St. Thomas, USVI

St. Thomas is a popular cruise port; I think we have been here on every Caribbean cruise we have taken. But we have never actually seen much of St. Thomas as we would always jump on the ferry to take us over to beautiful St. John for the day. This time, we decided to stay on St. Thomas and the plan was to go to one of the many beaches that people rave about; even after researching several of the popular beaches, we could not make a decision as to which was to go to. We headed off the ship and followed the signs to the taxis. The attendant hooked us up with Timotheus, who has an open air taxi, with benches that can seat about 25 people. He quoted us the price to go to any of the beaches. It's a standard price for all drivers.....$10 per person each way. In the next breath he said that for $5 extra, he would give us a tour of the island and then drop us off at the beach of our choice and pick us up later. We, along with 10 other cruise passengers, thought it was a great idea.

So off we went, through the busy downtown area and then up into the hills above the town. The streets are narrow and quiet away from the waterfront. He worked his way around the streets, stopping just before the end of one street at the top of a hill. He stopped the taxi, got out, and said to us: "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is where it gets interesting!" I think I heard some gulps from behind us and I'm sure everyone's eyes got as big as saucers. "Big Timmy" then broke into a big grin and proceeded to point out to us the exposed wall of the building we were parked next to. It is an original building from back in the early 1800's. The stones were held together with a concoction of molasses and sand, which was used as the mortar.

He turned out to be a great tour guide. We travelled all over, going to the highest point on the island, and stopping at overlooks and beaches, with our guide giving us a facts about the island and pointing out iguanas whenever he spotted one.

We were lucky to have Big Timmy as our guide today

Magan's Bay--on the list of the most beautiful beaches.

Coki Beach--the one to snorkel at

With the great tour that we received and the fact that we got to stop at Coki Beach and get our feet wet, we decided to head back to the port and do a little browsing of the shops in the big mall next to the ship. A quick run through those and we were back on the ship and secured deck chairs at the very aft (back) of the ship overlooking the bay. Before long the ship backed out, turned around and headed out to sea.

Back on ship enjoying the view of the harbor

Goodbye St. Thomas

Also in port today was the Ruby Princess. It docked over at the other port a few miles away. A little trivia about that ship: The "God parents" of the Ruby are Trista and Ryan Sutter of The Bachelorette fame. Just how does being the Bachelorette get you the great perk of being a ship's godparents???? I'm thinking they cruise free and in the best suite whenever they want!

Next port: Santo Domingo