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Published: March 11th 2007
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Cinnamon Bay beach
This is where we hung out every day we were in St. John - jealous much?
:) John 1:1 In the beginning was the word, and the word was good. St. John is paradise, if you are into the whole rum drinks under swaying coconut palms on tropical white sand beaches thing, which we discovered we are after studying in the cold February mountains of Virginia! We had a free ticket on Spirit Air and I knew that I loved the Virgin Islands, it was the best family vaction we ever took. So I was excited to camp at Cinammon Bay in the Virgin Islands National Park on St. John. (I convinced Martina it was better than flying to Minnapolis in February for a Proust reading or going to a feline fancier symposium in Iowa. She aquiested to camping when I explained to her that a tan would cut down on instances of my being mistaken for a snow gorilla. She actually liked camping for the most part, "the little lizards are so cute with their push ups and jumping and it is neat that the hermit crabs have their own little houses to bring with them.") The bugs got to us, Martina especially...ants in the food, flying roaches, and one night there were more mosquitos in the
Iguana at our campsite!
I don't know if you can tell how big he is...probably 3-4 feet long. Later on the beach we got to see an iguana chase! tent than on the Alaskan caribou migration (I left the door open, novice mistake). Afterwards it looked like she got a full body braille tattoo (still does). But other than that, the facilities there are really good, they have a shop where you can buy food if you run out (prices are surprisingly not much more than in Cruz Bay, which is about on par with what I (Martina talking now) used to pay daily in NYC 😊 The showers are cold - although that sounds unpleasant, it's unbelievably refreshing once you get used to it! And most importantly...the beach was perfect. On the Sunday we were there it got crowded, which we didn't like, but we learned that was a result of a cruise ship docking in town. The rest of the time it was never difficult to have some space from other people, and there is a beach that NO one goes to that you can have all to yourself, though it requires a bit of a hike.
Most of the time was spent on the beach. Of course, Martina couldn't get more than waist deep in the water without looking around for sharks, at which point
One more of the iguana
He started to get a little nervous because all eyes were on him...so he turned around so you can see his tail markings better. He was so amazing! I was contractually obligated to hum the jaws theme. After I mentioned that I had seen a barracuda she suddenly lost interest in snorkeling 😊 The coral was nice, but dying out like coral reefs are across the globe, which is more than depressing. Our schedule was usually up around sunrise, out to the beach before anyone beat us there where we would make grand plans of going on hikes and visiting historical ruins, and other items that would require effort. After one or two we would go eat lunch and then retreat back to the beach for more lying in the sun, reading, and going for swims in the aquamarine sea. We would then head in a wash up (cold water showers!) before rum punch sundowners. You could see every star in the sky until the full moon came up (we saw the lunar eclipse) and lit up the sea. It really was amazingly relaxing and romantic...minus the flying roaches (though that only afflicted us one night). Some nights we would go into Cruz Bay, which is a neat little Carribean beach town for dinner. The local claim-to-fame drink is called a pain killer, made with coconut, pineapple, rum
Josh looking more than slightly dorky at our campsite
Note the ocean is just on the other side of the vegetation. and nutmeg...like a pina colada but better. The food in Cruz Bay is way over priced and not that great...which is what we heard from most travelers. A captive audience makes for a lazy chefs. I couldn't get a decent quiche my entire stint at Sing-Sing. That's why we brought a cooler full of food with us from the states (a rickety styrofoam deal that managed to make it through as checked luggage and served us well for our entire trip!), though that meant eating burgers for our first six meals straight 😊 We are at Woody's, one of those dives that's become a landmark. The food was decent and prices weren't bad, and it was full of local chefs who were able to give us some tips! (One of them was friends with one of the finalists on Top Chef, our favorite show - so that was pretty exciting.) We shared a taxi with a family that swore up and down by a sushi restaurant - we were easily sold on that one! - but that ended up being quite disappointing. The lesson there is, Cruz Bay is fun to walk around, but don't expect good food unless you're
Tiny lizard cooling off on Josh
These little guys were everywhere...this one decided to park it on Josh's wet bathing suit to cool down. He also climbed up Josh's Russian sweater as it's euphemistically known :) getting conch fritters which (in our experience) are cheap (relatively - $9!) and equally good no matter where you go. Save dinner for food you bring/make yourself.
Our camp site was a group site which we were disappointed about until we discovered that everyone around us was copasetic and very friendly. We especially liked "Big Steve" from live free or die NH. He was down for 5 weeks (his wife was really understanding to say the least!) and a really friendly guy with amazing stories. He was like a character from a Jimmy Buffett song. He had the ubiquitous carribbean corn rows, but in his beard! (It sounds cheesy, but if anyone could pull it off it was Steve.) Martina wanted me to get some but I am no Big Steve, and I couldn't pull it off (much like my failure to pull off Lubos's euro-man-kini at Barton Springs). Anyway, it was amazing and I can't recommend Cinnamon Bay enough. They have beachfront cottages for the less woodsy among us. Go. Now.
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Eva
non-member comment
This si so good!
Josh, you've missed your calling. You should be a freelance travel writer (like I wish I was). When you can write like that, who needs money?