RickG Trip Report - April 27-May 4 - Part 1
Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 10:54 am
St. John Trip Report – 2 is a Perfect Number
April 27 – May 4, 2007
Villa Callaloo
Pictures: http://travel.webshots.com/album/558983125tMHwsU
Summary – After trips of increasing size bringing more and more newbies to St. John, we outdid ourselves with the Gang of 24 Thanksgiving 2006 trip with the whole extended family. Sweet Christine and I were rather worn out by successive big family trips. The genesis of this trip was the simple question: “Why don’t we do anything with just the two of us anymore?” Why, indeed, not? For, 2 is a perfect number.
This trip report is written at the level of detail that I prefer to read – lots of details. It is written in newspaper pyramid format, so you can read the first paragraph from each day and understand what the day was about and then choose to read further if you wish.
Villa – Villa Callaloo is a delightful 3 bedroom with loft/4 bathroom West Indian cottage on Ajax Peak above Coral Bay facing East/Southeast. The great house with loft and two of the cottages are completely open – no screens, with large folding louvered doors. The effect is more like being in a large open air lanai than in a bedroom. Each of the open air bedrooms has mosquito netting and one bedroom, in the lower level of the main cottage, has screened windows. The appointments are not luxurious, but they are solid and comfortable. The views are extraordinary and the landscaping is some of the best that we have ever seen. Thanks to the Cingular tower across the valley on Bordeaux Mountain, we had better cell phone and mobile data access than we get at home.
One advantage of a 20+ year old house is that the landscaping is well established. There must have been 10 mature banana trees, some fruit bearing, an enormous kapok tree, a very large turpentine tree and a large collection of flower bearing and very green shrubs. The swimming pool was on the lowest level and provided great views of the mountain sides as well as a very private setting. You can occasionally hear the traffic going back and forth to Coral Bay, but we had only one early morning awakening as someone was pulled over by police below our villa.
We had one major challenge during our stay – mosquitoes. During the week prior to our stay, St. John experienced torrential rains. 7 days after the rains started, in one of nature’s easily anticipated cycles, the mosquitoes came out. We happened to be staying at Villa Callaloo when the mosquitoes peaked in a very big way – more mosquitoes than locals had seen in years. We solved this problem by moving to the screened bedroom, wearing lots of bug spray, burning mosquito coils and never standing still while exposed in the great house. We would stay at Villa Callaloo again in heartbeat, but the mosquitoes are disinvited.
Travel to St. John – Most of you know the drill. We flew from DCA Washington National on Spirit Air via Ft. Lauderdale. Spirit flies out of the old DCA terminal, which is an unreconstructed Eisenhower-era dinosaur. I’m used to showing up at DCA 45 minutes before a flight and walking through security. Not for Spirit Air – give yourself 2 hours. Once on the plane things went fine. In Ft. Lauderdale we ran into friends from the virgin-islands-on-line.com Travel Forum – Ruth (thshopper3, Canadian Ruth), Larry, Woody and Deb. They recognized me from my St. John Spice ball cap. They were to be our frequent companions on the beaches and the pubs. Once on STT, we had beers while we waited for the Charlotte Amalie ferry and got on just in time. In Cruz Bay we said goodbye for now to Canadian Ruth’s crew.
The greeter from VIVA was waiting on the ferry dock. We said hi to Ruth from St. John Spice and headed over to Conrad Sutton’s to pick up our Jeep Liberty. We saw something we’ve never seen before, Mr. Sutton sitting in a chair on their front porch! Mr. Sutton is usually moving at full pace checking-in and checking-out cars. One nice thing about Friday arrival is that things are much calmer in town, since Saturday and Sunday are the busy arrival days. Susan set us up in a couple of minutes and we were off to Villa Callaloo.
