Bananaquit and Jacoco

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This morning we got a ride down to Magen's Bay, which is about 3 minutes from my sister's apartment. We spent the morning there while our hosts worked at local schools for the morning.

Magen's Bay was typically packed with cruise ship tourists on Thursdays when I lived here, but this being the lowest month of low season, there were no cruise ships in town and maybe 10 locals swimming on this mile long beach. Completely empty beaches are a trend you'll notice the next few blog entries. September is low season because it's hot and muggy, and there's the possibility of hurricanes. Also, because it's low season about half the restaurants and hotels are closed. But it's the best time to visit.

Leaving Magen's, we stopped by St. Thomas Dairies for a milkshake. Bananaquit and Jacoco are the best flavors, each has a shot of alcohol. There's no drinking age here, and we were always amazed when they would let kids order them.

After our snacks and a quick lunchtime shower, we went with our hosts to my alma mater, All Saints Cathedral School. The most amazing thing was that the students looked exactly like they did when I went there. I imagined that these were the same kids that I could have gone to school with, only 15 years earlier. Our original principal was still there, as was the high school math teacher.

During the afternoon, we walked around downtown Charlotte Amalie and looked for some classmates that worked/owned jewelry stores there. We found that everyone was out of town, and I was surprised by how empty all the stores were. I heard from people that this was partly because of low season and partly because St. Thomas is no longer the shopping mecca that it once was; now replaced by St. Maarten and other cheaper islands.

We headed out of town to the cruise ship dock area called Havensight to visit our favorite bakery on the island. There are several items that we wanted for tomorrow's breakfast that you can only get in the Caribbean, among them coconut tarts and bread pudding. Bread pudding is kind of like traditional bread pudding, only about 1" thick, very dense, and eaten like a pastry in a 6x6" square.

I should comment on the service in the Virgin Islands. To the untrained visitor, service people are universally rude. They won't acknowledge your presence and generally act as if they hate doing their job. The way around this is to cheerfully greet everyone with a "Good Morning", "Good Afternoon" or "Good Night". Yes, "Good Night" is used as a greeting here. This bakery is a great example of this in practice. We walked in and literally had a lady behind the counter suck her teeth and turn her back to us. I started laying on the charm and saying how nice the place was and that their competitor Frank's bakery had terrible bread pudding. By the end of the conversation, she called me sweetie and said I should come back soon. A lot of work, but it pays off to invest a little in charming people here.

On the drive home we stopped by the Mafolie Hotel which has an exceptional view at sunset over the town of Charlotte Amalie. This is a fun hotel to stay at with a great pool and also a pretty good restaurant, although it was closed when we visited.

For dinner we went to Molly Malone's, an Irish pub in Red Hook (a marina town on the east end of the island). Now, Irish pubs typically aren't our thing, especially in the Caribbean, but a lot of places are closed and we have found from previous visits that Molly's makes great BBC's (Banana Baileys Coladas) with real bananas. They also have pretty good food and Conch (pronounced conck) Fritters.

We had strategically worn swimsuits under our clothes to dinner, so we were well prepared to go night swimming at Secret Harbor. This is one of the only safe (from theft) places I would swim at night. It was nearly a full moon and they have a really nice cove and swimming platform that we did dives from into the dark. I would recommend Secret Harbor as one of the best places to stay in St. Thomas that is reasonably priced.

Back home we were all exhausted from the long day in the sun and went to sleep for our early morning the following day...

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Photos

St. Thomas Dairies
Rasta ordering some delicious treats.

First Graders
My sister and her boyfriend with some first graders.

All Saints Cathedral School
Old 8th and 9th grade classrooms are on the right.

Downtown Charlotte Amalie
On the way to All Saints. The guys in the distance gave us the sidelong glance the whole time.