St. Thomas

Breakfast in the main dining room, where another passenger recognized us and joked with us about last night's trivia game.

And then it was time to head to shore.  Our adventure today began with a ferry ride to St. John.   What's interesting about the Virgin Islands is how close most of the islands are to each other, while we were headed to St. John, another group from our ship was headed to Tortola, a part of the British Virgin Islands, which we could see from our boat.

We also saw celebrity homes -- Michael Jordan, Alan Alda, Kenny Chesney and Madonna all vacation in the Virgin Islands.    And the owner of the White Castle chain has a home here -- a white castle.  Go figure.

And, of course, there's Pillsbury Bay, where the Carribean Sea meets the Atlantiv Ocean.

Music: a reprise of "La Isla Bonita". 

2/3 of St. John is pristine parkland owned by the National Park Service.  The rest appears to be modern luxury resorts.  We took a safari bus ride up the mountain, stopping frequently at lookout points for views of white sand beaches, blue waters and distant islands. 

Interestingly, although this is an American protectorate, they drive on the left side of the road -- the islands used to be British. 

Our tour guide told us you need a passport to travel to the British islands.

The highlight of the tour was the ruins of a sugar plantation.  I've seen many old forts and churches and etc., but this was my first sugar plantation.

And as I was walking back to the bus I saw a mongoose!  The sugar cane planters imported mongoose from India into the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, hoping the mongoose would control the rat population in the cane fields.  The mongoose have made themselves at home in these islands.

Now, I'm sure I've seen a mongoose in the zoo, but to encounter one on the road . . .and this one gave me a look, as if to say "This is my home, but what are you doing here?"

Before long it was time to ferry back to St. Thomas, where we headed for the shopping mall.

Music:  "Mermaid", by Train

There's a lovely sculpture in Denmark, it sits in the harbor in Copenhagen.  It's Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid. 

In the shopping mall in St. Thomas there's a fountain with a scaled-down replica of the famous statue.  It's pretty.  But it's the only sculpture in the mall and I don't know why they chose it. 

A word about security, customs and travelling to other countries.  Before the ship sailed from Miami each passenger had to provide Carnival with a passport or birth certificate, and those over 16 had to produce photo i. d. That was apparently sufficient for the governments of Grand Turk and St. Maarten, all you needed to show was your ship i.d. card to return to the ship.

But Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are different.   You need to show your photo i. d.  As we returned to the ship we saw a whole group of people who'd forgotten to bring their photo i.d., and were having a difficult time of it.

Music:  "Grapefruit, Juicy Fruit" by Jimmy Buffett

The evening's entertainment was a magician named Bob, who did 45 minutes of sleight of hand laced with comedy.   When he asked for a volunteer, the pirate king's hand went up.  He had to give a $20 bill to another audience member, who placed it in a sealed envelope, which she held for the duration of the show.  In exchange, the pirate king was given a grapefruit.  Periodically Bob would ask "Who's got the grapefruit?" and the king woukd stand up and reply "I've got the grapefruit!"  At the end of the show, the $20 wound up inside the grapefruit.

I expect  to hear grapefruit jokes from fellow passengers tomorrow.

Dinner in the main dining room, as usual.  Could barely keep my eyes open -- until the waitstaff danced to "Moves Like Jagger".  That certainly woke me up.

But we did call it a night right after dinner . . .