10 Jun 2010 - St John (USVI)

St. John

When we were ready to go out, I found there left only 30 minutes for the next ferry to St. John.  At the entrance of the hotel, we got a taxi and asked him to drive fast to Red Hook to catch that ferry.  Thank God that he finally made it and we gave him some tips for that.

Urman Victor Fredericks Marine Terminal (Red Hook),  is located on the eastern end of St. Thomas and primarily serves passengers traveling between St. Thomas and St. John, and St. Thomas and the British Virgin Islands

The Loredon L. Boynes Sr. Dock, located in Cruz Bay, is the main port of entry to St. John

Surprisingly, it was nearly full

St. John has the national park among the US Virgin Islands.  The Virgin Islands National Park encompasses a large portion of the land and surrounding waters and it is the Park that is the island's main attraction.  We decided to spend a morning for hiking.

Caneel Hill Trail
(Distance: 2.4 miles, Approximate Time: 2 hours)

This trail joins Cruz Bay with Northshore Road entrance to Caneel Bay. The trail leads up to a scenic overlook atop Caneel Hill. The overlook is at an elevation of 719 feet. The trail continues to Margaret Hill, elevation 848 feet, and then descends to North-shore Road.

A lookout point at the peak top - my swimsuit was wet through as if we had merged in the seawater!

During the trip, we followed the bird calls for bird watching.  In the two-hour trail, we met less than 10 peoples.  While in this quiet place, we met many kinds of animal - lizards the most, birds (there was one with eyelash), hermit crab on land, etc.

 

Our intended end-point was a point at North-shore Road opposite to Caneel Bay.  However, we missed the exit and we needed to locate a cut-off point.  Following the path, there was a cute "deer-like" creature gazed at us and dashed away.

After cutting back to North-Shore Road, we lost our direction.  We tried to ask the drivers passing by for the way to Caneel Bay, a kind woman stopped by and offered us a free ride to Caneel Bay.  Thanks the Lord for this angel!

Caneel Bay is a luxury resort, the first eco-resort in the Caribbean

With the exhausted hike, we sat back and had a comfortable lunch for refreshment

We then took a taxi to the Trunk Bay (a famous beach) for snorkeling.  Details to be shown in next page.

Upon reaching Red Hook (back to St. Thomas), I found that taxi has a special car plate.

Dine at Duffy's Love Shack (Red Hook) serving Caribbean food - this is a fun and happening place where many locals around.  Some customers danced voluntarily at the dancing floor.  There were many bamboo containers and stuff.  We ordered Mahimahi (a kind of local fish).
www.duffysloveshack.com