St. John, USVI

Kristen and I spent our honeymoon on St. John. Here are some snapshots and a little info.



The main town on the island is Cruz Bay, located on the west side. Cruz Bay is one of two towns. As you can see from the map, the rest of the island is a National Park. Cruz bay was relatively clean with a touristy little downtown area. This area featured a number of nice, if overpriced, shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, we didn.t spend much time in the area, opting instead to spend more time hiking and at the numerous beaches.


Approaching St. John on the ferry.


Taking a break in the shade from walking about.


Attempting to pick something that didn.t sound like it would give my mouth second degree burns.

We stayed at a tent/cabin complex located at Maho Bay, located on the northern part of the island. The resort is built into the side of a hill, in a dense rainforest like environment. It consists of a large number of cabins connected by wood walkways. The resort also had a decent sized store and a good restaurant with an excellent view. It's probably as close as you can come to staying in a tree city.


A view of the walkway structure.


Our "bedroom" with a view of the bay.


The outside of our little tent/cabin.

We spent a good bit of time at the resort's restaurant. As a side note, we took a two person kayak out to the small island in these photos. Kristen thought we where going to drown when, on the way back, the sky opened up on us. It was a pretty surreal experience as we could see the wall of rain coming towards us, down the hill and out across the water, as we paddled for shore.


A view from the restaurant during happy hour.


A view from the restaurant during the main course.


A view from the restaurant during dessert.

The beach was only a few minutes walk away... down seven flights of stairs. We spent a few nights sitting down there at sunset drinking red wine.


Silhouette of a sailboat at sunset.


Yet another sunset photo. It's one of my favorites though.

We also made a few friends while on the island.


This dude hung out in our cabin most of the weekend. Kristen wasn't overly fond of him.


This cat was really attached to me. No clue if it was my awesome personality or tossing him little pieces of filet mignon.

Great food and drink on the island.


A good local rum and Bawlz, a caffeinated sprite like drink with some fruit from Brazil.


Steak, ice tea and Corona. Not bad at all.

There where little independent shuttles running around the island, so even if they weren.t connected by trail, it wasn.t difficult to get to the different bays. At first I had wanted to rent a Jeep, but after seeing how narrow the windy roads where and how fast everyone drove, I'm wasn't so enthused. The interesting thing was, the steering wheel is on the correct side of the car but you dive on the wrong side of the road. Strange.


Cinnamon Bay, where we spent a day snorkeling. Should have brought an underwater camera or housing.


Lone tree at Cinnamon Bay.


A bay we hiked to from our campground.


A catamaran at the aforementioned bay.

We also explored the ruins of a Dutch sugarcane mill, plantation and surrounding jungle. The mesquites didn.t bother me but they sure ate Kristen alive. So next time you.re out in the jungle, be smart like me and bring a bug magnet with you.


The ruins and the jungle.


Yeah, I'm an intrepid adventurer.

In closing, here are a few goofy photos.


Us in our little cabin.


Awww.


We are cute, I'm sure of it.


Well, at least she is cute.

That's all! Hope it wasn't too boring.

-jason m