Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Or, The Pleasures of Paradise.

You’ve weathered Alaska and Colorado with me, sharing adventures during work assignments. The US Virgin Islands, though, was a true vacation! No work for 10 days. YAY! Come along to my favorite Caribbean island—St. John!

Why is it my favorite? For one thing, it’s pretty hard to get to, which means not too many people go there. A plane ride, a ferry, and a jeep. Takes a bit of planning, and a lot of time. You really have to want to go there. And we did.

Second—the majority of the island is national park, not only on land, but underwater, as in, snorkeling. In fact St. John is one of the best places in the world to snorkel, especially just off the beaches, which are all public.  With so much untouched wilderness, there is limited housing, and likewise, people, which suits me. Mostly I like my vacations away from garish displays of humanity. Don’t get me wrong—I love people! Even better when they’re not close.

We splurged and rented a castle. (Princess=castle=prince. See, it all fits.) Just so you’ll know, the castle was not extraordinarily expensive—by island standards, a bargain. It didn’t take long to figure out why. The road to the top of the mountain it was perched on was a mile-long, steep, as in suicidal, dirt track with occasional “paved” concrete patches and pocked with craters to rival the surface of the moon. Even with the jeep in 4-wheel-low it was impossible to go slow enough not to dislocate a hip, or dislodge a kidney. One day, we just stayed in rather than risk it.

Lots of animals run free on the island, leftover from the days sugar plantations thrived there. Donkeys turned the mills, chickens, roosters, goats, mongooses (yes, that’s the plural)–round out the large animal ecosystem. Little sugar-loving, yellow bananaquits. We had dinner with a goat wandering the restaurant one evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are no window coverings—glass or screens—on most restaurants or homes. We had mosquito netting over our bed and fortunately, not much action from the mosquitoes anyway. (We were more worried about dengue or chickungunya than zika, just coming into the news as we returned.) The sense of living out doors while simultaneously feeling safe and protected is extraordinary. No need for air-conditioning because the breezes on top of the mountain were lovely. We left doors wide open at night too and the sporadic rainfall was hypnotizing.

The castle is actually pretty new and designed by a couple with a great imagination. So fun! A traditional living room and deck with spectacular view, separated by a courtyard from the “tower” which has a kitchen on the first level, master BR on the second, and life-size chess board on the third floor with a view to rival anything I’ve ever seen in my travel to all seven continents.

 

In fact Rob and I spent the entire time trying to decide if that 360 degree view of the sea, the British virgins, the mountains and the sky was the best view we’ve ever had or merely in the top 5. We finally agreed the distinction was not important, and that we had a wonderful time conjuring up the other panoramas in contention. Over our last bottle of wine we decided we would risk hip and kidney to do it again.

 

Cheers!

 

PS – if you go, let me know –I’ll give you some tips.