A Virgin Islands Getaway: Part IV

Welcome back…

 

Check out Part I, II, and III.

 

On Thursday  of our vacation we rented a dinghy, yes you heard me a dinghy.  A small 50 hp center-console inflatable boat that we took around the north coast of the island.  Just Brian, Me, our snorkel gear, and a picnic lunch.

 

 

Our first stop was Cinnamon Bay.  We snorkeled in from our boat, walked along the beach, and then snorkeled back.  We could do whatever we wanted… stop at any beach, snorkel any cay, or just chill on our own little boat.

 

 

Second stop of the day:  Waterlemon (not watermelon) Cay… known as the best snorkeling on St. John.  We moored our dinghy, put on our snorkel gear, and fell in backwards (my favorite part).  This snorkel lived up to its reputation.  We saw some awesome things like starfish, sea cucumber, barracuda, sting ray, eagle ray, mackerel, and moon jellies.  Here is a picture of our map and where we went.  We started at the red starfish and followed the dotted line all of the way to Waterlemon Cay and then made our way back.

 

 

 

Moored up at Waterlemon Cay (which is right behind me).

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the snorkel so much that we refueled (AKA lunch on the dinghy) with this gorgeous view and then decided to go round 2. 

 

 

 

Waterlemon Cay Snorkel

 

Next stop was Whistling Cay.  This cay was pretty far off the shore and had coral growing around huge rocks and boulders.  We were lucky enough to see a sea turtle.

 

 

Our last stop for the day was between Scott Beach and Caneel Bay.  We were tired of carrying the cameras so we hopped in without having to worry about a thing.  There were lots of large conch on the ocean floor.  We also were able to follow around another sea turtle for a while.  But, one of the coolest things we saw was a giant hermit crab in a conch shell eating another conch.  We watched it for a while and after we got back in the dinghy, Brian drove us near and I was able to jump out real quick to get a picture.

 

 

Our last night in St. John, we saw the most Uh-mazing sunset. 

 

 

Jose posed for me.

 

 

On Friday, we had a few a hours to kill before heading back to St. Thomas so we went to Hawksnest Beach.

 

 

 

My vacation handstand picture.

 

 

From St. John, we took the ferry back to St. Thomas and headed to the airport.  Our flight arrived in San Juan with enough time for us to get dinner (try Mofongo, its awesome) and then lose some mula at the casino.  It fulfilled by gambling itch for at least a little while.

 

THE END!  Yes, I have finished posting our Virgin Island pictures.  It was so amazing and we cannot wait to visit this place again.  These were some of the most beautiful beaches and greatest snorkels.  I wish we were there now.  Hope you enjoyed!

 

A Virgin Islands Getaway Part III

Welcome back.  If you have time, check out Part I and Part II before reading this one :)

Day 5 of our vacation we decided to do some exploring of the island.  We rented some fins incase we decided to snorkel and headed out to the National Park.  We turned on a road that led us to the Catherineburg Sugar Mill Ruins and checked them out real quick.

 

 

We continued our drive to Salt Pond road and then began on a trail to Salt Pond Bay.  From there, we did the Ram’s Head hike.  We hiked a beach, a cobblestone beach, over some nice-sized hills until we were at the southern-most point of St. John.  To our left… Africa.

Salt Pond Bay

 

 

About 1/3 way through the trail, this is overlooking the cobblestone beach and Ram’s Head.

 

 

Here we are overlooking east side of Ram’s Head.  If you look at the picture above we are at the crevice about mid-way in the picture.

 

 

Looking back where we came from was an amazing view.

 

 

We saw this guy on the beach as we were hiking back.  It took us 1.5 hours to hike there and 35 minutes to get back.

 

 

There were lots of hermit crabs that we passed… all headed up hill.

 

 

After this very tiring (but very worth it) hike, we drove and parked our car overlooking Coral Bay to have a picnic lunch.  Next, somewhere to relax… Ahhh, Maho Bay.  So calm and peaceful.  We found ourselves a little nook, opened up our lawn chairs, and turned up some Bob Marley.

 

 

Brian’s “Fling your hair back during a sunset” picture.

 

 

We decided after getting some rest at Maho that we still had enough energy to go snorkeling at Trunk Bay.  Also, it was after 4:30 so no entry fee (free is always better) and we were the only ones there.  Can you say AMAZING!

 

 

Trunk Bay is special in that it has a “Guided Nature Trail” underwater.  There were plaques that you could read under water to help teach you about different types of fish.  While snorkeling we saw some very interesting wildlife… like a spotted moray eel that was being “bullied” by some groupers.  Maybe the eel was trying to get some eggs, I’m not sure…but it was pretty cool to watch.  Then we saw a nurse shark swimming and when we came across it later, it was sleeping.

 

Trunk Bay Snorkel

 

Day 6:  We set out to hike Cinnamon Bay Loop.  There were sugar mill ruins, millipedes, and lots of cool trees.

 

 

After the trail, we walked back to Cinnamon Bay

 

 

We stayed at the house on the far right… Just Kidding, but that would be Uh-mazing.  Look at how huge it is.  And, it wraps around the peninsula to the other side.

 

 

My Man… enjoying the views.

 

 

After a picnic lunch on the beach at Cinnamon Bay, we headed to Jumbie Bay to go snorkeling.  It seemed that every snorkel we did had something special about it.  During this snorkel we were surrounded by a school of millions (I mean millions) of bait fish which would scatter as soon as 2-3 foot tarpon would swim by… so cool.  We also saw 2 schools of squid and a moon jelly fish.

 

 

Watching the pelicans feed on the bait fish.  They were so close to us and just diving straight in to the water.

 

Jumbie Bay Snorkel

 

After a somewhat tiring day, we went back to our condo and swam in the pool before heading to Cruz Bay for dinner.

 

 

Although it doesn’t look like it from these pictures, the driveway was pretty terrifying.  You went from going up hill at a 45 degree angle to turning in the driveway about (more than a 90 degree turn) 45 degrees downhill.  Thankfully there was never any one coming up the hill or we would have smacked right in to them since you couldn’t see a thing as you turned.  Brian definitely got the hang of it though by the end of the trip.  Oooh, and who is that coming down the driveway… Jose!  Yes, we had a pet cat during our vacation properly named Jose since we were at Cruz Views (get it… Jose Cruz, we are dorks, I know).  Jose was like Ryley Jr.  She was always wanting attention, greeting us when we got back for the day, meowing at us from the porch while we cooked, and leaving us presents (a mouse head) at the doorstep.

 

 

We had dinner that night in Cruz Bay at High Tides.  I had Mahi and Brian had jerk chicken which he claimed to be one of the best meals he ever had.

 

 

Come back for Part IV of our vacation tomorrow.  We took a TON of pictures so I’m trying to post them efficiently and apparently that isn’t working since I’m headed to Part IV.  Bare with me.  Tootaloo.