I love the Caribbean. We just returned from 10 days in the Virgin Islands - 3 days on St. Thomas (USVI) and 7 days on Jost Van Dyke (BVI). It truly is paradise there, with a few issues and annoyances. We always fly into St. Thomas and stay at a rented condo on Sapphire Beach for the first 3 nights before taking a ferry to the small island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands where we stay at The Sandcastle Hotel.
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| Steve taking a photo from St. Thomas condo |
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| View from St. Thomas condo |
St. Thomas is a major cruise ship destination so it's a rather busy, well-developed island with lots of duty free shopping and nice restaurants and a population of about 60,000 people . Jost, by contrast, is super tiny and boasts about 300 permanent residents and is nicknamed "the barefoot island" b/c you literally do not need to wear shoes anywhere, which is 100% true. You'll find no high end restaurants on Jost but you will find plenty of lobster shacks and casual beach bars. Jost has a definite laid-back, get ur drink on vibe. Best sign we saw on Jost was at Corsair's restaurant, which read "Three Things I Don't Like: Hot Beer, Cold Women, Assholes." How true.
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| Lobster Fest on Jost |
Our days in the Caribbean are pretty seamless and we get on "island time" very quickly. We usually sleep in until 8:30 or 9am each morning, head to the beach for some reading, maybe go on a hike or walk, lunch, a swim in clear, sapphire gin colored water, a nap, afternoon cocktails, dinner and more cocktails. It's a pretty good life while it lasts.
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| Smith Bay - St. Thomas |
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| Sunset on White Bay - Jost |
Of course, even paradise isn't perfect. A few observations I made during this trip:
- I hate bugs. I especially hate microscopic, flying, blood-loving, biting bugs. That beautiful sugar white sand you see being gently lapped by blue water? It's filled with demonic blood-suckers called "no-see-ums." Guess what? You can't see them but rest assured that they can see you. They love to feed at night when you are distracted by the rum cocktail you're drinking. Also, apparently my left upper thigh is much tastier than my right upper thigh. Who knew? They knew because they destroyed my upper left thigh. It currently looks like it has a bad case of the chicken pox right now. Very attractive in a bathing suit, too.
- It's okay to pee anywhere. Well, for the men at least. While sitting at a red light on St. Thomas at a very busy intersection, we watched a rather large islander whip it out and just start peeing on the side of the road. Wow. I hope he felt a profound sense of freedom in doing that.
- After 3 days in the Caribbean, I am convinced that 50% of my body weight becomes Cruzan Rum. I'm not much of a hard liquor drinker but add some fruit juice and an umbrella spearing a pineapple chunk and I am sold. I had a particularly vicious planter's punch on St. Thomas that knocked me on my ass one night. It's amazing how smooth it goes down though.
- Getting a pedicure is pointless if you are coming to the beach. I got a nice pedi before coming to the islands since I knew I would be in sandals or barefoot the whole time and my feet looked like dragon claws. By Day 4, the pedicure was gone. I think the combination of bug spray, sand, salt water and suntan lotion form a new chemical compound which is the equivalent of nail polish remover. So, pedi was a major waste of $40.
- The people of the islands are what really keep us coming back. Unfortunately, it seems that every douchebag with a powerboat and stereo system has discovered White Bay Beach on Jost where we stay. A few years ago, it used to be fairly quiet and lowkey with sail boats coming in during the day but leaving around 4pm. Now, you can expect 50+ powerboats that pull right up to the beach, moor together and start blaring techno club music and subject you to their "look at how geechy I can be on my expensive boat" show. That being said, we keep coming back to Jost and The Sandcastle b/c of the amazing staff. They always take great care of us and we think of them as our Caribbean family when we're there.
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| Me with the girls - Sana and Shaneek |
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| Caught him! Steve hugging Sana goodbye |
The Caribbean is what you make it. Some people are not big fans of it b/c they can't get on island time, hate the slow service and the "whatever, mon" attitude of the people that live there. Sure, there are times I get annoyed while there but then I take another sip of my painkiller drink and move on. We will miss the beach, the humidity, the sun and our friends at The Sandcastle until next year.
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| Me at top of Jost on Ridge Hike |
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| White Bay - morning of our last day |
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| White Bay at Sunset |
