Position 18:19.06N 64:43.61W

Freewheel
Julian & Anne Whitlock
Fri 12 Mar 2010 01:30
St Johns, USVI
 
We've spent the last week potering round the anchorages of St Johns, which we've found to be a lovely
small island, mostly National Parks with an extensive trail network and bouys in the bays to prevent
damage of the coral reef from anchoring. An honesty system operates - various of the bays have pay
stations and you go ashore and deposit you 15$ a night money/cheque in an envelope with your
boat name..... For that you can deposit one bag of rubbish too!
Our longest walk turned out to be far more strenuous than anticipated because we hadn't noticed the
contours on the map - ie to get from the ruins of the old sugar plantation in our bay to the ancient
petroglyphs (left by the TainoIwho inhabited the islands until the 1400s) involved climbing nearly
to the summit of the island before descending to sea level again. By the time we'd retraced our steps
our knees sure knew it!
  Iron cauldrons-the final reminders of the sugar industry       The IIndians carved the images in such a way that they
 which once dominated these Danish islands                                reflected in the water below-a sacred pool perhaps?