In celebration of graduation and life in general, my family and I took a trip to St. Thomas last week. This was actually my second time visiting the U.S. Virgin Islands. When I was 6 years old, we took a cruise around the Carribean and we had a one-day stop in St. Thomas, although I remember nothing of it. In fact, all I do remember from the cruise was our waiter George (who made cool things out of napkins), covering up my sister's snorkel with my hand while she was underwater (which seemed like a hilarious idea at the time), and the joy of playing a nickel slot machine at 6 years old.

This time I was determined to make more of it. We stayed at the Marriot on the island which was very nice. They had their own private stretch of beach, which we took advantage of on the very first day. Having grown up in a very dry, very landlocked state, large bodies of water are still quite novel to me. My sister and my dad and I waded around in the water while my mom sat on the beach and reminded us not to drown. One of the first things I realized is that the ocean is very, very salty. Come on... New Mexican here.

We spent the next day at Coki beach, where we heard there was the best snorkeling on the island. We rented a couple beach chairs and umbrellas and snorkel gear for me, my sister, and my dad. When you rent snorkel gear, they give each of you a dog biscuit for the fish. Dog biscuit? That's what I thought too. But the instant I got in the water, I had dozens of fish swarming around me, taking small nips at the biscuit (and my fingers.) It was simultaneously cool and alarming in that Alfred Hitchcock being-swarmed-by-animals sort of way. The most common fish was a medium-sized striped fish that I unfortunately don't know the name of. But we also saw many colorful parrotfish, a couple four-eyed butterfly fish, some trumpet fish, and even a small yellow spotted moray eel. There were also schools of literally thousands of small transluscent fish that would all swim away in unison when you passed by.

Besides fish, the most common animal we saw on St. Thomas was the iguana. They would hang out in groups around the resort, sunning themselves on the rocks or the concrete. I found out that they eat hibiscus flowers, which were everywhere around the resort, so a couple of times I picked a few flowers and fed them to an iguana before running away to a safe distance.

We also took a one-day tour of neighboring St. John, which was also very nice. We went snorkeling again at Trunk Bay. The water was extremely clear and the sand was much softer and cleaner than Coki Beach, but there weren't as many fish. Maybe because we weren't given dog biscuits. We had a very good tour guide who told us a lot about the history of the island, as well as some of the local plant life such as the extremely poisonous Machineel tree and the Monkey-No-Climb tree. We also saw a couple of wild pigs running around.

Besides lounging around the beach, we had a chance to sample some good food. We had two meals at Cuzzins, a restaurant with really good local food including fried plantains, conch, and fungi. We also had a nice dinner at a restaurant called Herves, which had a nice nighttime view from their dining room.

One thing that took us by surprise was the cost of taxis on the island. A ride from the hotel to downtown (about 10 minutes) cost $5/person. The front-desk clerk at the hotel suggested that we rent a car to save money, but after seeing the one lane, driving-on-the-left, windy-and-steep-like-Lombard-Street roads, we decided to just pay the money for taxis. It was never a problem finding a taxi, though, and in fact it was a problem getting away from them. As you were walking down the street, several taxis would pull up next to you and ask if you needed a ride. One of our waitresses at the hotel restaurant even turned out to be a taxi driver, so we got one ride from her.

Overall it was a very nice and relaxing trip and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a great vacation spot.

As always, pictures forthcoming.

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