Tuesday 20 November 2012

Caribbean Travel: The beauty of St. Thomas




By: CivJet
ST. THOMAS, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS—A hot autumn day has slipped into night and I’ve finished a nice meal at a Spanish café that sits on one of the many quiet, narrow laneways that dot the tropical town of Charlotte Amalie.
I retreat to the bar at the Hotel 1829, a fun and low-key spot that fronts onto an open-air, covered patio on a hillside overlooking the city centre. There are maybe six people at the bar and it doesn’t look promising. But within minutes Patrick, a local guy with straggly hair, is persuaded to bring out a guitar.
Patrick takes rapid-fire requests and does takes on Bob Seger and Willie Nelson in what, looking back, feels like a musical version of That ’70s Show. I do my best to imitate Paul McCartney’s western drawl for the opening of The Beatles’ Rocky Raccoon. Someone else shouts for Jim Croce, and Patrick launches into lyrics about tugging on Superman’s cape.
I’d been thinking it might have been a mistake to stay at a small hotel in town rather than checking out one of the resorts on the island, reasoning that most Canadian tourists likely would come to this island for beaches and rum drinks. But as I trudged up the three flights of stairs to reach my room I remember thinking it was a perfect ending to the evening and the sort of impromptu activity that wouldn’t have happened at a Hyatt.
A lot of folks who visit St. Thomas step off hulking cruise ships and head straight to the duty-free shops on the main drag, or stroll into bone-chillingly air-conditioned stores to shop for six-dollar bottles of booze, or stop for a drink at one of the 1,314 Senor Frog’s bars that dot the Caribbean. There’s nothing wrong with that. But they’re missing a lot.
Just off Main St., also known as Dronningens Gade from the islands’ days as a Danish colony, you’ll find colourful, cool laneways dotted with shops like Laksa, with locally made jewelry. Just around the corner is the wonderful Gladys Café, where they have local artwork on exposed stone walls of a 300-year-old pump house and you can sip on freshly made passion fruit juice or dig into curried goat, rice and peas, sweet plantains, or jerked mahi-mahi topped with one of the fiery, homemade pepper sauces they sell.
St. Thomas has been attracting folks from around the globe for centuries and is rich in history. The remarkably knowledgeable Felipe Ayala, a local institution, gives informative tours of the Blackbeard’s Castle complex; a collection of historic homes and sites that rise up a steep hill just a few steps from downtown.
Villa Notman dates from 1861 and was built by a Scottish engineer with white wrought iron brought in from New Orleans. Haagensen House dates to the early 19th century and was built by a Danish banker and has Greek revival elements; a true Virgin Islands mutt.
There are deep orange walls inside and a lovely patio that opens to a fabulous view of Charlotte Amalie’s cavernous harbour. The period furniture is lovely, much of it made from local mahogany trees said to be some of the most prized on the planet. Haagensen House also is home to a few prints of impressionist master Camille Pisarro, who was born and raised in the town.
At the top of the hill is a tall, rounded stone building called the SkyTower, or Skytsborgtarn in Danish. It’s also known as Blackbeard’s Castle and dates to 1679.
“It’s unlikely Blackbeard actually used it, as the Danes were pretty good about keeping pirates away,” Ayala tells me.
Pirates, of course, are big bucks all over the Caribbean. In addition to Blackbeard’s Castle, there’s a pretty fine local beer called Blackbeard Ale. Bluebeard’s Castle is a hillside hotel that features a terrific restaurant, Room With a View, with outstanding vistas stretching down to the harbour and beyond.
Charlotte Amalie is built on a remarkably steep hillside clad in deep green. If you choose to wind your way up to the Mountain Top (elevation roughly 460 metres) you’ll go through a series of hairpin turns and switchbacks as you climb past local bars and homes built to take in the view of the deep blue harbour and the lush hillsides of nearby Hassel Island and Water Island.
At Mountain Top, you can pose outside with the pirate statues or wander into what’s billed as the Caribbean’s largest gift shop and try “the world’s best banana daiquiri.” Or you can bypass the kitsch and go straight to the deck and stare down in wonder at the perfect strand of sand at Magens Bay and take in St. John and the British Virgin Islands of Jost Van Dyke and Tortola to the east. With so many protected bays and small inlets, it’s a boating paradise.
A few minutes down the road you’ll get more beautiful vistas at Drakes Seat, allegedly where Sir Francis himself used to stand as he tried to figure out the best ways to navigate through the maze of channels that make up the U.S. and British islands. When I was there, a small group of tourists were posing to have their photos taken with a sad-looking donkey wearing a hat of brilliant pink bougainvillea and answering to the name “Lady Gaga.”
It’s only a 10-minute drive from the harbour in Charlotte Amalie to Magens Bay, which often appears in those dreamy lists of the world’s best beaches.
And with good reason. It’s a long, luscious strand of soft-golden sand; nearly a mile long and hemmed in on both sides by tall, green hills that are thick with jungle vines and trees and the occasional home.
You look northwest out past the flanking hills to a small, cone-shaped island that someone with a higher authority placed there just for a perfect framing.
The water is gentle and warm and clear and clean, with nothing but smooth sand, so you won’t ruin your day by stubbing your toe on sharp rocks or coral. I wander down and try out a very decent rum punch for $5 and admire the sign that says “Don’t Feed the Iguanas.”
The sun begins to dip below the verdant hills to the west, and I reluctantly clamber back into the jitney for the ride to town.

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