Part II: Don't the donkeys hang out in Coral Bay? (photos)
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:17 am
Part 2: Don't the donkeys hang out near Coral Bay?
My first installment was chock full of "just the facts." I got ahead of myself, but it's time to back up. So, I'll start at the logical point: the beginning.
Day One: Friday, July 6th
We arrived on the 3:00 ferry and quickly got our jeep from St. John Car Rental. Since it is low season and we arrived on a Friday, everything moved quickly. In fact, I was surprised at how fast the service on St.
John is. I expected true "island time," but we never found that. The difference in service times between St. John and St. Martin is striking - much faster at restaurants, bars, stores - everywhere.
We are experienced Caribbean travelers and understand the importance of pleasantries to the Caribbean resident. We were still shocked at how well a "good morning" or "good afternoon" was received. Honestly, we never met a "local" - whether an American ex-pat or a native West Indian - with a bad attitude. That's not to say we experienced perfect service (wait until you hear about Morgan's Mango) but we can't say service was ever rude, because it wasn't.
After stocking up on sunscreen, water and basic snacks at Starfish/Chelsea, we headed down heart attack hill to Coconut Coast. If you don't know what hill I'm talking about, you don't want to know. Trust me. It just doesn't seem possible that a vehicle could make it down (or up) that hill. It defies all sorts of gravity and physics laws.
After check-in, we enjoyed the better part of a bottle of Shiraz and decided to head into town for sunset and dinner. Along the way, we found Elaine Estern's studio and took an artistic photo of our own:
We walked into town and stumbled into the first watering hole we came upon that looked suitable for two shady city dwellers: The Beach Bar. Little did we know the first would be our favorite. This place has it all my friends: a cast of local drunks, arguing tourist couples, good food, bartenders who are nice, bartenders who are moody, Trivial Pursuit cards (albeit ones from 1978), and a killer sunset. Oh, and a really good mango margarita. We watched our first sunset here and met a nice couple ending their honeymoon the next day. Suckers.
Dinner that night was at Rhumblines. We stumbled in (yes, at that point, we were deep in our cups and starving after barely eating all day), and the menu looked acceptable, so down we sat. I plied my parched body with water while my husband ordered a tasty Virgin Islands Pale Ale. I had the special pad thai (yummy), my husband had the pork, dinner and service were both good. We took a taxi home and called it a night... only after I slipped out of the taxi and nearly busted my tail. The morning wasn't going to come easily.
Day Two: Saturday, July 7th:
Suprisingly, the morning did come easily. I awoke at the startling hour of 5:30 AM to a bird chirping loudly and couldn't seem to find rest. My husband was sleeping soundly enough for both of us. Jerk.
I enjoyed the morning on the balcony and got ready before waking him around 7:30. We went to Baked in the Sun and enjoyed delicious bagel sandwiches as we watched the microcosm that is "The Marketplace" come to life. Baked in the Sun became our favorite breakfast haunt during the week and many lunch sandwiches came from there as well. We much preferred it to Deli Grotto (I know -- sacrilege!) but to each his own.
After checking out of Coconut Coast and checking our bags at the Westin, we headed out for our first St.
John beach adventure. This was a glorious, sunny day, and we picked a classic St. John beach to start with:
Maho Bay.
We arrived and set up near the far end of the beach, away from the mysterious teal house. After restlessly trying to read for 30 minutes, we looked at each other and said "ready to snorkel?" We went out for a good 40 minutes the first time and were amazed at the variety of fish life we saw. I was ready for a turtle encounter, but we weren't so lucky our first time out.
No bother, there is plenty of time to find both turtles and donkeys.
We went back and made friends with our beach neighbors, who informed us they saw a big turtle hanging out by the swim bouys in the middle of the bay. We quickly headed back out and sought out Monsieur Turtle. After about 15 minutes, we weren't having luck and I was truly getting discouraged. My husband split off closer to the beach and I was swimming by myself searching the bottom when I caught something in my upper periphery.
