tpatricco's Two Weeks in Paradise - St. John Trip Report
 

For iamq and others...

Sorry it's taken me so long to get myself in gear to write this report. We had a fantastic time and well...re-entry is tough!

I did start by organizing the 300+ photos we took, so I'll post the link for you to enjoy these to get you started!

I promise report installments to follow soon! Trish

In the meantime: www/pbase.com/tpatricco/st_john_may_2006

Tricia, I loved your photos! Off to St. John on Friday night and I will certainly check out Little Lameshur - looks like a great beach!

Very nice work, and thanks for sharing!

great pics - and the fun you had jumps off the pages - brings back good memories, and in this pouring rain, I wish I was there right now !

I especially like Doug and Tony's creation! Wishful thinking? :-d Thanks for the pics! My copy of The Beaches of St. John just came last night and I'm more excited than ever! Thanks Trish! 9 more!
-Bill

Trish,
I really enjoyed your pictures alot. Thanks for posting the link. I have looked at some of your other albums as well in the past and the cats stand out in my mind. Are you guys cat magnets :) I think you have two. We have three also and we never seem to attract that many on vacation! Think it was you that semi adopted a cat your last trip to STJ. One Eye looks like he/she may have some Bengal in him. He looks like a Marbled Bengal. One of ours is the traditional Bengal with the leopard spots. She is beautiful, but a nervous Nellie. Your villa looked great.

Brenda

Trish,
Thanks for posting your report and wonderful pictures! One eye looks like such a sweety! Looks like you all had a very relaxing trip.

Christie

Fantastic!!! Loved the pics!!! Oh, but they make my wait until December so much harder. LOL

Fun photos, thanks for posting! But where's the trip report? :)

Love your photos, as always, Trish. Looks like you had a wonderful time. :)

LOVED your pics! WOW!

it makes me miss stj already... :)

i will be posting my trip report and photos today. :)

Trip report Part 1: Getting there is not half the fun. A rough start on STJ.

Saturday May 13th - Woke up early and did final packing including cooler full of frozen steaks, poultry, burgers, bacon & sausages. Friends, JoMarie & Doug arrived at our house at 7:00 am for car service to Newark Airport (10 minutes from my house). We departed for the airport by 7:30am for 9:30 am flight. EWR can be busy on Saturdays and we wanted plenty of time to get through security & get some breakfast before the flight. Most bags were curb checked and Security checkpoint was uneventful, although x-ray screener man was amused by the rack of ribs in our cooler bag. Our flight to STT was uneventful though we departed 1 hour late due to “disaster drills” on the runway at EWR.

Upon arrival at STT’s Cyril R. King Airport the guys went to get us all some Coronas & we hit the duty free shop to stock up on booze for the week as we waited for the very slow luggage belt to bring us all our checked bags. Due to the delay, we didn’t make the 3:00 Charlotte Amalie to Cruz Bay ferry as planned and opted to wait for the 4:00 instead of going to Red Hook. This is where our troubles began. I immediately called the sister of our Villa’s owner who we were to meet at Skinny Legs in Coral Bay to get checked in to let her know we’d be late. I never did get her on the phone, but left her a voice message on her cell phone. The guys went to get us some roadies (beers to drink while traveling) as we girls waited for the ferry. Ferry to Cruz Bay was pleasant as we were excited to finally be almost to STJ. Arrive and pick up our Mitsubishi Montero from Conrad Sutton Car Rentals. Carmen Sutton was very pleasant & helpful to us there. Finally we’re on our way to Coral Bay and to our villa!

