Paradise is a Puck

Location:
Virgin Islands (us)

By Sia Tiambi Barnes

Her territories are recognized as some of the most beautiful in the world. Once volcanic jade hills, crème sands only blemished by seashells ripe for collection, and clear turquoise-tinted waters is why the U.S. reportedly paid the Danes $25 million in 1917 to claim the Virgin Islands as their own. Now, Americans needn’t a passport to experience her and international travelers are welcomed to join her multicultural history. Yet regardless of origin, paradise will boast a puckish sense of humor if you’re not attentive to her.

The caw of her roosters will awake you from an idle vacation in time to witness the rising of her sun. The tender kiss of her noseeums (mosquitoes) will entice you to her healing waters with no warning for the strength of her tide. But there is no fear of paradise if you learn the patterns of her waves and flirt with her by using your skill of navigation. In fact, the journey between her islands of St. Thomas, St. Johns, St. Croix, Water Island and several mini-lands is mastered by just a short ferry’s ride.

By midday, paradise rewards your patience with the humidity (intensified these days because of global warming) by offering showers of her rain. And if you are adventurous enough to not duck indoors, she will flirt back with you by revealing her impressive triple, sometimes quadrupled rainbow. She’ll allow you to feast off her mangoes and coconuts without duty and excite you with the odd beauty of her iguanas. This is the meaning of love she whispers with her tradewinds.

From the leftovers of the pirates (note: Blackbeard’s Castle that sits atop Government Hill stands as tribute to one of the most notorious of the Caribbean), to the ruins of the slave trade (rum, a popular export made from the distilled juices of the sugarcane is a reminder of the former economy), her surviving lore is not one to be reckoned with.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas – the largest and capital city of the Virgin Islands – is a world-renowned harbor of memories. The Havensite Mall that greets millions of cruise-ship guests is bountiful with jewelry and other treasures like the Dockside Bookstore and Havensite Café. Further in-town, the nightlife is more testament to her willingness to import histories like the Mediterranean cuisines of the Shisha Lounge & Restaurant or the steel drum rhythms of Trinidad and Tobago-an origin. In April, the second largest celebration of the African and European inspired Carnival lasts all month complete with the dance of the moko jumbie (people upon stilts dressed to ward off evil spirits).

Most pleasing, however, is the way strangers will greet you in their English-based dialect encouraged only by the familiarity of walking along the same path. Responding, in whatever your language, is to know that simply paying paradise attention is a natural intoxicant, releasing the dopamine the way alcohol does for the addict. If you just relax here, she’ll explain, you’ll find yourself in whole peace.

Further Information

Other helpful information: Most items have an added tax because of shipping, but tourism is the main source of economy so it is a small price to pay to help maintain the beauty of these beaches!