I looked up and was face-to-face with a giant sea turtle.
I'd expected to find him on the bottom and was surprised to see him up for air. I called my husband over and we hovered for a good fifteen minutes. While I can't "technically" say this dude was as big as a Honda Civic (that was a bit of pepper thrown in to add spice to the story), he was a good three to four feet across. It was an amazing creature and a memorable experience.
Here's a poor, disposible camera shot of Monsieur Turtle #1:
When we got back to the beach, a guy had discovered a trunkfish hanging out near the shore. If you wiggled your fingers, he'd chase them, and as the fish went by, he'd let you pet his back. We "hung out" (if you can really hang out with a fish) for about 30 minutes and got some cool photos:
Turtle: check. Rockin' Trunkfish: check. Donkeys:
None.
We wound up our beach day early and headed to Cruz Bay for lunch. We found ourselves at Sun Dog Cafe and had a great lunch. I had the Veggie Burger with the best pasta salad ever and my husband had a plain "moo" burger. Both were great and we enjoyed our lunch. We went back to the Westin, checked in, enjoyed the pool for the afternoon and headed out for drinks and dinner.
We had "limin' coconut" drinks at the Balcony before heading elsewhere for dinner. BTW, I was told by a local while having drinks that many of the donkeys were captured and taken to St. Croix and Dominica, so the numbers are diminished. But surely not, everyone reports seeing them!
We would up at Morgan Mango's and got the last empty table without a reservation. We should have taken the hint and left then. Our waitress had five tables, one a seventeen top, AND she got triple sat. Needless to say, we were low on her priority list. Again, I can't say she was rude, but understanding goes only so far. No refills, no bread, no acknowledgement... it wasn't our favorite dining experience. The food was good. Since we were full of limin' coconuts at this point, we went light and split the Mahi. The food was good, but our waitress was bad. She was nice enough, but never apologized, even after we acknowledged "tough night, huh?". Ah well, you can't win them all.
Day Three, Sunday, July 8th:
We got up early (sensing a trend here? really, we're have 60-year old biological clocks in 30-year old
bodies) and had breakfast at Deli Grotto. Today was Annaberg/Leinster/Waterlemon Cay.
We got the chance to view the ruins by ourselves and took some great photos:
In this photo, my husband asked me to "do something."
What he got was a bastardized cheerleading jump... I'm 30, okay? Things don't bend like they used to. And yes, I'm the only girl you'll ever meet who hikes in a dress.
We set off on the lovely Leinster Bay Trail. Being in decent shape and not a whiny sort, we rather enjoyed the walk. Along with way we saw donkey poo, which I thought was promising. I was wrong. Soon enough we arrived at Leinster Beach. I personally loved this beach (especially the donkey prints ON THE BEACH). I know the sand is nothing to write home about and the water is full of seagrass, but it is a lovely place. We quickly headed out to snorkel Waterlemon Cay as it appeared sea conditions were calm.
Almost immediately upon entering the water, we were surrounded by a school of small silver feeder fish.
There had to be millions of them. Here's a photo of my husband in the fish:
It took a while to get out to the crossing to Waterlemon, and as we headed across we spotted a ray buried in the sand and another large sea turtle. We watched this guy (girl?) twist and thrash in an attempt to get a ramora off his back. He had two on him and clearly wasn't happy about the perceived parasitic relationship going on.
We snorkeled around Waterlemon but never saw the famed starfish bed. We did see three swimming rays though, and that was cool. Back we swam toward Leinster... you know, a casual 80 minute snorkel, round trip.
Sea turtle #2: check. Rays: check. Donkeys: none.
When we got back to the beach we heard a rustling in the trees behind us. We turn around and two frisky mongeese (is that right?) were advancing on our neighbor's bag. We warned them to watch their food, but they only encouraged the behavior by luring the little guys with nuts. We got some good shots at these brave mongeese. Here's one:
Mongoose: check.