We arrive at Skinny’s at about 5:00 pm. Originally I had coordinated with the owner to meet “Debbie” her sister there at around 4:00-4:30 based on us taking the 3:00 ferry. Debbie is nowhere to be found, and our waitress (who I know from past visits and should know all locals) doesn’t know her either. Not a good sign. Of course now my cell phone has no service, so it’s off to the pay phone with a pile of change to give her another call and let her know we’ve arrived. And leave another voice mail. Ok…great. So we sit down and relax and order some beers and wait….and wait and drink and wait and drink and order burgers and ask others in the bar if they know “Debbie” from Little Plantation – they all know our owner but nobody seems to know “Debbie”. And then we drink and wait and call some more. Anthony and I are staying calm…we know “island time” but we’re growing less amused and less patient by the minute. By 9:00 pm we’ve left about 6 messages for Debbie and an equal number of decreasingly patient messages for the owner in Massachusetts, but there’s really no place for them to call us back. We know approximately where the house is, but not enough to go there. Anthony even goes to search for the house, but sunlight is long gone and we are running out of options. We attempt to enlist the local police and fire department to help us, thinking they might know where the house is…we have the “address” which is basically a lot number, but many roads have no names on STJ. They are of NO help. Skinny’s is closing, so we leave and head to another bar down the road. Stop in and ask about “Debbie”. At least the bartender knows who she is at Aqua Bistro and suggests she might be at the “Full Moon Party” at Miss Lucy’s restaurant. We know where that is, so we take a ride on the chance we might find her and our villa. She is not there, but by some miracle, a local is there who knows where the house is! He is a realtor and might have had a few drinks already, but he agrees to show us where the house is. He is our Angel! (he’s also a realtor with a property listed right next to our villa). He leads us back to Coral Bay and first up one very steep and unpaved road. Oops wrong one! Back down and up another also steep but partially paved this time…and finally we are at the gates of our villa, and true to most homes on St. John, the house is wide open and waiting for us. When we finally pull into the driveway it’s 10:30pm. We are all so relived! We thank our Angel Mike profusely, wish him good night and then proceed to unpack our cooler of still frozen meats (thank goodness) and crash out for the night. From here on the vacation gets much better….but we never did see or hear from Debbie at all.

You can all understand why although Little Plantation is a great villa – I will never be able to recommend it to anyone. I would absolutely never wish that experience on anybody. If Anthony and I had not been to STJ before and had not been familiar with the Coral Bay area and culture we’d have been panicking. Our friends (who are STJ newbies) could not believe how calm we stayed during the whole ordeal.

Part 2: Life is better in the morning.

The sun comes up early (like 5:45am) on STJ, so sleeping late in Paradise is uncommon. It’s a beautiful day! We met one of our Villa’s adopted cats last night and he is now dubbed “One-eye” the friendly cat with one freshly injured and scabby eye socket. He’s here again in the morning too. We rise, take a swim in the pool and check out the villa and surrounding grounds. We’re starved and didn’t get to grocery shop yet, so we head over to the Donkey Diner http://www.donkeydiner.com (“Kick Ass Food”) for breakfast. This place is awesome. Great food, and pleasant outdoor seating. Our waitress Ann, is the same waitress we had at Skinny’s the night before and she calls us her “homeless tourists”. She is happy to hear we finally found our place last night. We order delicious omlettes and chow down. After breakfast we head to Crabby’s so Jo & Doug can rent their snorkel gear for the week. After that we take them directly to our favorite Little Lamesur Bay where we snorkel & swim. We see plenty of fish & coral and Doug even sees a Sea Turtle (don’t worry Tuxedocat – I didn’t see any and I thought of you!). Later we stop at Love City Grocery to pick up provisions and beer for the house. Funny how most of the trips to the market were more often for beer than food. Hmm. Back at the villa we BBQ’d some burgers and hotdogs and relaxed in the pool some more. One eye is very interested in our cuisine. I guess all those annuls (little lizards) aren’t so tasty or filling.

My goodness, what a dreadful way to start your trip! I assume it only gets better from here and I look forward to reading all about it.

Oh what a beginning, glad you didn't let it ruin your mood...and thank God for that angel, and Debbie will from here on out be referred to as the "D" word - can't wait for the rest !

Part 3: The Baths, Marina Cay, Snorkeling at Guana Island and Soggy Dollars!

Monday we took the New Horizons II Charter trip to the BVI’s. This was a fantastic day and we highly recommend this company for anyone interested in a fun trip and a good taste of the BVI’s. At $135.00 per person plus $20 for customs it was well worth the cost. We met at the VI National Park Visitor’s Center in Cruz Bay, boarded the powerboat along with about 10 others. We had a breakfast of fruit, muffins & banana bread with drinks en route and our first stop was in Virgin Gorda where we were able to stretch our legs for a few minutes as Peggy from NHII processed our documents at Customs. Then back on the boat for a short ride over to the Baths. The Baths, for those who don’t know is a geologic rock formation (one of three of it’s type in the whole world). It consists of large boulders arranged as Mother nature saw fit. At the Baths we swam from the boat to the beach and then were able to walk through the rocks with Peggy our guide pointing out various formations and points of interest for about an hour. We then swam back to the boat and motored over to Marina Cay with drinks and painkillers on the way for lunch in their pretty, shady beachside restaurant. Food was delicious and it was nice to sit and relax and eat for a little while before getting back on the boat for the next destination. After lunch we snorkeled off a small beach at Guana Island with a pretty reef loaded with colorful fish. Then it was off to White Bay at Jost Van Dyke and our final destination – the famous Soggy Dollar Bar! We waded in from the boat with our soggy dollars in our pockets ready to partake of their world famous secret recipe Painkillers. They are delicious, complete with fresh Grenadian nutmeg grated on top. Yum! The beach at White Bay is powdery soft sand and beautiful crystal clear water. We enjoyed the beach for awhile before getting back on the boat to return to STJ. We were back in STJ around 3:00 pm, and after getting some roadies, we stopped in at Starfish Market in the Marketplace for some groceries and then went back to the villa for drinks & limin’ in the pool until dinnertime. JoMarie and Tony whipped up a delicious dinner of Filet Mignons with baked potatoes that we enjoyed poolside on the deck. We were all worn out from a long day of sun & fun and we all went to bed early that day!

