Another Beautiful Caribbean Sunset

Another gorgeous sunset on St. Thomas. Good night everyone

Mangoes and Conch Fritters

Some of the joys of living on an island include eating certain foods, which I plan on writing about more often as certain dishes appear on our table or certain kinds of fruits are in season.

Today's blog on Settlers will feature mangoes and conch fritters.

Mangoes during mango season, which has sadly passed us by are an excellent example of a simple joy here.

During mango season we did not have to buy a single mango. We picked some off our neighbor's tree, and we were able to get some from a few co-workers and friends that have mango trees. Real mangoes off a tree are the best you can get, and way better than grocery store mangoes. Heavenly!

Mango from our neighbor's tree

Conch fritters are another island dish that we enjoy, and are quite common on local menus. Since we have moved to STT, we have been on the search for the best conch fritters in the USVI. The picture below features our first conch fritters, but I am sorry to say they were not that tasty. We have yet to find some fritters that have been really good, which makes us wonder if there is such a thing as a good conch fritter.

Conch fritters from Shipwreck Tavern

St. Thomas, USVI, You Can't Make This Stuff Up

I am starting a new segment on Settlers chronicling the weird, funny and dangerous things we see living here. The title of the segment is completely taken from a bumper sticker I saw recently, which read: St. Thomas, USVI, You can't make this shit up.

Photo 1 of St. Thomas, USVI, You can't make this shit up

 features a donkey that escaped from his owners.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Okay, no it is not snowing in St. Thomas, nor tis the season for Christmas songs, but we have been enjoying some stormy weather lately.

Over the past few days we have been getting hit with thunderstorm after thunderstorm, and it has made for quite a relaxing weekend and evening schedule. Just like my Mom I find thunderstorms to be cozy. They are really the perfect excuse to be a little bit lazy. I love the sights and sounds of them too. Especially from  my back porch or window.  I am listening to one pass by right now.

On Friday we had some nice thunderstorms that came our way, but we had to go to St. John to check out a possible vehicle for Justin. Justin ended up not purchasing the overpriced car, which is another story. We enjoyed the trip though. The only way to get to St. John if you do not own a boat yourself is to take the ferry. On the way there we witnessed a gorgeous rainbow and sky. BEAUTIFUL. I snapped the pictures below, but they hardly do the sight justice.

Beating Island Fever

Island fever is inevitable when a person lives on an island. Island fever is hard to avoid and it is such a strange feeling when it hits you. The fever hit me like an anvil on the head during mid August amidst the oppressive humidity and heat and the threat of tropical storms and hurricanes. Not that those were the cause of my island fever... 

Urban Dictionary defines island fever as:

the realization that you are stuck on which ever island you are living and not going anywhere.    Yep, that about sums up island fever and it is a sort of a claustrophobic feeling. The feeling was really getting to me. Some people told me they go on trips or go island hopping when they start to feel this way, but I am really not yet sure what the best way to cope with this bizarre feeling is. I think I will have to experience it a few more times in order to know how I can avoid or cope with island fever as best as possible when/before it strikes. One thing is for sure, the feeling was almost suffocating at times and unlike any other feeling I have felt thus far in my life. Luckily, we had some trips planned by the time island fever had hit me, and both of them combined allowed me to shake those island blues away. Our first trip was very short. I went to my ten year high school reunion in Maryland, and that was certainly a blast from the past. We stayed in Maryland for four nights and three days (most of which was travel time) with our friends in Rockville. For the first time since I left Maryland almost 8 years ago, I had a friends only weekend. There was no family and no pressure. Just us friends, like old times. Sorry family, but we do see you every time we are there (well, almost for some of you)! The friends only high school reunion weekend ended up being a blast, and it almost made us want to move back to Maryland. Until we got back to St. Thomas anyway...  During our trip to Maryland we: Had a mini SCHS Marching Band Reunion. Ate at my favorite Mexican restaurant of about 20 years. The owner has known me and my brother since elementary school! Justin is with me in the picture though. Enjoyed an excellent beer or two for once! Especially since rum, cocktails and crappy domestic or imported beers are only available on St. Thomas Visited my childhood home. My home for 21 years. Visited the high school where I met my high school sweetheart. Went to my high school reunion with some great, old friends. Posed in front of a corn field Carroll County style. As the line in that country song goes, "You can take the girl out of the honky tonk, but you can't take the honky tonk out of the girl." Yes, I just quoted a country song. I think Hell just froze over, because I don't really listen to country except to annoy Justin. If you are unable to tell from the pictures, we had such a lovely and exciting whirlwind trip to Maryland for my high school reunion. I would love to a have another friends only weekend again in the future!   Not long after our return to St. Thomas, we went off island once again about two weeks later when we traveled to beautiful San Diego, California. I adored San Diego! Such great weather! What unique culture! I am glad we were able to go. We were even able to see a few old friends there too! One cool girl from high school and one amazing family friend who is like a third mother to me! I had so much fun I did not want to leave, and I was scheming for ways in my head to convince Justin to let us live here one day. Haha!   In  San Diego: I had a large and delicious $3.00 margarita! I visited the Pacific Ocean with my sweetheart! I enjoyed a few glasses of wine at Hotel Coronado with Sherry! I took in the sights. I enjoyed spending some time in the Gaslamp  District. I made an all day trip to the world famous San Diego ZOO! I watched the elephants being fed by their caretakers. I was able to get up close and personal with a tiger. I also spent a lot of time in Balboa Park, where I visited the Japanese Friendship Garden and the Museum of Photographic Arts. All while admiring the architecture and flora and fauna!     Our trip to San Diego was spectacular. I hope that you all have a chance to visit it someday, if you have not had the chance already. Our trip back to the VI was not so pleasant thanks to a two day stint in Miami, which was the result of  Tropical Storm Maria sending life in St. Thomas into screeching halt. We made it back to St. Thomas on Monday, and we are happy to be back. At least until the next bout of island fever hits me. Hopefully we will have some more fabulous trips planned or visitors by then, because those sort of things really do seem to do the trick!

