Our cruise wrapped up with two stops in the US Virgin Islands before we headed home by way of Puerto Rico. Our guides explained that the US bought these islands from Denmark for $25M in gold shortly after the Spanish-American War. True to form for all of the West Indies, the islands were beautiful with plenty of beaches and amazingly clear blue water. The US Virgin Islands also seemed more prosperous than many of the other islands we visited. Prosperity and the creation of wealth are complicated matters to explain, but history shows us that governance is an important ingredient. Before swerving off into a geopolitical discussion, let’s look at some photos:
Some of our fellow passengers went on physically demanding excursions, while others would take a taxi and chill out on the nearest beach as soon as the ship docked in each port. We had tried to find a middle ground, but finally grabbed some beach time on St. Thomas at the place shown above. The water was a little cooler than we expected, but still amazingly clear and calm.My favorite tourist relaxing in the sun. Not to worry; there were shade trees nearby for when the sun became too warm. And not too much of a crowd sharing the beach.View of the harbor, with our cruise ship near the left side of the photo. As noted before, the community looked prosperous compared with other islands, with roads and buildings kept in good repair, hurricanes notwithstanding.More of the harbor, with clear, deep water and sandy beaches.Private yacht moored near our cruise ship; you can see this yacht in the earlier photo showing our cruise ship. The neighborhood was nice, although the island showed the effects of invasion by US restaurants such as McDonalds, Wendy’s, KFC, and so on.Switching islands, here is the old brick fort guarding the harbor at St. Croix. A close view reveals some of the old cannon, still positioned to fight off pirates or invaders. The cruise ship season was winding down, and a surprising number of businesses were already closed or operating under reduced hours.One final view of the clear blue water that surrounds this and the other islands of the West Indies. We hope you enjoyed our cruise vicariously though this series of blog posts. This is certainly a beautiful part of God’s creation!