Loving your report Trish! I'll be in Tortola the end of the month and starting to get excited!

Love the pics. I just had to laugh at the GSP sign (I live in Jersey). Thanks for sharing.

on this rainy day in New England, remembering the beautiful Baths and those famous "painkillers" was just what I needed ! waiting for more....

caribtraveler, we live in Jersey too! Can't get away from those signs!

What exit is Skinny's on the GSP? LOL!

More soon!

Great report, Trish! And pictures, too.

I checked out your villa’s web site, looks gorgeous, too bad that you had such a bad experience. I would’ve freaked out …not by 9:30pm, a lot earlier :)

Anyway, it seems that after that, everything was good. Glad you enjoyed the New Horizon trip, we loved it, too. Looking forward for more snorkeling adventures, trips, hikes and funny stories… And no, we didn’t see any turtles, either.

what a horrible first day experience, but how lucky to find that realtor. wow.

After a horrible week in this rainy weather, it was so terrific to read about your trip. It's been ridiculously difficult to get back to the island, but I am still hoping for the end of this month. Anywya, it's okay, you can admit to seeing a turtle... I'll get over it... someday... :) Say, that Debbie must have thought you were arriving according to island time. She's probably waiting for you at Skinny's right now! Keep the report coming, Trish, you're saving lives with this stuff.

Nice report and loved your pics especially White Bay and VG. Brought back a lot of memories. I would have freaked out big time if "Debbie" had not showed up at Skinny Legs....you handled it extremely well.

Great photos, Trish! It looks as if everyone had a really good time. It is also great to put faces with names....great looking group! Thanks for the outstanding contribution.

Thanks for all the great comments! We did have a great time once we found the villa!

I just arrived in Chicago and I'm happy to say my hotel has high speed internet. I'll try to continue the report...soon! Trish

Trish what a fantastic trip report so far, and you guys have the patience of angels to have handled the beginning so well !! We are going to St. John in Aug. and will use the horizon charters as it sounds to good to pass up. Did you book w/them before you got there or while you were there? Can't wait to read more, it's like reading installements of a novel. Big thanks for taking the time to share, and great photos, ya'll make a wonderful team!! (sorry about the ya'll, yep I'm from Texas!)

Part 4: What beach should we snorkel at today?

Tuesday started like most days on STJ; rise early, lounge in the pool with eye-opener bloody marys (JoMarie’s specialty) enjoying the early morning sun on the deck. Cooking our own breakfast – pancakes & sausage, then getting our act together, throwing some beer & snacks in the cooler and then venturing out to another favorite – Salt Pond Bay. We stopped on the way to show Jo & Doug the Concordia Eco-Tents where Tony and I had honeymooned in 2003 as a possible option for them to return on the return to STJ trip they are already planning. Then it was off to Salt Pond Bay. We hiked down the dirt road to the beach, stowed our belongings under a shady tree and immediately got in the water and off to snorkel along the east side of the bay. Like many other places, there is a wealth of coral, cool fish & marine creatures living in the rocks along the side of the bay. We snorkeled out as far as the point where the water starts to get rough, then turned back and returned to the beach. After a round of refreshing Coronas & Caribs, we then did the short hike over to Drunk Bay (not drunk as in too much beer, drunk is the Dutch word for drowned.) Drunk Bay Beach is a rough beach covered with large hunks of dead coral and lots of flotsam that has washed up. The water here is quite rough, not suitable for swimming. Instead, the beach has become a place to come and “make your own character” – an assembly of found bits of coral & debris – everybody seems to embrace this project! Tony was inspired by a large piece of drift wood which became the inspiration for our own character…I just took the pictures and laughed a lot. After Drunk Bay we relaxed on the beach at Salt Pond for awhile and then hiked it out and headed back to Coral Bay. After getting changed and cleaned up, we went over to Island Blues for drinks & snacks down by the water. After several martinis & margaritas and a big, delicious plate of nachos we returned to the villa to cook dinner, crash out and relax and watch the finale of American Idol (sorry, I know it’s paradise but we wanted to see Taylor kick the Mcfeever out of Katherine!) We cooked some dinner and enjoyed cocktails and tv for the rest of the night. Delicious ice cream sundaes were enjoyed with a sleeve of frozen Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Yum!