Honey, we have a shoe thief!

This little dog follows us home a lot, but yesterday when we were not home...

the little dog walked down these steps and

down this hallway to our front door.

Then he took Justin's Birkenstock home to chew on it!

Weekends are better at the beach

The Preserve at Botany Bay. It is just like having our own private beach...

As you may imagine, we spend a lot of time at the beach here. We don't go every day or every weekend, but we certainly go enough to fulfill our heart's desires.

The Preserve at Botany Bay is just a short drive from our apartment. The Preserve is actually a luxury gated community, which is having trouble selling lots for luxury homes under the current economic conditions. Although there are many lots available and the infrastructure has already been put in place, the Preserve has not able to sell more than approximately 5 lots. The rest of the community resembles a ghost town in the middle of a rain forest. It is complete with a road and sidewalk for nobody to enjoy and is surrounded by a beautiful tropical landscape. For these reasons, they allow the public (for now) to come in and enjoy the beauty the Preserve has to offer. Justin and I dread the day when they put a stop to it. However, we feel like it will be a long time coming given the circumstances. We like to go to the Preserve because of the unspoiled beauty and lack of crowds. Only those that know about it can get there and know which routes to take to get to the beaches. When we go to the Preserve, we drive there, park the car outside the gate, leave our names with the security guard, and take a hike down to one of three beaches of our choice: Sandy Bay, Botany Bay or Mermaid's Chair. Our favorite beach of choice is Sandy Bay with all that the name implies, but the other beaches are just as nice. Botany Bay has a lot of coconuts, which we collect, crack and take home. Mermaid's Chair is the westernmost point of  St. Thomas and is straddled by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

And so I share with you, the natural splendor that is the Preserve at Botany Bay (in pictures of course).

Mermaid's Chair

Which one will it be today?

Never swim alone!

Sandy Bay

I am always so happy to go to Sandy Bay.

Justin cracking a coconut found at Botany Bay.

Justin peeling away at a coconut.

Almost there...

Coconut water! Yummy.

Success!

Want to come and visit us yet? We will take you there...-S

Lights Out!

I am beginning to find out a few things about what my family, friends, acquaintances and Facebook friend stalkers assume about life in "paradise". The biggest misconception there seems to be amongst the assumptions is that living in "paradise" automatically equates to a perfect life scenario. I heard someone say recently that this place is not paradise, it is a paradox, and I could not agree more. As time goes on, I hope to support this idea by writing about the good, the bad and the ugly pieces of life in "paradise".  Today's topic covers the simple island problem of power outages. Get ready, because it is lights out whether you like it or not!

The organization that controls the electricity (and in some places water) on the island is known as WAPA (Water and Power Authority), and it is quite possibly the most hated acronym of the USVI. The general consensus is that WAPA, for lack of a better word, sucks. But then again, how high can our expectations be for a system that uses diesel fuel to generate electricity for an entire island? Oh! And did I forget to mention that WAPA charges 38 cents a kilowatt hour and the power goes out a lot?

In the past few weeks we have had approximately six long power outages in addition to the many we had before. The longest of them was last Thursday and it lasted six hours. This was during normal business hours. You would be surprised how many businesses do not have a generator and how little work gets done! The island rumor mill has it that the outage was caused by an oil leak in one of the engines. Hurrah for inefficient and not so environmentally friendly energy systems! 

There really needs to be a push for solar energy here. However, thanks to the Hovensa oil refinery on St. Croix that lines the USVI's politicians pockets with greenbacks, solar energy has yet to make a mainstream debut on the island. Thus we are stuck with the less than impressive diesel energy system and the possibility of having an outage at any given second. But hey, that is the true cost of living in "paradise".

