The east / windward side of St. Croix is quite arid. The juxtaposition of cactus and snorkeling is a surprise… 

At Point Udall, the easternmost spot in the USA. And just to be clear, that’s my hat, although it looks better on Prov. 

  
We’ve been thinking hard about buying real estate down here. However, it just doesn’t seem to make sense… Even though Christiansted is more vibrant than Frederiksted, where we stayed last time, much of the town is literally in ruins.

The sugar industry made sense when slave labor was available. Then, an oil refinery came in and propped things up for a while, but its owners took their billions and left a few years ago. Now, the locals are just learning about good governance and how to compete for tourist dollars, and they’re hampered by US tax and immigration rules. Yes, it’s a buyer’s market, but it will be for quite some time to come. 

Not a lot going on. One boat unloading, and another, not much bigger than a tug, sitting in wait. 

There are many fruiting trees here, and our Caribbean-born traveling companion Prov is something of an expert. We found a tamarind, almonds, coconut (easy), and others just walking around. But this one, the sausage tree, stumped even him.  The fruits weigh a good 10 pounds. Not really edible. 

  
At the Estate Whim museum, many trees were labeled. This was my favorite:

Old sugar mills dot the island. It was cool to learn a bit about how they worked at the Estate Whim museum. On that plantation, they started with oxen, then went wind power, and finally steam. 

   
   
The Danes showed up in the early 1700s, and within 30 years the island was a virtual sugarcane monoculture. Emancipation happened in 1848, but it took another 50+ years for everyone to achieve a meaningful freed status. The final sugar harvest here was in the early 1960s. 

PS — sorry about the photo rotation.  Seems to be an artifact of the iPhone app. 

The island’s only historical museum also benefits from cruise ship passengers. We enjoyed the tour, although we think the Historical Society needs a sugar daddy… and that is a pun …  To fix things up a bit. 

Here’s Lee at the great house.  

Here’s another view, artsy.   
Artifacts…

 
And my favorite, the planter’s chair… When your feet swell up from lashing slaves all day, you literally can’t get your boots off, so you have to put your feet up and wait a while. What’s the modern equivalent? Maybe an oversized “Reply All” button?

Monday was “ship day” here. On the one hand, you groan and roll your eyes because of all the tourists. On the other, you’re glad there are enough people to open everything up. Up to 3,100 passengers and 1,200 crew, but I’d be surprised if more than 500 got off the boat. 

  
We chose the latter attitude, and drove to Frederiksted for breakfast and to see the arts and crafts market that springs up. Less desultory than last year, but we still didn’t buy anything. 

Later, we joined a pretty healthy crowd on the beach. Putting up our new sun shelter was a comedy, but once it was up it worked quite well. 

   
 
Old cannons find new life as traffic furniture in Christiansted.