by David

An early start. We had heard a lot about Trunk Bay, which is known for the only underwater trail at a US National Park. Two of the things we'd heard were that it's crowded and you have to pay to get in. We decided to kill two birds with one stone by going early -- as in, before the ticket window opens early. So we woke up real early, took a taxi out to Trunk Bay (the driver complemented us for knowing to get there before it opened) and arrived shortly before eight. We had the entire beach to ourselves for at least half an hour -- we weren't really keeping track of time.

The underwater trail was really interesting. We saw our first trumpet fish (a long skinny guy) and some parrotfish. The trail was delineated by three bouys in a triangular pattern and by plaques set into the coral bed about 5-8 feet down. It started about 50 yards out from the beach and went along the western side of a cay in the middle of the bay. We took two circuits around the trail, once moving more rapidly because we were eager to read each new plaque and see what it had to say, and again somewhat slower, gliding more to get the fish more used to our presence.

After a while, people started arriving, so we packed up and headed home via taxi. After some time to shower and eat breakfast (we got up REALLY early), we went back down the EXTREME VERTICAL CHALLENGE to town, just in time for the 11:15 ferry to Charlotte Amalie, the main city on St. Thomas. On the way over on Saturday, we had taken the ferry from Red Hood (which is on the extreme eastern end of St. Thomas) to Cruz Bay because we had gone there straight from the airport. This time we took the slightly longer (45 mins vs. ~15) ride directly into the heart of town -- downtown Charlotte. Charlotte Amalie gives the immediate impression of being the largest collection of jewelry merchants in the western hemisphere. On the main shipping streets (whose names are one of the only lasting indications of the Danish colonization) it is easier to count the non-jewelry shops than the the jewelry shops. Even the tchotchke merchants had a few cases of jewelry in the front.

Views of Charlotte Amalie and the harbor at St. Thomas

The city seems to be largely geared towards cruise passengers. We got a tip from a woman we shared a taxi with yesterday that the number of cruise ships in port varies day to day, with sometimes as many as eight massive ships lined up along the wharfs. Other days, like today, there are only three, one of which was a smaller one. Wednesday, when we had been planning to go, turned out to be one of the worst. Even today, it was crowded.

Signs of the influence of cruises are everywhere. Taxis constantly prowl the shopping district calling out hopefully, "Back to the ship?" Several jewelry stores were advertising "lucky cabin numbers" -- if yours was drawn, you won a gold chain or something. I thought about making one up and trying our luck, but decided to remain aloof.

Most shops followed a pattern I'd seen before in other touristy spots I'd seen before around the world -- salesmen within and one or two agressive hawkers outside to draw in potential customers. At one rather hungry looking shop towards the edge of the shopping district, we stopped in to find a notebook in which to write these very remembrances. There were none suitable, but I did notice some island shirts. The sales guy seemed quite interested in cutting us a deal, offering a "discount" on the shirt if we bought Jen a sundress. I perked up. I offered the guy $15 for the shirt, $10 less than the asking price. He came down a little, but as soon as I said "No way" and moved a bit towards the door, I suddenly had two rather attractive (or so Jen says) flowery shirts for a total of $30. Jen was very impressed.

We ate at an unremarkable lunch at a shoreside bar/grill (another consequence of the cruise focus is that there's not many places to eat in Charlotte -- everyone gets all they can eat on the ship for free). Jen remarked that people seemed to come to St. Thomas for non-stop partying, whereas St. John is more sedate. I agree. The bar was not our scene, so we decided to skip dessert (although we were hungry still and craving sweets) and try our luck somewhere else.

We settled on ice cream, but first wanted to see a little more of the town. I remembered the taxi driver on the way from the airport pointing out a large red fort, called Fort Christian, which was supposed to be a museum, so we went over there. It was quite pleasant, with some rather frumpy historical and natural history exhibits. It turned out that a former Swarthmore professor, a Mr. Pearson, was the first U.S. civilian governor, in 1934. The museum was, in contrast to the shops, almost entirely deserted.

Views of Fort Christian

In jail!

After a long search, which ultimately involved interrogating a small ice cream posessing family, we located a Haagen Dazs, where we had two very large cones. After that we were about ready to go, so, stopping to pick up a sampler pack of flavored Cruzan rums (the local brand), we headed back to the ferry dock. Several of our fellow passengers were school children still in their uniforms. For dinner we had pina coladas and mexican food at Margarita's, along the water from the ferry dock. It was very good.

Mmmmm... pina coladas!