We decided to leave around noon and head to Coral Bay for lunch. After all, don't the donkeys hang out in Coral Bay? We drove around, still donkey free even as we passed the "Donkey Diner" and decided to hit Skinny Leg's. We made ourselves at home and had our first painkillers. Food was great, met some nice folks and saw about forty goats cross the parking lot.
Goats: check. Donkeys: none. Are you sensing a trend yet?
On the way back to the Westin later that afternoon, we rounded a corner and almost hit this little lady:
You can't say the St. John wildlife is boring, can you?
Cow: check. Donkeys: still none.
We had our New Horizons II trip the next day, so we took it easy on Sunday night. We had a hard time finding a place that was still serving dinner when we made it out around 8:30. We ended up a Panini Beach and had a passable Caesar, bland fried raviolis, and possibly the worst cheese pizza ever made. Really, a Totino's would have been better. It was my least favorite meal of the trip and I really can't recommend this place. It gets a pass in my book.
Day Four: Monday, July 9th:
Today we booked our BVI trip with New Horizons. We ended up getting placed on Breakaway as NH II was booked with what appeared to be a private group. At first I was disappointed, but seas were running high that day and I was glad we were in the larger boat. Swells were about 4-6 feet on the way to Virgin Gorda and a few folks were looking green. I was fine, but I was glad it didn't get worse.
We arrived at the Baths and swam in. One guy ignored the advice to swim in with fins and found himself in distress about halfway to shore. It was scary and my husband and couple of other guys had to help him to a rock. Lesson learned: the sea, even the Caribbean, is not a pool. Fins help, use them if given the option.
I am glad we saw the Baths, but I was not so moved by them that I have to return. They are cool, but quite crowded. I guess the secrets out, huh?
After the Baths, we hit Camanoe Island for snorkeling. The reef was incredibly developed and had beautiful coral. The seas were a bit rough and the snorkeling is not located in a protective cove, so it was more difficult than our previous snorkel adventures. I was tired of getting sloshed around, so I ended up getting a noodle partway through. I almost ran headfirst into a jellyfish before my husband saw him and pushed me out of the way. I was done and got back on the boat.
Lunch at Marina Cay was tasty. I had a painkiller and the Chicken Roti and can report that both were excellent vittles.
Our final stop was Jost Van Dyke. I've heard a lot about this island but never really understood the allure. It sounded like Shoal Bay East on Anguilla to me but without a developed island to go to should you get bored. After visiting, I can understand the appeal. White Bay must be one of the most spectacular stretches of sand in the Caribbean. The folks at Soggy Dollar were unfailingly friendly (except the shop girl, but my husband was able to win her over with his jokes and commiserating about working in a t-shirt store, which he did in college). The painkillers were indeed the best I had on my trip... the only problem was our time was too short. Before I knew it we were being called back to the boat.
We really enjoyed our day on Breakaway. We met some great people and enjoyed the stops, but the ride around the islands was by far the highlight of the trip for me. I honestly wish the trip skipped the snorkel stop and gave you more time at The Baths and Jost. When I get to own my own charter boat, I guess then I get to make the rules, huh?
A shot of Breakaway from White Bay:
That night we met up at Woody's with some friends we met on the boat. It was our first Woody's visit (the place was closed the first few nights of our trip) and I'd heard so much about Woody's I was excited to try it. I think I'm a Beach Bar gal... Woody's doesn't appeal. It's small, crowded, hot and people spill onto the street. You end up having to dodge cars or sit by a dumpster. I don't know, I didn't get it. The Beach Bar it is for me from now on.
Well folks, that concludes the first half of our trip. I think I covered all promised topics. In our next installment, you'll get to hear about Gibney, our experience dodging security at Caneel, Asolare, Zozo's, Trunk Bay, and our search for those wild ass*s.
