St. John US Virgin Islands

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We had planned on visiting Mexico's Yucatan region but a bad hurricane damaged Cancun and our flight was cancelled. So in the span of a day, we replanned our trip to visit the US Virgin Islands. A quick glance at the map showed it had a national park which is always a major gravitational pull for us photo buffs. Since it was the off season, we didn't have any problems making the other arrangements at the last second and everything worked out great. (click on photos to enlarge)

The U.S. Virgin Islands are an American territory located just east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.

We flew into St Thomas which is a cruise ship mecca and also has many posh resorts. We then took a ferry over to the island of St. John which is a bit out of the rat race but still a busy little island. Click on map to enlarge.

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St. John is home to Virgin Islands National Park which covers about 2/3 of the island so development hasn't consumed it like St. Thomas.

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We rented a villa above the main town of Cruz Bay. It was high on the mountain side in the jungle.

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We had a good view down to the isles to the west

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Due to the mountainous layout of the island, roads snaked their way up ridiculously steep grades to commanding views like this one of the peaceful east side settlement of Coral Bay.

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There were lots of lizards, frogs, and other creepy crawlers that made quite a ruckus at night like thousands of crickets. Something has to eat all those things and its seems that iguanas are up to the task.

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St John is a small island, about 8 miles tip to tail, but has dozens of pristine beaches and good snorkling right from shore. We swam out to this little cay in calm warm waters to visit a reef complex.

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There was lots to see under water.

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Sharon got spooked by a stingray and Chris managed to find it and get some action pics and movies.

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A picture is worth a thousand words!!!

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We rented a kayak one afternoon and paddled a mile out to a small island to explore another reef. This photo may be our first ever self timer boat shot!

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Due to its plantation history, there are many historic ruins dotting the island like this castle looking old wind mill which was used to grind sugarcane back in the day

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The main port was the west side town of Cruz Bay which has a busy harbor. We ate at a nice restaurant overlooking the bay at sunset.

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On the last day we had some time before our flight and visited a marine park called Coral World on St Thomas. It has many excellent coral exhibits and samplings of all the sea life of the area. Including a stingray pool where you can help at feeding time!

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