USVI-On-Line

Pia.......I can certainly understand how tourists must look to you locals. I can only imagine how some of us can really irritate you. I don't stop in the middle of the road to take pictures, but I've seen it done dozens of times. I also don't drive 10 mph, but I've been annoyed by those that do, and I'm on vacation.

Jost is my #1 MUST DO!!!!

I've never been to Dolphin market, for some reason I did not think they would have fresh produce. I'll have to stop in and check it out! My main plan is to go out to Josephines...does anyone know if her greens are for sale in any of the local markets?

I will add one more DON'T since I am feeling stressed and grouchy today: DON'T touch the turtles!! I have seen people doing this at least three times, all at Waterlemon. I don't think everyone realizes how harmful our touch can be to a turtle (well, all of us on the forum do, it's those 'other' people. )

liamsaunt
She sells them to starfish but they sell out quick she told us to tell them to stock more to help her out so we did.
Tom
Ps but I like to go and get them from her they have to be fresher

Good updates from everybody! PIA was dead on! As far as the Go Phone ?, you can get them anywhere but I got mine from a att/cingular store. They are the only company with cell phone towers on St John. There is one near Cruz Bay and one on the other side of the mountain near Coral Bay. Sprint/Virgin Mobile claims to have service on St John. They do, however only in Cruz Bay recieving from a tower in St Thomas. IF you use your villa address or realtor address you can get a local VI #. My phone with airtime cost 45 bucks, 20 for the phone and $25 airtime at 25 cents per minute.

Keep the Do's and Don'ts coming

Do take those special moments for yourself when you are sitting on a beach, or on a deck, or on a boat, and just REVEL in the fact that you are sitting amidst such beauty! Those moments stay with me long after the trip is gone and I can savor them over and over again.

Pia wrote:
3) Move over if you see a local riding on your tail in his car - we do have jobs, ferries things to do and it can be really frustrating beind some one who is going 10 miles per hour, stops and "honks" their horn before every curve - not a hairpin turn or a bend, a curve - stops to take photos in the middle of the road of every cow, donkey and goat It's cute and when we are not on a schedule (and yes I do allow extra time to get to "town" from Coral Bay) it's OK but sometimes it's a little too much when it happens every single day

Pia, all I can say is "Right-on girl!" I did most of the driving while we were on-island and although I averaged 20 or 30 mph most of the time, I did have a LOT of people riding right on my bumper! Not all locals, either, judging by the big rental car bumper stickers on the windshield of their cars. I ALWAYS pulled over if there was a place I could do so. I'd rather let those in a big hurry go by me. I even mentioned to my husband that the locals must go absolutely stark raving mad at all the pokey tourists like me. On our last day, there was someone in a rental car riding so close to my back end, that it was making me very nervous, and there was no place to pull over and let him pass. Just then we came around a corner and some guy pulled out from a dumpster area right in front of me. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him, and the guy behind me almost ran up into our back seat! After that he kept his distance a little better, but it was definitely scary. This is where I'll say "WHAT A FREAKIN' IDIOT!" because he was also a tourist and even if he was late for the ferry he had no business riding my a$$ like that. On the other hand, I'm from California, so I'm sorta' used to tailgaters (again, I change lanes and let them pass!)

Gizzmo-
Our Sprint service worked great in Coral Bay in Feb.

Hey Savvy... Well we stayed in Coral Bay last week. Had a sprint phone and cingular. The sprint phone had no service and the cingular had 3 bars so we just turned off the sprint phone for the rest of the week.
One thing I will say to everyone, do not rely on a cell phone in St John as the terrain is not favorable.
I don't think anybodys cell is reliable on the north shore. If you go into a cingular store tell them to show you the tower locations for zip 00830. Sprint stores can do the same but their map does not show service past Charlotte Amailie.... not even to Red Hook, so who knows!

Maybe it depends on how thick the mosquitos are???

I hope you did not take my post in another thread "Stop and take pics of goats, donkeys etc" as meant to literally stop in the middle of the road without regard to others and take pics. No one should ever just stop in the middle of the road anywhere-not here and not where you live. I am a bit perplexed though. When we were there the signs for the speed limit were 25mph. Thankfully Mrb had driven on the left before so that was not a problem but I think most locals would rather go as fast as possible. I get it that here and everywhere people are working. Our busiest days are holidays when everyone else is not paying attention, doesn't have work to get to, maybe drunk driving or it's 95 year old Granny out there on the road for one of her few driving forays of the year. It's just that St John & it's residents depend almost if not completely 100% on tourism for $. It's 2/3 National park (would you speed through the Grand Canyon if you never saw it before?) with speed limit 25, couple that with having to drive on the left when most don't do that every day, worrying about goats and donkeys being in the road and possibly hitting one and it's a recipe for slow driving. Sorry for being long winded. I felt hurried almost every day we were on the road (we pulled over a lot to let cars and trucks pass by) and scared a lot of times. It was the most stressful thing being constantly tailgated even when going over the speed limit. Behind one dump truck that was careening down the hill and then locking them up all the way down with smoke billowing. Also saw one nasty crash in Coral Bay. With guidebooks and everyone else saying relax and be on island time this is just contradictory.

You weren't offending. I was just thinking today the world just needs to slow down a bit. Believe me being very close to Philly we are nuts (not as nuts as Boston but we hold our own, Florida you are in a class by yourselves). My poor cousin came to visit from Ohio and I think she was beyond shocked at the maniacs and the language I use in my car, not really anywhere else but in my car I looked over at her face and it was just priceless. I no longer give the one finger salute. I have matured

It is quite scary though. The only thoughts I think when we were riding down the road in St John is that a cement truck would make pancakes out of us. You should have the guidebook writers add your line to their books about Centerline and Northshore. I must sound so much older than I am but I seriously wish for slower times. I feel like everyone is always on their way to a fire. And not to be a smart ass, I have been doing 55 on our highway due to gas prices (yeah- I usually speed but can't afford to these days). Speed limit in PA is 55 max on most highways but most do around 70 No worries. I was afraid to post my first thoughts because I certainly do not want to be offensive to the residents of St John

I was just looking at what everyone had to say and maybe this should be the new Rule Book! Everybody had great input!

That being said I think I was taken back by the blog from pswlrw. Alot to be learned there... I even changed my avatar.... Thanks everybody!

Just back from Walmart and picked up a Cingular GoPhone for $18 which included $10 in airtime (@ .10/min). $8 phone....what a deal!

Thanks for the tip!