Travel Tales: U.S. Virgin Islands

The four U.S. Virgin Islands are St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix and Water Island. They sit 70 miles east of Puerto Rico, or 1,115 miles southeast of Miami. St. Thomas, Water Island and St. John are within sight of each other, while St. Croix is 40 miles south. After centuries of European colonization, the Virgin Islands became an American territory in 1917. According to the Virgin Islands Port Authority, St. Thomas’s cruise ship port was visited by two million people in 2005.

We decided to stay on St. John, which largely consists of a national park that covers more than half the island. It is smaller, less populated and quieter than St. Thomas. In 1956, Laurence Rockefeller bought and gave 5,000 acres to the U.S. government for a park. More land has come under the park’s jurisdiction over the last half century; in 2001, Congress made a coral reef a part of the park.

Chickens and roosters roam throughout the towns and island, as do a variety of lizards. It was in St. John that we city people learned that roosters actually crow all day and night, not just in the morning. The island is also home to donkeys which, according to a park ranger, were turned loose into the wild once the sugar plantations closed. Over the years, they adapted to drink saltwater safely.

One morning, we took the Lind Point Trail from Cruz Bay to Honeymoon Beach. Again, as an urban dweller, I imagined that the trail leading to the beach would be wide and possibly paved. In fact, the trail was barely broad enough for one person and almost imperceptible in the dense forest. The steep climb up the ridge reminded me of how out of shape I was, and it was extremely humid, although it was barely 9 AM. Our efforts were rewarded along the way with a panoramic view of St. John’s largest town, and of course the wonderful beach at the end.

Rangers also lead hikes through parts of the park. We went on the Reef Bay Trail Hike, which started with a steep drop and took us past petroglyphs, or rock carvings, above a pool of water. Their origin isn’t definitively known, although there are theories. The hike also included a stop at the ruins of a sugar plantation, a remnant of the island’s industry during Dutch rule.