The truth of the matter is that power outages have become eerily normal for us. One evening in April we went out to a restaurant and the power went out for three hours. The restaurant simply brought out candles and camping lanterns to all the tables and continued cooking on their gas powered stove like nothing was wrong. It did not phase us all that much. Yep, that is normal. 

Last weekend, the power went out at night again, and I am so used to finding the flashlight that I found it in under a minute in pitch black darkness without bumping into any furniture along the way. I wonder if I can start to make this exercise a challenge in speed?

While power outages are an inconvenience, they have started to serve as a reminder of the simple fun you can have without it. Over time, we have figured out that our favorite thing to do in the event of an outage in the evening is to stargaze. We also spend a lot more time talking and enjoying the candlelight. Something all of us should do more of.

Lights out! - S

Sooo good to be back...

Hello there my dear blog followers! I have not written a blog entry in nearly two months, but there really is a good explanation or two as to why this is.

At the end of March Justin was mis-diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which forced us to promptly leave the island to get a second opinion. The diagnosis sent us on a whirlwind trip to Maryland to visit Hopkins, whose team of amazing doctors concluded that Justin does not have Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Not only did they conclude that he was cancer free, but they said that Justin is better than healthy. ON MY BIRTHDAY. The news was quite possibly the best birthday present ever. However, it does not say much about health care on the island. The story alone could be an entire dramatic blog entry.

In April we returned to St. Thomas after a 14 day stint in Maryland. Not long after our return we took in a dear friend as a temporary roommate while she looked for a place to live. Her stay kept us quite busy on the weekends and evenings, because we were having too much fun hanging out together. She was the ideal roommate, but we are happy that she finally found her dream apartment on the North Side!

The day after our friend moved out my Mom came to visit for two weeks. Her visit occupied the majority of our time. We went downtown a lot to shop and eat lunch or dinner, visited Magen's Bay, Sandy Bay, Brewer's Bay, Red Hook and the lovely island of St. John several times over, and watched the Carnival Parade and Fireworks. Mom left late last Monday afternoon. We were sad to see her go, but we are glad that she had such a good time that she will have many unique stories to tell her friends!

Now it is back to reality. I will be returning to my rather unique volunteer position at Rare Earth Studio and the ever so puzzling island job hunting routine. I am perfectly content to get back to some sense of normalcy here on the island. No more doctors appointments with Justin, roommates or visitors for a bit. Just Justin and me moving forward with our island adventure(s) together.

With all of the time that has passed I have a lot of stories and photographs on back log to share, so stay tuned as I resume writing about our past, present and future island experiences.

Sunny greetings from the USVI.

-S

Positive Is How We Live in the US Virgin Islands

There is a common misconception that many people believe about those of us who are lucky enough to live in the United States Virgin Islands, and we would like to set the record straight once and for all.

Many outsiders assume that living in paradise=100% perfection in life.Yes, living here has many perks and is quite a blessing, but life anywhere is far from perfect. Even in so called paradise. There are real problems on the island such as rising gang activity, a lack of excellent public schools and unemployment. We are just everyday people with common problems. Many of the things we face as individuals or as a community is the reality of life, unless you live in some perfect world the rest of us must have not heard about yet.

The fact is that the US Virgin Islands may be paradise, but there is no correlation between paradise and automatic bliss or lack of problems. If you are thinking about moving here. You may want to consider that point. Your problems will follow you wherever you go and some may even pop up thereafter.

One thing I can attest to is that although problems follow people here, living in paradise can help you live more positively. Who cannot resist the temptation to enjoy the beautiful scenery, the company of wonderful people, a morning swim, or a homemade daiquiri on the deck? Yes, my friends, problems will definitely follow you here, but there are so many things I have seen on the islands that allow you to see LIFE in a POSITIVE light. This attitude will allow you to feel relaxed about whatever it is you are facing. Regardless of how large or small your problems are. That is one thing that Virgin Islanders do have in their favor in the face of adversity.

There is a bumper sticker that is seen on so many cars on the islands, which reads: Positive Is How We Live
And it is true.

More people should live positively instead of getting caught up in the moment in the stresses of work or the demands of having a family. There is really no reason not to. Life is too short to focus on such things, but unfortunately so many people do. If that is how you live your life, then this place is not for you. The simple combination of the idiosyncrasies of the islands and normal issues in life will surely get to you.

But for a lucky few, Positive Is How We Live. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to join us.

Weekend Highlights

Saturday Evening in Fortuna

Fortuna

Sunday Evening in Fortuna

Sea Urchins!!!!

Shark attack at Festival on the Green at UVI

Brewer's Bay

Brewers Bay: Boats, Snorkeling, Plane Landing

Brewer's Bay

Justin deep in thought

Fiesta! On the Beach.

Party on the beach.

Hello Sunshine

Teeny Tiny Hermit Crab!!!!

This is what weekends are about here. Fun, sun and total relaxation. 

It is about working to live here not living to work...