As we came
into port I thought a mistake had been made and we were on our way down the
Derwent River and I was seeing the Sandy Bay Yacht Club, with a lot less
yachts, but no it was Charlotte Amalie – this sounds so lovely said with a
French accent.
It is a very
pretty setting with the town and houses set around the bay. But before we could disembark for the first
time onto USA territory we all, even the USA citizens, had to present their
passports and us foreigners had to fill in more paper work to hand in to be
stamped as well as showing our ESTA paperwork.
With nearly 4,000 passengers this took a little time. It was actually fairly well organised and we
were right to go by 10.45am. Den didn’t
feel well enough to go off the ship so he headed back to the cabin and bed. The three of us went off to see what St Thomas
Island had to offer.
The heat
struck us straight away. We opted for a
taxi into down town. These taxis were a
cross between a ute and a truck with five rows of seats, each seat could hold 4
people. They were everywhere, all shapes
and sizes and ages. We arrived downtown
in about 15 minutes. The cars here are
interesting – the cars have the steering wheel and driver the same as USA but
they drive on the same side of the road as we do in Australia. Seems crazy, and when our driver nearly
collided with a motor bike he couldn’t see it seemed even crazier.
We headed
for a café, one with free WiFi. We hit
the jackpot when we found one that was air-conditioned as well. We stayed on and had some lunch as well as
the cool drink that had brought us in.
We then went
for a wander around the town. More
jewellery shops, cigars and rum but at least these shops were not so busy
trying to hassle you. We wandered up and
down some of the little alley lane ways.
The brick work and plants were really attractive. Some of the alley ways the shops had arched
wooden doors that closed completely over the entrance of the shops at
night. We went into one Antique shop
which was selling necklaces and earrings made from glass which was dated back
to 100bc or 300ad etc. It was really
interesting and quite intriguing. They
were priced around the $200 - $400 range with ear rings around $50 to
$150. I was tempted but didn’t buy any.
We wandered
a bit more and then decided to head back to the ship. We managed to get an air-conditioned maxi
taxi. There was a bit of a traffic jam
and so we were glad to be in a cooled car rather than the back of an open
ute/converted taxi.
It was a
party atmosphere this evening as the other cruise ship left port half an hour
before us. It was lovely with the
passengers on their ship and us on ours waving and cheering as they sailed out.
It was a
nice day but we all hope that tomorrow we will all be well and the four of us
will be able to venture out to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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