usvi-on-line
Let there be sun! Trip Report #3
Let there be sun! Trip Report #3
Trip Report Part 1
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17478
Trip Report Part 2
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17489
Let there be sun!
Honestly, I have to say after having so much rain the first 3 days I was a little depressed; after all, vacation is only so long and we’d spent a lot of time inside already so we were ready to get out and about.
The iPad showed that the weather was clearing so Wednesday morning we loaded up the jeep and headed to the north shore. Eager to put our toes into the water we stopped at Hawksnest and the water was surprisingly pretty clear. Now we’re not snorkelers, but our friends are, and they’d thought the water would be so bad that they hadn’t even loaded in their snorkel gear. So some stayed at the beach and some went back to the house to get gear. They ended up seeing lots of stuff that morning and had a great time soaking up the first sun.
This began our routine of hitting a beach in the a.m. and lounging around/napping/pool time in the pm. We were still getting rain in the afternoon/evenings so that plan worked pretty well.
Thursday we took them to Maho, one of our favorite beaches due to the access.
There was a crazy run off at Maho-watch the video here. There were fish –probably about a foot long, that kept trying to swim up against the current and towards the road. The runoff was so hard.
View My Video
You definitely didn’t want to accidentally drive off the side of the road by Maho either-look how much washed away:
But Jan/Jeff told us the snorkeling was really good near the Maho camp side and they saw turtles and lots of rays which made them happy.
Friday we went to Salt Pond; we thought about Lameshur, but decided the road might be too bad to even try. The walk to Salt Pond was much rockier than I remember and I can only imagine how the water had been flowing down the pathway.
We’d try to get to the beach by about 9 and both at Maho and Salt Pond we were probably the only ones there for at least an hour. It was really nice-your own private beautiful beach! Once again, they saw turtles and rays and lots of other stuff, this time more off to the left side and by the rocks in the middle. There was more run off on the right side so it was definitely cloudier there.
On the way back from Salt Pond we stopped and ate at Island Blues-I had to reseach and see what restaurants on this side showed the most veggie choices and they were happy with both the setting and their food there. I love sitting out by the water there. It’s so relaxing!
Our next stop was the Annaberg Plantation ruins. We wanted to show them the BVI vista from there. I love all the plants growing in the wall cracks:
And J/J clued us in on the wonderful genip fruit which they remembered from Vieques.
I know it’s been talked about here before and I wondered what they were, but this is apparently the season and there’s several genip trees at Annaberg. Here’s a scale size picture if you’re looking for them:
And here’s our intrepid Jeff getting some down:
You bite into the outside covering and it splits in half, then you chew/suck on the inside which is a pulp around the seed, then spit out the seed. Very tart but yummy. Forgot to mention too that when we'd visited them on Vieques tey had me go to a locals house to buy Bili which is a fermented drink made from the genip fruit-which also was yummy
Only a few days left, but at least the amount of sun was increasing daily!
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17478
Trip Report Part 2
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17489
Let there be sun!
Honestly, I have to say after having so much rain the first 3 days I was a little depressed; after all, vacation is only so long and we’d spent a lot of time inside already so we were ready to get out and about.
The iPad showed that the weather was clearing so Wednesday morning we loaded up the jeep and headed to the north shore. Eager to put our toes into the water we stopped at Hawksnest and the water was surprisingly pretty clear. Now we’re not snorkelers, but our friends are, and they’d thought the water would be so bad that they hadn’t even loaded in their snorkel gear. So some stayed at the beach and some went back to the house to get gear. They ended up seeing lots of stuff that morning and had a great time soaking up the first sun.
This began our routine of hitting a beach in the a.m. and lounging around/napping/pool time in the pm. We were still getting rain in the afternoon/evenings so that plan worked pretty well.
Thursday we took them to Maho, one of our favorite beaches due to the access.
There was a crazy run off at Maho-watch the video here. There were fish –probably about a foot long, that kept trying to swim up against the current and towards the road. The runoff was so hard.
View My Video
You definitely didn’t want to accidentally drive off the side of the road by Maho either-look how much washed away:
But Jan/Jeff told us the snorkeling was really good near the Maho camp side and they saw turtles and lots of rays which made them happy.
Friday we went to Salt Pond; we thought about Lameshur, but decided the road might be too bad to even try. The walk to Salt Pond was much rockier than I remember and I can only imagine how the water had been flowing down the pathway.
We’d try to get to the beach by about 9 and both at Maho and Salt Pond we were probably the only ones there for at least an hour. It was really nice-your own private beautiful beach! Once again, they saw turtles and rays and lots of other stuff, this time more off to the left side and by the rocks in the middle. There was more run off on the right side so it was definitely cloudier there.
On the way back from Salt Pond we stopped and ate at Island Blues-I had to reseach and see what restaurants on this side showed the most veggie choices and they were happy with both the setting and their food there. I love sitting out by the water there. It’s so relaxing!
Our next stop was the Annaberg Plantation ruins. We wanted to show them the BVI vista from there. I love all the plants growing in the wall cracks:
And J/J clued us in on the wonderful genip fruit which they remembered from Vieques.
I know it’s been talked about here before and I wondered what they were, but this is apparently the season and there’s several genip trees at Annaberg. Here’s a scale size picture if you’re looking for them:
And here’s our intrepid Jeff getting some down:
You bite into the outside covering and it splits in half, then you chew/suck on the inside which is a pulp around the seed, then spit out the seed. Very tart but yummy. Forgot to mention too that when we'd visited them on Vieques tey had me go to a locals house to buy Bili which is a fermented drink made from the genip fruit-which also was yummy
Only a few days left, but at least the amount of sun was increasing daily!
Last edited by toni on Tue Aug 03, 2010 7:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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SOonthebeach
- Posts: 1707
- Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:01 am
- Location: Texas
Agree with PA girl -- that photo of Maho was wild!!
Genips are a wonderful summer treat. You can often see youngsters on island filling their pockets with them and sucking on them as they walk along and play.
One of the STJ books talks about these treats. The most accessible ones have always been at Annaberg but they can be found in various locations on STJ.
Fun!!
Genips are a wonderful summer treat. You can often see youngsters on island filling their pockets with them and sucking on them as they walk along and play.
One of the STJ books talks about these treats. The most accessible ones have always been at Annaberg but they can be found in various locations on STJ.
Fun!!
*Another fine scatterbrained production
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shelli0001
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:03 pm
- Location: Indiana
hey toni! it was nice to meet you at the bb gathering. nice reports, glad you got some sun. looking forward to the rest.
we picked genips too, at francis, but used a different approach, poor girl, lol! i was so worried the kids were gonna choke on those slippery marble sized seeds, then my son accidentally swallowed one! "mama it went down, but i can still breathe, will i be ok?" lol!
we picked genips too, at francis, but used a different approach, poor girl, lol! i was so worried the kids were gonna choke on those slippery marble sized seeds, then my son accidentally swallowed one! "mama it went down, but i can still breathe, will i be ok?" lol!
