Idyllic St. John
Explore the simplicity of the CaribbeanBy Michael Yaeger
After several years of amassing frequent flier miles, we finally accumulated enough to fly somewhere farther afield than Des Moines. Not unexpectedly however, our visions of white houses tumbling down Andalusian slopes to the sparkling sea, and Tuscan fields of sunflowers, were quickly dashed.
Working around the blackout periods, limited availability, and lack of routes, we eventually resigned ourselves to the Caribbean, a tropical, if not exactly far flung region we had yet to explore. The stars all aligned and we managed to secure tickets for St. John, the smallest and most remote of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
It was the crack of dawn on a bitterly cold mid-winter day in New England when we drove to Manchester, New Hampshire to catch the first leg to Washington DC. Now, I work with computers, so I’m no mechanic, but it seemed logical to me to expect that with temperatures below zero, it might occur to the airline staff to begin de-icing the plane and whatever else needed to be done to counteract this weather, sooner than 20 minutes before the flight. I would be mistaken. Three hours late, we finally arrived in Dulles just late enough to miss our connection on the sole daily flight to St. Thomas.
With no sign of remorse whatsoever, we were told to wait outside during a snow storm in shorts and t-shirts for a shuttle, which whisked us off for a lovely night’s stay at an institutional Howard Johnson’s half an hour from absolutely anywhere. We got revenge on the airline by charging way to much bad Chinese food to the room, and abusing the pay-per-view movie selection. We showed them. The next day we finally made that flight to St. Thomas, and the real trip began.
The island of St. Thomas is the gateway to the rest of the Virgin Islands, with the only international airport. You can see St. John in the distance, but the twenty minute ferry ride between them is like a trip into a different world. 
Arriving in the small port of Cruz Bay, the relaxed and calm serenity of the island is immediately infectious. There are few cars, few people, and a small community atmosphere where everyone knows each other. Cruise ships can’t dock here, and all visitors reach the island by private boat or ferry.
We rented a villa several miles out of Cruz Bay, which turned out to be really wonderful, a simple place with a hot tub, and a wraparound porch with hammocks offering views of the azure blue waters of Chocolate Hole below. All levels of accommodation exist in small quantities on the island, from the large Westin resort, to condos right in town, to a number of privately owned villas and houses dotting the island.
Although there is a bus that runs across the island, with a rental car, you can amble around on the few roads and cover the nine miles to the other side of the island in a very short amount of time. Ironically and somewhat inexplicably, they drive on the left in the U.S. Virgin Islands, while they drive on the right in the British Virgin Islands next door.
Two-thirds of the island is the Virgin Islands National Park, land donated by Laurence Rockefeller in 1956. It boasts hiking trails, pristine beaches, scuba diving, an underwater snorkeling trail at Trunk Bay and a couple campgrounds, one very rustic and one slightly less so. The park protects not just the pristine tropical forest, but petroglyphs of the indigenous Taino people and the recently established Coral Reef National Monument. The entire island, park or not, is lush with green vegetation and brilliantly colored flowers.
Beaches are prevalent on the island, so finding one all to yourself is not hard. Some of the most secluded beaches sit on the opposite East Side of the island, near a village called Coral Bay. You can snorkel right off most of them, and enjoy a wide variety of colorful fish and if you’re lucky, turtles. We arrived just past hurricane season at the start of the tourist season, but there were very few tourists, and the weather was pleasantly warm, not humid and no bugs. Paradise actually.
Despite the remoteness and small size, Cruz Bay is filled with dozens of excellent restaurants, as well as a smattering of coffee shops, bookstores, art galleries, and high end duty free shopping. Most of the restaurants sport al fresco patio dining, often with stunning views, and the setting is very casual. 
The locals, a mixture of rich expats with second homes and the younger backpacking set, all turn out in the late afternoon for happy hour. Seafood is featured on many menus, and cuisines including Caribbean, Mexican, Italian, French and many others waiting to be discovered. There are also plenty of small shacks offering West Indies and Caribbean delicacies like Roti (including traditional goat meat). There are several small markets in Cruz Bay where you can buy stuff to make on the grill or in your villa kitchen. As on most islands, prices are reasonably high since most things must be imported.
I love island cultures with their unhurried and carefree lifestyle cultivated by the lack of anything non-recreational to do. Most of the time, living that lifestyle permanently is just something to dream about, with the logistics of moving to such a place beyond the grasp or imagination of most people.
The best part about St. John though, is it’s a place that an American citizen can fantasize about realistically moving to or retiring to someday without all the red tape and challenges of another country. It will probably never really happen, but it’s definitely worth dreaming about.
| Michael Yaeger is the senior editor of TravelsInParadise.com and lives in Barre, Vermont. He can be contacted at
See Michael Yaeger's bio and more of his travel articles |
Resources:
Virgin Islands National Park: http://www.nps.gov/viis/index.htm
St. John Website: http://www.stjohnusvi.com/stjohn.html
Rosebay Villa: http://www.caribbeanvilla.com/rosebay/rose1.html
C&C Jeep Rental: http://www.cccarrental.com/
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