Oh, here's a little fella we found at the Westin. He was five inches long and we nearly stepped on him. Wouldn't have been pretty.
My first installment was chock full of "just the facts." I got ahead of myself, but it's time to back up. So, I'll start at the logical point: the beginning.
Day One: Friday, July 6th
We arrived on the 3:00 ferry and quickly got our jeep from St. John Car Rental. Since it is low season and we arrived on a Friday, everything moved quickly. In fact, I was surprised at how fast the service on St.
John is. I expected true "island time," but we never found that. The difference in service times between St. John and St. Martin is striking - much faster at restaurants, bars, stores - everywhere.
We are experienced Caribbean travelers and understand the importance of pleasantries to the Caribbean resident. We were still shocked at how well a "good morning" or "good afternoon" was received. Honestly, we never met a "local" - whether an American ex-pat or a native West Indian - with a bad attitude. That's not to say we experienced perfect service (wait until you hear about Morgan's Mango) but we can't say service was ever rude, because it wasn't.
After stocking up on sunscreen, water and basic snacks at Starfish/Chelsea, we headed down heart attack hill to Coconut Coast. If you don't know what hill I'm talking about, you don't want to know. Trust me. It just doesn't seem possible that a vehicle could make it down (or up) that hill. It defies all sorts of gravity and physics laws.
After check-in, we enjoyed the better part of a bottle of Shiraz and decided to head into town for sunset and dinner. Along the way, we found Elaine Estern's studio and took an artistic photo of our own:
We walked into town and stumbled into the first watering hole we came upon that looked suitable for two shady city dwellers: The Beach Bar. Little did we know the first would be our favorite. This place has it all my friends: a cast of local drunks, arguing tourist couples, good food, bartenders who are nice, bartenders who are moody, Trivial Pursuit cards (albeit ones from 1978), and a killer sunset. Oh, and a really good mango margarita. We watched our first sunset here and met a nice couple ending their honeymoon the next day. Suckers.
Dinner that night was at Rhumblines. We stumbled in (yes, at that point, we were deep in our cups and starving after barely eating all day), and the menu looked acceptable, so down we sat. I plied my parched body with water while my husband ordered a tasty Virgin Islands Pale Ale. I had the special pad thai (yummy), my husband had the pork, dinner and service were both good. We took a taxi home and called it a night... only after I slipped out of the taxi and nearly busted my tail. The morning wasn't going to come easily.
Day Two: Saturday, July 7th:
Suprisingly, the morning did come easily. I awoke at the startling hour of 5:30 AM to a bird chirping loudly and couldn't seem to find rest. My husband was sleeping soundly enough for both of us. Jerk.
I enjoyed the morning on the balcony and got ready before waking him around 7:30. We went to Baked in the Sun and enjoyed delicious bagel sandwiches as we watched the microcosm that is "The Marketplace" come to life. Baked in the Sun became our favorite breakfast haunt during the week and many lunch sandwiches came from there as well. We much preferred it to Deli Grotto (I know -- sacrilege!) but to each his own.
After checking out of Coconut Coast and checking our bags at the Westin, we headed out for our first St.
John beach adventure. This was a glorious, sunny day, and we picked a classic St. John beach to start with:
Maho Bay.
We arrived and set up near the far end of the beach, away from the mysterious teal house. After restlessly trying to read for 30 minutes, we looked at each other and said "ready to snorkel?" We went out for a good 40 minutes the first time and were amazed at the variety of fish life we saw. I was ready for a turtle encounter, but we weren't so lucky our first time out.
No bother, there is plenty of time to find both turtles and donkeys.
We went back and made friends with our beach neighbors, who informed us they saw a big turtle hanging out by the swim bouys in the middle of the bay. We quickly headed back out and sought out Monsieur Turtle. After about 15 minutes, we weren't having luck and I was truly getting discouraged. My husband split off closer to the beach and I was swimming by myself searching the bottom when I caught something in my upper periphery.
