I arrived safely in St. John’s Cruz in the afternoon by taking a scenic ferry from St. Thomas.  I met my friend Lora at the Beach Bar just down the street, where we drank expensive spiked milkshakes and ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  At that point, weary from travel, we took a taxi to the top of Ajax peak, where we are staying at the Orion cottage.  It’s a lovely locale.  

After a fairly restless night of sleep (likely adjusting to jet lag), I woke to a gloriously hot morning.  Lora and I did some house chores until noon.  I watered the house plants and got eaten alive by terribly itchy mosquitoes.  Then, we hitched our way down to Coral Bay for a full day of activities.  

We ate a delicious lunch at the Island Blues Bar and Restaurant, soaking in the lovely view of the bay, then we hiked across the island to Leister Bay for a snorkel.  We saw a sting ray, two very large silver fish (about the length of my leg!), hundreds of pastel-colored sea fans, thousands of tiny fish, and tons of edible-looking fish.  I was kicking myself for not bringing my spear gun with me on this trip!  Luckily, Lora informed me this was a protected national park and that fishing in any form is strictly prohibited.  I don’t think anyone would miss one of those large silver fish if I caught one, but I restrained myself from killing it with my bare hands.  That wouldn’t have been ladylike, I don’t think, and I really wasn’t that hungry.

Once we got back to shore, we soon learned it was prime “no-see-em” eat-your-flesh time.  We were being bitten by very tiny, near-microscopic bugs that made the skin itch uncontrollably.  We “hele”d our way out of there and made it back to Cruz Bay in an hour.  We had a few rum-my Caribbean cocktails and played the longest, lousiest game of Trivial Pursuit with a few of Lora’s friends and then hitched our way back to our cottage on the hill.  

Life here on St. John is tough to say the least.