Sometimes it's hard to slow down and take in your surroundings when you have a work schedule to keep up with. However, when you have visitors, that's the perfect excuse to not work and have fun! My parents came to visit for a week (which didn't feel long enough), so we struck out to explore parts of the island I haven't even seen yet! So, here's what we did:
1. Swimming with the Sea Turtles!
If you live on St. Thomas, or if you're visiting, I highly recommend any boat trip through Bolongo Bay Resort! My husband and I love their Saturday sail, which ironically takes us to St. John, where we live. Last week was our first time taking the Turtle trip on their lovely catamaran, Heavenly Days. We really enjoy the company of the captains and crew, there are great drinks, and for the full day they provide lunch too. It's really a bargain all things considered.
Here's their website if you want to look at it!
Anyway, the highlight of the trip is the snorkeling. (Depending on who you ask....my husband and dad prefer to skip snorkeling and just drink, and talk with the crew. To each his own!)
Here are some pictures I snagged of our turtle trip:
The turtles we saw were green seaturtles, which have awesome markings.
We also saw a stingray. This one was about 4 feet long.
This is a West Indian sea egg, which is a type of sea urchin. These spines obviously aren't that prickly, but he did move around in my hand when I held him. *shudder*
2. A visit to Coral Bay/Annaberg ruins:
This makes my second visit to Annaberg and Coral Bay, and it was just as fun as the first time. The Annaberg ruins are leftovers from an old plantation from the 1700s. There are signs around to read to soak up the history, but the best part of it is standing at the top of the hill and enjoying the view. (And the wind.) You can see the British Virgin Islands and Watermelon Cay from there (I hear the latter is supposed to be a good snorkeling spot. I still haven't been there).
Here's the old windmill at Annaberg:
3. A visit to Trunk Bay:
Trunk Bay is one of the most famous beaches in the world. It has very clean ocean water (which is actually inspected annually). It has an underwater snorkeling trail. It is pretty clean, has bathrooms (with plumbing), and showers. It's pretty swanky as far as beaches are concerned. They charge admission, but it's totally worth it if you like snorkeling. (Which I do.) The reef an underwater trail are located around this giant rock sticking out of the water:
Here's some stuff I saw down there:
One fish, two fish...
Here's the tree we were under (Stereotypical Caribbean alert):
Trunk Bay features a snack stand, scuba gear rentals, and a generally gorgeous backdrop. Overall, I highly recommend it and will definitely go back.
So here's a fun story. My parents were sitting near with a local politician on the plane (A Representative, if I recall correctly). Anyway, they let him know this was their first visit, so he rattled off a list of recommendations for places to eat on St. Thomas. Obviously, we couldn't figure out where half of them were, but he mentioned Hook, Line, and Sinker as a place for good lobster in Frenchtown. Well, I have never been to Frenchtown before, (with the exception of swinging through the McDonald's with a coworker once. Ew.) so I thought I'd give it a try. Besides, if I'm going to play tourist, I needed to see new things, too. Mom stops to admire a conch horn at the host stand.
Wait, what's a conch horn?
It's a conch shell with the end cut off so you can blow through it, much like a trumpet. There are statues around the islands showing slaves blowing into the conch shells to alert others of a revolt. Also, captains will use it to let you know it's time to leave. They are loud enough to be considered "official" maritime signals.
Oh, okay.
So anyway, Mom is admiring this shell, and she asks one of the servers where they got it. The server says "Oh, we got that from Fisherman Stevie. Let me see if he's around, he can probably get one for you."
This is, of course, a surprise to all of us because we have been heckled by local vendors all day. We assume Fisherman Stevie is going to try to charge us like fifty bucks for it.
We watch through the window from our seaside booth as the woman actually leaves the restaurant, walks along the harbor to another building. She comes back with Fisherman Stevie, who is a descendant of original French fishermen (this is Frenchtown, after all) from the 1600s. It's cool just to meet this guy and know he's a true local with deep roots in this town. (A "town," the size of a neighborhood, by the way.)
Anyway, Fisherman Stevie says, "I can have a shell ready for you by tomorrow-- will you be here tomorrow?"
We explain we will be back on Friday (two days later), and he seems relieved because that gives him more time to "get it ready." He says he'll leave it at the restaurant for us.
So this, at the very least to me, is a scam to get us back into the restaurant. We are totally fine with this scam because it is on the way to the airport and the food was fabulous. Nobody mentions price, so we let it hang unresolved.
So we go back on Friday, and ask our waitress (different from the server who helped us the other time) about a shell from Fisherman Stevie. She says, "Let me find out," and walks out of the restaurant. Fisherman Stevie, once retrieved from somewhere outside again, walks up to our table, and grabs three enormous conch shells that were sitting by the bar. We had thought they were decoration. He gives all three to us for free. Mom hugs him. We were relieved to not be heckled into a crazy price (shells this size in the store go for 25 bucks a piece) and to have a cool story to go with it. So there you have it.
As always, more adventures to come soon!
Until next time,
Steph
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