I looked up and was face-to-face with a giant sea turtle.
I'd expected to find him on the bottom and was surprised to see him up for air. I called my husband over and we hovered for a good fifteen minutes. While I can't "technically" say this dude was as big as a Honda Civic (that was a bit of pepper thrown in to add spice to the story), he was a good three to four feet across. It was an amazing creature and a memorable experience.
Here's a poor, disposible camera shot of Monsieur Turtle #1:
When we got back to the beach, a guy had discovered a trunkfish hanging out near the shore. If you wiggled your fingers, he'd chase them, and as the fish went by, he'd let you pet his back. We "hung out" (if you can really hang out with a fish) for about 30 minutes and got some cool photos:
Turtle: check. Rockin' Trunkfish: check. Donkeys:
None.
We wound up our beach day early and headed to Cruz Bay for lunch. We found ourselves at Sun Dog Cafe and had a great lunch. I had the Veggie Burger with the best pasta salad ever and my husband had a plain "moo" burger. Both were great and we enjoyed our lunch. We went back to the Westin, checked in, enjoyed the pool for the afternoon and headed out for drinks and dinner.
We had "limin' coconut" drinks at the Balcony before heading elsewhere for dinner. BTW, I was told by a local while having drinks that many of the donkeys were captured and taken to St. Croix and Dominica, so the numbers are diminished. But surely not, everyone reports seeing them!
We would up at Morgan Mango's and got the last empty table without a reservation. We should have taken the hint and left then. Our waitress had five tables, one a seventeen top, AND she got triple sat. Needless to say, we were low on her priority list. Again, I can't say she was rude, but understanding goes only so far. No refills, no bread, no acknowledgement... it wasn't our favorite dining experience. The food was good. Since we were full of limin' coconuts at this point, we went light and split the Mahi. The food was good, but our waitress was bad. She was nice enough, but never apologized, even after we acknowledged "tough night, huh?". Ah well, you can't win them all.
Day Three, Sunday, July 8th:
We got up early (sensing a trend here? really, we're have 60-year old biological clocks in 30-year old
bodies) and had breakfast at Deli Grotto. Today was Annaberg/Leinster/Waterlemon Cay.
We got the chance to view the ruins by ourselves and took some great photos:
In this photo, my husband asked me to "do something."
What he got was a bastardized cheerleading jump... I'm 30, okay? Things don't bend like they used to. And yes, I'm the only girl you'll ever meet who hikes in a dress.
We set off on the lovely Leinster Bay Trail. Being in decent shape and not a whiny sort, we rather enjoyed the walk. Along with way we saw donkey poo, which I thought was promising. I was wrong. Soon enough we arrived at Leinster Beach. I personally loved this beach (especially the donkey prints ON THE BEACH). I know the sand is nothing to write home about and the water is full of seagrass, but it is a lovely place. We quickly headed out to snorkel Waterlemon Cay as it appeared sea conditions were calm.
Almost immediately upon entering the water, we were surrounded by a school of small silver feeder fish.
There had to be millions of them. Here's a photo of my husband in the fish:
It took a while to get out to the crossing to Waterlemon, and as we headed across we spotted a ray buried in the sand and another large sea turtle. We watched this guy (girl?) twist and thrash in an attempt to get a ramora off his back. He had two on him and clearly wasn't happy about the perceived parasitic relationship going on.
We snorkeled around Waterlemon but never saw the famed starfish bed. We did see three swimming rays though, and that was cool. Back we swam toward Leinster... you know, a casual 80 minute snorkel, round trip.
Sea turtle #2: check. Rays: check. Donkeys: none.
When we got back to the beach we heard a rustling in the trees behind us. We turn around and two frisky mongeese (is that right?) were advancing on our neighbor's bag. We warned them to watch their food, but they only encouraged the behavior by luring the little guys with nuts. We got some good shots at these brave mongeese. Here's one:
Mongoose: check.