Pete, the villa caretaker, met us at the turn off to Iron Wood Road on the way down to Coral Bay. A quick ride up and over the hill on mostly level traversing roads took us to the villa at the end of the road. Callaloo is in a very private setting with awesome views. It is actually at the end of both Ajax Peak Road and Iron Wood Road. Ajax Peak Road was just recently (the week before) paved through to the house. It is a steeper and longer drive. But, if you are planning on heading West when you leave the house it is a little bit faster. We stuck to Iron Wood Road primarily. We walked through the house with Pete, dropped our gear off and headed to Cruz Bay.
First Night – Friday Night – Forum Party at the Beach Bar
We headed to Cruz Bay to meet up with folks from the virgin-islands-on-line.com Travel Forum for a party at the Beach Bar. This really was a fun time. Canadian Ruth (thshopper3) and Michelle (bugblu98) made very cute name tags. I thought this was a horribly geaky idea and was quite skeptical, but the execution was so cool that bartender Stacey asked for one. There was a very good turn out and we had fun telling forum stories, commiserating with the folks who were getting ready to leave and sharing the excitement of the folks newly on island. The forum folks that I can remember attending are Joann (JoAnnVA), Kathy (2catlimit), Canadian Ruth’s gang, Mark, Laurie, Tina and Tim (of the extended stay story) – I know there were more, but I didn’t write it down while we were there. Ruth from St. John Spice stopped in for a drink and a chat.
Meeting the forum gang was a great way to kickstart the trip. We ran into folks all week that we met that night, notably Canadian Ruth’s gang and Mark’s gang – Marie and Jaqui. Seeing and playing with island and forum friends was a great part of this trip.
After the Beach Bar, we hit Pine Peace Market just before they closed for the most needful items – Rum, Pepsi, limes, ice, water and breakfast items. Since it was just the two of us we ate most of our meals out, excepting breakfast. I usually plan on spending $500 per week while on island for food, drinks and activities. This time the total was $900.
Back to the house for drinks and lounging on the patio watching the Coral Bay light show. The ride along Centerline Road was fine. I find driving on St. John at night to be okay since I know the roads so well. I think it’s safe as long as I observe the 20mph speed limit and keep and eye out for other drivers.
Cheers, RickG
April 27 – May 4, 2007
Villa Callaloo
Pictures: http://travel.webshots.com/album/558983125tMHwsU
Summary – After trips of increasing size bringing more and more newbies to St. John, we outdid ourselves with the Gang of 24 Thanksgiving 2006 trip with the whole extended family. Sweet Christine and I were rather worn out by successive big family trips. The genesis of this trip was the simple question: “Why don’t we do anything with just the two of us anymore?” Why, indeed, not? For, 2 is a perfect number.
This trip report is written at the level of detail that I prefer to read – lots of details. It is written in newspaper pyramid format, so you can read the first paragraph from each day and understand what the day was about and then choose to read further if you wish.
Villa – Villa Callaloo is a delightful 3 bedroom with loft/4 bathroom West Indian cottage on Ajax Peak above Coral Bay facing East/Southeast. The great house with loft and two of the cottages are completely open – no screens, with large folding louvered doors. The effect is more like being in a large open air lanai than in a bedroom. Each of the open air bedrooms has mosquito netting and one bedroom, in the lower level of the main cottage, has screened windows. The appointments are not luxurious, but they are solid and comfortable. The views are extraordinary and the landscaping is some of the best that we have ever seen. Thanks to the Cingular tower across the valley on Bordeaux Mountain, we had better cell phone and mobile data access than we get at home.
One advantage of a 20+ year old house is that the landscaping is well established. There must have been 10 mature banana trees, some fruit bearing, an enormous kapok tree, a very large turpentine tree and a large collection of flower bearing and very green shrubs. The swimming pool was on the lowest level and provided great views of the mountain sides as well as a very private setting. You can occasionally hear the traffic going back and forth to Coral Bay, but we had only one early morning awakening as someone was pulled over by police below our villa.
