St Thomas, USVI

04/16/2011

Today was a beautiful day in St Thomas. 80 degrees, a little humid, light winds and sunny skies. The ship docked at Crown Bay pier. We got off around 9:30am and took a safari type taxi to town. They tried to cram 5 people in each bench seat and it was funny watching people walk up when they pointed to a space that they wanted someone to sit in that already had 4 people in it! Think they used kids to test the capacity. It was $4 per person each way. They of course dropped us off right where the shopping started! We walked down the narrow street of shops heading towards Blackbeard’s Castle. The shops were the same as everywhere, souviners, jewlery and the likes. The shop owners were not real pushy compared to some places. For $14 per person we obtained entrance to the Amber Museum, Briattania House, Villa Nohtam, Rum Factory and Blackbeard’s Castle. There was an Amber Stone waterfall containing more than 12,000 stones dating from 25,000 to 90 million years old. We toured the homes and then went up to Blackbeard’s Watchtower and climb to the top for a beautiful view. This is also a hotel now. To get back into town we went down the historic 99 Steps. Took a taxi back to the pier. Not a lot of shopping at Crown Bay. There were some shops and locals with carts.
After a late lunch we rest on the back deck wiating for sail away. The singers and dancers did a show with Golden Oldies that was very good. Tommorrow is Dominica and we will be just roaming on our own again.
On top of the Tower