Friday, December 16, 2011: St. Thomas, USVI
See all 138 pictures from our 2nd week in the Southern Caribbean
It’s the last stop on our Southern Caribbean itinerary and we’re spending the day seeing the sights and sharing some beach time on our Celebrity Shore Excursion Lovely Island and Beach Tour. We met our tour guide and vehicle for the day (open air safari truck, very common on St. Thomas) just before 9:30am and we head out from the Havensight pier towards our first stop of the day.
Our first stop was actually two sets of lookouts, the first from Barron Point, where we took in the view of the eastern side of the island of St. Thomas. Our driver and guide shared a number of personal stories with us of his upbringing and life on the island as we looked out over a wide expanse of St. Thomas. As we left here, we then had a viewpoint over Crown Bay, looking at downtown Charlottle Amalie, along with a number of the smaller offshore islands, including Hassel and Water Islands.
Our next stop was at the Great House and Botanic Gardens, where we got to spend about 45 minutes walking through the grounds, enjoying a wide variety of tropical plants while avoiding the occasional pass of tropical precipitation. On the property there was also a small aviary with some exceptionally loud birds. These parrots were screeching at the top of their lungs, but were a lot of fun to look at. They even spoke a bit, and it was hilarious watching tourists trying to teach them some new “vocabulary”.
From here, it was a trip up and over the hill, winding our way along the scenic route to Magen’s Bay Beach. We got almost two hours here to just relax and enjoy the sun, sand, and waves. Sharing the beach with us were a few pelicans, diving birds, and iguanas that just added to the tropical feel of the place, and we were able to get some good sun out here as well.
Making our way back to the pier, we took a few minutes at the Havensight mall to explore and then returned to the ship for our final leg back to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It has been a great two weeks in the Caribbean and we had a great time with our family — looking forward to the next opportunity to travel and share the journey with them.
In the meantime, it is back to the San Francisco Bay Area for us, and with the new year just around the corner, its time to start planning The Next Journey… We’ve got some great ideas of where to head next, but would love to hear your suggestions too! Let us know and look for new updates every week on the website!
See all 138 pictures from our 2nd week in the Southern Caribbean
Leave a reply