USVI-On-Line

I see on the Carefree Getaways site they are showing a villa called Monkey No Climb as "coming this spring". Anyone know anything about it?

I am not sure but the pic is the same pic as Morgan Point.

yes I noticed that as well.

Good Afternoon All,

I am a sometimes poster to this website and I am the owner of Monkey No Climb. We just signed with Carefree and we will probably have photos from our house up in the next month or two. Carefree wants to start out listing it for $1,750 a week, off season. The house is a new two bed/two bath, West Indian Style house on Bordeaux Mountain. We are a little over 1,000 up and have open views of Jost Van Dyke, Sandy Cay, Tortola, Coral Bay, Hurricane Hole, down the entire Sir Francis Drake Passage to Virgin Gorda. Quite a sight indeed. We have a spa on a 46'x12'covered porch on the rear of the house. Bright yellow stucco walls with blue metal hip roof. Full kitchen with dishwasher and washer/dryer. We hope to move down and live at least part-time in about six or seven years. I bought the lot the same year the "Bongo Boys" did and I have talked with Jeff for a few years now. We were very fortunate to find an honest very capable builder and believe it or not are ON BUDGET. I can answer any questions you have.

Bart, thanks for responding! Sounds very interesting. Best of luck to you and I look forward to seeing the pictures!
mary beth

Bart Wailes wrote:Good Afternoon All,

I am a sometimes poster to this website and I am the owner of Monkey No Climb. We just signed with Carefree and we will probably have photos from our house up in the next month or two.....

Any teaser photo you could post here?

I'm not sure how to post a photo on this site. They just updated the Carefree Getaways site with the correct "view" photo this morning. There will be more info on their site in the next few weeks.

Bart--
I think that "Monkey No Climb" is a wonderful name to give a house. How did you decide on it?

Nice view; can't wait to see more.

Bart,

I am in the market for a 2 bedroom later this summer for my 2 college girls and myself. Can you tell me the rate for 3 in late summer and are the bedrooms's ac'd (if you need it) and how hard is the drive, and how far to beaches, Coral Bay, and Cruz Bay?

Thanks a bunch!

Lex,

Five years ago when we received our topo survey of the half acre lot they noted "rock outcropings" and specific trees. One was called a "Monkey No Climb" tree. If you Google monkey no climb you will see why they call it that. Unfortunately, that tree just bit the dusk with a storm a couple of weeks ago so we will be planting a new one later this month. We only removed plants that were in the building/driveway footprint. About 1/3 of the lot hasn't been touched. My wife and I will be going down next month to place furniture and hopefully take care of any remaining concerns.

I looked at the photo of the Monkey No Climb tree. What a great name. Geckos might climb it, but monkeys definitely wouldn't.

I do like the name Monkey No Climb. Some places on STJ have names that I find a little embarrassing or silly or pretentious. I'd be very happy and comfortable to say "We're staying at Monkey No Climb." Perhaps one day we will.

Actually, I've always found the naming of houses a bit odd. Our house here in Massachusetts doesn't have a name, nor do the homes of any of our neighbors. My sister once named a car she owned. We have a good friend living on STJ who has never named her house. The first place we ever rented on STJ didn't have a name. it was out by Maho. A hurricane has since taken it away. It was owned by a guy whose name, if I remember correctly, was something like Willis. It was referred to as Willis' house. It was a nice little West Indian-style cottage.

It's also peculiar that everyplace is now being called a villa. They used to be cottages or homes or houses. I think of villas as luxury Mediterranean dwellings. And a lot of the new structures look more like that than they do something that has to do with the Caribbean. Anyway, I'm pleased that you refer to your place as a West Indian-style home and gave it a nice name like Monkey No Climb. We're definitely West Indian-style cottage people rather than "villa" people and as long as homes seem like they're going to be named, Monkey No Climb is a name that I could be comfortable with.

Where do you actually buy a new Monkey No Climb tree?

Lex and Cypressgirl,

I agree with your observation regarding pretentious villa names. We have been renting houses on St. John for about 15 years and have tried to include all the things we like, yet keep the size at what is needed and nothing more. We love the bright colors, hip roofs, cypress ceilings with exposed beams. The house is a little over 1,100 square feet with a 550 square foot covered porch and spa. It has two king sized beds with A/C in each bedroom.We needed sweatshirts when we were there last month. We have a verbal agreement with Carefree for the off season price to be $1,750. The house is located up Bordeaux Mt. Road/Costanzo road with the turn off to start up the road near Island Blues. You start up a concrete road which half way up goes to dirt for .25 miles and then becomes a concrete switchback that takes you to a concrete estate road. They have just received bids to pave that .25 dirt portion. Hopefully they will start paving this Spring. We drive up slowly in four wheel drive. We are probably twenty minutes to Salt Pond, twenty minutes to Maho and 5 minutes to Coral Bay. If it is wet you need to be more carefull than normal. We will be getting a replacement Monkey No Climb from Veronica from Alfredo's in Cruz Bay.

Sounds like a very nice place - we love the classic Caribbean-style houses.

Congratulations on your home! We love Coral Bay, and we'll be sure to take a look at Monkey No Climb for 2009. It sounds like just the kind of place we love. We're staying at Orchid Knoll on Bordeaux in October.