Snorkeling on St Johns was the most pristine I've enjoyed in years. The coral is (mostly) untouched, and the visibility is terrific! We swam with Angels whose lovely dark gray or turquoise pancake-shaped bodies paddled gracefully between the rocks -- Damsels with their petite royal blue bodies dotted in florescent specs -- skinny Trumpet fish swimming on their noses - Parrot fish in their rainbow suits, munching on coral so loudly you hear them beneath the water (and thanks to our knowledgable guide, I finally learned what those red and gray ones are...the females!)
There were schools of tiny fish so numerous they made you actually dizzy to swim through them (you know, the ones that swim-as-one but scatter and swirl when you swim into them?) and giant 5' tarpon lurking nearby waiting to take them for a snack!
We even had the luck to see the perfect specimen of a spotted Eagle Ray just before we climbed back into the boat.We were out on the Pepper, a lil 21' locally build sloop with a thick, wooden mast and a big empty cockpit sort of like the catboats back on the Jersey coast.
But you don't need a boat. Many snorkel spots are an easy drive and hike, and a favorite- where you'll find loads of starfish! - is Watermelon Cay at the end of Leinster Bay.
Another? Chocolate Hole Bay, where harmless nurse sharks are the big attraction.
And over on St Thomas, just a 15 minutes sail (on Heavenly Days catamaran)
takes you offshore to Buck Island's Turtle Cove for... yes... turtles! They thrive in the sea grass.
Here they are on YouTube:
Land-based nature lovers, check out this hiking trail!
It's called the Johnny Horn, and while it's only 1.8 miles long and only to elevation of 400', it makes for a challenging morning! Running from Leinster Bay on the northshore, over the forest ridge to Coral Bay, it goes past ruins of guardhouses, built in the 1840s to catch escaping slaves (the BVI, just across the short but treacherous channel, promised freedom to enslaved people), along beaches (like Watermelon Cay, above, and its starfish), through a forest thick with ferns and birds, and down to Coral Bay where you can refuel at either the Donkey Diner ("kickass food"... their slogan, not mine) or the famous Skinny Legs tiki bar.
There are also easier trails to explore the Annaberg Sugar Plantation or the enticingly remote Salt Pond beach.
You can even get lodging in nature on St Johns! We stayed at Maho Bay camps -a clutch of 20-or-so tent cabins, wedged onto this rainforest-y cliff, where a series of boardwalks connects your cabin to the bathhouse (yes, your tent cabin comes with a bed with fresh linens, some cooking facilities, and your own private deck! but you have to share a bathhouse),
to the activities desk (where you can sign up for sails or guided hikes),
and to the dining pavilion which is impressively perched up on the ridge-- so your hike to dinner is rewarded with a killer sunset view!
Maho Bay surprised me with a glass-blowing studio where you can watch the experts and even make a "flower" yourself! There's also a yoga studio (4am, 8am, 4pm) which my 17-year-old did not enjoy, and a camp store whose BenNJerry's he did enjoy.
Dinner around 6:30 or 7, early enough to feel awake and conversational...
A walk back to your tent in that complete blackout, void of all sight but alive with chirpers (remember your flashlight)....
And still alert enough to sit and read for almost 2 hours in that complete
silence that only wilderness can bring to you.
It quieted my mind in the most beautiful way.
The pace of outdoor island life, I learned from this giant iguana who lived in the branches
outside my tent. He's about as big around as a large PVC drainpipe, not
counting those olive green spikes that run down his back (he's so puffy he
looks like he's been WAY overinflated!)
I don't have any idea where he hides from the tropical rainstorms, but at all other
times, he hangs out in the open, weighing down the jungle branches as he
surveys the boats and sea, hour after hour after hour.
I think he's got a good life!
If I lived like this all the time, i think I'd be so much more peaceful. And surely get a lot
more books inside me! I wonder, though, if my 17-year-old would like to share that with me? Maybe until the BnJ's ran out!
more books inside me! I wonder, though, if my 17-year-old would like to share that with me? Maybe until the BnJ's ran out!