Hi Fisherstan. I would recommend booking the New Horizons II charter before you get to STJ. I booked two weeks in advance and didn't even get my first choice days.

http://newhorizonscharters.com/

Thanks Trish; girl, your the BEST !! And after reading your recent post I am suddenly hungry and thirsty for so many things !!

Wow--thanks for great trip report and fantastic photos!! So evocative, you can FEEL the island's sun and air. Your trip report reminded me of waht I've missed. Thank heaven, I'll be back in three weeks (-:

Did the villa's owner have any comment on the her mysterious sister Debbie?

Glad to hear things were good with Conrad Sutton, as we're renting from him. Was it convenient to use their lot in Cruz Bay?

Thanks for the affirmations! I too am wondering when I can get back to STJ soonest!

Cali, the owner of the villa did leave me messages (4) on my cell phone voice mail (Verizon service didn't work outside Cruz Bay) with apologies and directions to the villa. Alas she didn't get my messages until Sunday when we had already found the villa.

Conrad Sutton was accomodating and we did use their lot whenever we were in town to park. They were very pleasant.

Keep the report coming, Trish. By the way, I think it is called "Drowned" bay because a bunch of pirates got very drunk on rum and tried to swim back to the ship and drowned so both interpretations are appropriate. :)

yes...please continue on with your excellent report trish

nice pics btw

2 wks...sheesh, the luck of some people 8-)

Still waiting for the rest of your report...Tick Tock

Trish!!!!

I'm leaving in 2 days and I need you to finish your report! I'm counting on you! :-d

-Bill

Great trip report! Love the kitty photos. =) I would have stashed One Eye in my bag and brought him home with me. LOL.

bill (iamq),

have a great time and please report back yourself (i've enjoyed your reports and photos from kauai)

Sorry, Sorry...just got home last night from trade show in Chicago. I'll do my best to get the rest in asap! I promise! Trish :)

Part 5: More loungin’ , limin’ and snorklin’

Wednesday started like any other with more lounging in the pool, breakfast at the villa and then we drove over to the north shore and started out at Leinster Bay with the hike out to Waterlemon Cay. Do not listen to Pam Gaffin’s advice in Feet, Fins and Four Wheel Drive. If you park at the Annaberg parking lot you’ll add an extra 10 minute walk to your hike. Drive out on the road to the little parking area and save yourself! We always drive in and park here and have never found the (four car max) clearing too full to fit. From here we hike along the mostly flat, gravel trail around Leinster Bay to the nearest put in point for snorkeling out to and around Waterlemon (not MELON) Cay. There’s a short swim across deep water to get out to the cay, then swim around the island counterclockwise (so the current is in your favor most of the time). There is an abundance of beautiful coral, fish and marine life here, and this is one of my favorite snorkel spots on the island. We’ve seen starfish carpet the sea floor here other times. Apparently they are hit or miss. Today is a miss on the starfish, but great on everything else. After my loop around the island I headed back to shore and scrambled around on the rocks around the point for awhile. Anthony, JoMarie and Doug, snorkeling addicts that they are kept going out around the point and saw a few starfish and two sea turtles (convincing me that I have the same disease as Tuxedocat – the one that repels turtles).
After Waterlemon, we hike back out and boy are we hot and happy our car is as close as possible! We drive back along the North Shore Road, stop for a swim at Maho and then continue along toward Cruz Bay. We ooh and aah and the views as we wind along the road above Maho, past Peter Bay and on toward Trunk Bay. There is a great place to pull over and take that famous photo of Trunk Bay that everybody has (it was my desktop on my computer for quite awhile too). We’re all starving by this point so we pull in and park at Mongoose Junction (shopping & dining area) and grab a late lunch at the Sun Dog Café. Great quesadillas, burritos and a yummy pesto pizza. Painkillers and Dark & Stormys are refreshing too. After lunch we meander through the shops for a little while, then head over to the Wharfside Shopping area and drop the guys off at The Beach Bar while we browse in a few more shops. After a few beers ourselves we head back to the villa to clean up and cook some dinner. I have no recollection of what we ate, so either it wasn’t very memorable or we just plain drank too much!