horse, among other things.
We also visited the Cruzan Rum factory, which was kind of fun. Their process is somewhat old fashioned, especially compared to the nearby Captain Morgan's factory which looked like an oil refinery. We saw (and smelled) the open fermentation tanks and the aging casks, which were first used for scotch or bourbon. If I understand it right, then, the barrels are first used for sherry, then for whisky, and finally for rum. Cruzan makes a "single barrel" rum that's a blend of 5 to 12 year old casks and has a slight trace of a scotch taste. I thought it was great, but they were all out of it at the gift shop. I'm happy to give the standard stuff a miss.
Here's Catherine in front of the windmill remnant at the center of the property. (These cones are all over the island, mostly unused, but one in the harbor is now a functional part of a restaurant.)