We had one major challenge during our stay – mosquitoes. During the week prior to our stay, St. John experienced torrential rains. 7 days after the rains started, in one of nature’s easily anticipated cycles, the mosquitoes came out. We happened to be staying at Villa Callaloo when the mosquitoes peaked in a very big way – more mosquitoes than locals had seen in years. We solved this problem by moving to the screened bedroom, wearing lots of bug spray, burning mosquito coils and never standing still while exposed in the great house. We would stay at Villa Callaloo again in heartbeat, but the mosquitoes are disinvited.
Travel to St. John – Most of you know the drill. We flew from DCA Washington National on Spirit Air via Ft. Lauderdale. Spirit flies out of the old DCA terminal, which is an unreconstructed Eisenhower-era dinosaur. I’m used to showing up at DCA 45 minutes before a flight and walking through security. Not for Spirit Air – give yourself 2 hours. Once on the plane things went fine. In Ft. Lauderdale we ran into friends from the virgin-islands-on-line.com Travel Forum – Ruth (thshopper3, Canadian Ruth), Larry, Woody and Deb. They recognized me from my St. John Spice ball cap. They were to be our frequent companions on the beaches and the pubs. Once on STT, we had beers while we waited for the Charlotte Amalie ferry and got on just in time. In Cruz Bay we said goodbye for now to Canadian Ruth’s crew.
The greeter from VIVA was waiting on the ferry dock. We said hi to Ruth from St. John Spice and headed over to Conrad Sutton’s to pick up our Jeep Liberty. We saw something we’ve never seen before, Mr. Sutton sitting in a chair on their front porch! Mr. Sutton is usually moving at full pace checking-in and checking-out cars. One nice thing about Friday arrival is that things are much calmer in town, since Saturday and Sunday are the busy arrival days. Susan set us up in a couple of minutes and we were off to Villa Callaloo.
Pete, the villa caretaker, met us at the turn off to Iron Wood Road on the way down to Coral Bay. A quick ride up and over the hill on mostly level traversing roads took us to the villa at the end of the road. Callaloo is in a very private setting with awesome views. It is actually at the end of both Ajax Peak Road and Iron Wood Road. Ajax Peak Road was just recently (the week before) paved through to the house. It is a steeper and longer drive. But, if you are planning on heading West when you leave the house it is a little bit faster. We stuck to Iron Wood Road primarily. We walked through the house with Pete, dropped our gear off and headed to Cruz Bay.
First Night – Friday Night – Forum Party at the Beach Bar
We headed to Cruz Bay to meet up with folks from the virgin-islands-on-line.com Travel Forum for a party at the Beach Bar. This really was a fun time. Canadian Ruth (thshopper3) and Michelle (bugblu98) made very cute name tags. I thought this was a horribly geaky idea and was quite skeptical, but the execution was so cool that bartender Stacey asked for one. There was a very good turn out and we had fun telling forum stories, commiserating with the folks who were getting ready to leave and sharing the excitement of the folks newly on island. The forum folks that I can remember attending are Joann (JoAnnVA), Kathy (2catlimit), Canadian Ruth’s gang, Mark, Laurie, Tina and Tim (of the extended stay story) – I know there were more, but I didn’t write it down while we were there. Ruth from St. John Spice stopped in for a drink and a chat.
Meeting the forum gang was a great way to kickstart the trip. We ran into folks all week that we met that night, notably Canadian Ruth’s gang and Mark’s gang – Marie and Jaqui. Seeing and playing with island and forum friends was a great part of this trip.
After the Beach Bar, we hit Pine Peace Market just before they closed for the most needful items – Rum, Pepsi, limes, ice, water and breakfast items. Since it was just the two of us we ate most of our meals out, excepting breakfast. I usually plan on spending $500 per week while on island for food, drinks and activities. This time the total was $900.
Back to the house for drinks and lounging on the patio watching the Coral Bay light show. The ride along Centerline Road was fine. I find driving on St. John at night to be okay since I know the roads so well. I think it’s safe as long as I observe the 20mph speed limit and keep and eye out for other drivers.
Cheers, RickG
We ended up staying two extra days cause our Philly flight was cancelled on Sunday. Kept looking for you at Beach Bar last two nights, but didn't see you.