We decided to leave around noon and head to Coral Bay for lunch. After all, don't the donkeys hang out in Coral Bay? We drove around, still donkey free even as we passed the "Donkey Diner" and decided to hit Skinny Leg's. We made ourselves at home and had our first painkillers. Food was great, met some nice folks and saw about forty goats cross the parking lot.
Goats: check. Donkeys: none. Are you sensing a trend yet?
On the way back to the Westin later that afternoon, we rounded a corner and almost hit this little lady:
You can't say the St. John wildlife is boring, can you?
Cow: check. Donkeys: still none.
We had our New Horizons II trip the next day, so we took it easy on Sunday night. We had a hard time finding a place that was still serving dinner when we made it out around 8:30. We ended up a Panini Beach and had a passable Caesar, bland fried raviolis, and possibly the worst cheese pizza ever made. Really, a Totino's would have been better. It was my least favorite meal of the trip and I really can't recommend this place. It gets a pass in my book.
Day Four: Monday, July 9th:
Today we booked our BVI trip with New Horizons. We ended up getting placed on Breakaway as NH II was booked with what appeared to be a private group. At first I was disappointed, but seas were running high that day and I was glad we were in the larger boat. Swells were about 4-6 feet on the way to Virgin Gorda and a few folks were looking green. I was fine, but I was glad it didn't get worse.
We arrived at the Baths and swam in. One guy ignored the advice to swim in with fins and found himself in distress about halfway to shore. It was scary and my husband and couple of other guys had to help him to a rock. Lesson learned: the sea, even the Caribbean, is not a pool. Fins help, use them if given the option.
I am glad we saw the Baths, but I was not so moved by them that I have to return. They are cool, but quite crowded. I guess the secrets out, huh?
After the Baths, we hit Camanoe Island for snorkeling. The reef was incredibly developed and had beautiful coral. The seas were a bit rough and the snorkeling is not located in a protective cove, so it was more difficult than our previous snorkel adventures. I was tired of getting sloshed around, so I ended up getting a noodle partway through. I almost ran headfirst into a jellyfish before my husband saw him and pushed me out of the way. I was done and got back on the boat.
Lunch at Marina Cay was tasty. I had a painkiller and the Chicken Roti and can report that both were excellent vittles.
Our final stop was Jost Van Dyke. I've heard a lot about this island but never really understood the allure. It sounded like Shoal Bay East on Anguilla to me but without a developed island to go to should you get bored. After visiting, I can understand the appeal. White Bay must be one of the most spectacular stretches of sand in the Caribbean. The folks at Soggy Dollar were unfailingly friendly (except the shop girl, but my husband was able to win her over with his jokes and commiserating about working in a t-shirt store, which he did in college). The painkillers were indeed the best I had on my trip... the only problem was our time was too short. Before I knew it we were being called back to the boat.
We really enjoyed our day on Breakaway. We met some great people and enjoyed the stops, but the ride around the islands was by far the highlight of the trip for me. I honestly wish the trip skipped the snorkel stop and gave you more time at The Baths and Jost. When I get to own my own charter boat, I guess then I get to make the rules, huh?
A shot of Breakaway from White Bay:
That night we met up at Woody's with some friends we met on the boat. It was our first Woody's visit (the place was closed the first few nights of our trip) and I'd heard so much about Woody's I was excited to try it. I think I'm a Beach Bar gal... Woody's doesn't appeal. It's small, crowded, hot and people spill onto the street. You end up having to dodge cars or sit by a dumpster. I don't know, I didn't get it. The Beach Bar it is for me from now on.
Well folks, that concludes the first half of our trip. I think I covered all promised topics. In our next installment, you'll get to hear about Gibney, our experience dodging security at Caneel, Asolare, Zozo's, Trunk Bay, and our search for those wild ass*s.
Oh, here's a little fella we found at the Westin. He was five inches long and we nearly stepped on him. Wouldn't have been pretty.
