US Virgin Islands! (and stuff)

In the USVI with J, her sister, and sister's fiance. We spent the last three days hiking and snorkeling, so a rainy day is a welcome rest day. It also gives me a little time to catch up on blogging!

These three shots are from some of the worst mountain biking or trail riding I've ever done. I was exploring the powerline cut behind the former Bellwood Quarry site in west Atlanta. Don't ask me why.

It was: terrible. Like, no joke. I fell constantly, my legs were torn to shit by brambles, there were hidden holes throughout the knee to waist high brambles. It sucked. These shots are actually all from laying down on the ground after falling.

These shots are actually all from laying down on the ground after falling. This must have been a relatively early fall, since my legs are only very slightly bloody, and my shorts aren't torn yet.

The angle of the shot isn't an artifact of the digital camera: I was laying down where I fell, backwards in the weeds at about a 20 degree angle.

Another shot laying down backwards after falling.

Hey, since we're here, how about a little FOOD PORN? You wouldn't believe how many search engine hits I get from that term. Or maybe you would. They mostly probably weren't looking for pictures of tempeh and flash fried brussels sprouts.

St. John has a lot of ruins left over from the days of sugar plantations, started by the Dutch in the mid to late 18th century with slave labor. According to one source, there were as many as 109 sugar and cotton plantations, covering most of the island. Fortunately most of the island is part of the Virgin Islands National Park so the sites are protected. This site is great, and only accessible by hiking in.

These are the boiling vats which once produced rum. Yum!

Here is our comprehensively stocked freezer, which shows we're drinking plenty of the modern day product. Liquor is ridiculously cheap due to some weirdness with duty fees. A liter of basic Cruzan rum, made on neighboring St. Croix, costs as little as $4. Yep, you heard that correctly. Fortunately there is also a very generous import allowance of up to five liters of hard liquor per adult, and a bonus sixth if one of them is USVI produced.

This view shows part of the giant steam-powered sugarcane crushing machinery, which the book "St. John Off The Beaten Track" tells of a child getting crushed in:

On March 7, 1908 fifteen year old Maunie Dalmida was crushed in the gear assembly next to the rollers. The following account is taken from... "Boy That Got Caught in the Cogs": The undersigned was sent at Par Force to get information regard to a boy that got caught in the cogs of the mill... With his back toward Dalmida, J Samuel hord the cracking, he then look bahind him saw Dalmida caught in the cogs. Mr. Marsh... was outside of the boiling house, he run and stop the ingin. He was already broken in too. The right hand was also smash, the belly was smash, his bowels was torn asunder...

It's interesting (and heartening) to see the jungle reclaiming many of the ruins. These are the oddly named Par Force ruins. While par for the course, they are not forceful. These are a little over a mile from the Reef Bay ruins above, which are all part of the Reef Bay Sugar Factory Historic District. The Library of Congress has some neat B&W photos of the site before the NPS restored it in the 1960s. Here, for example, are the same boiling vats I pictured above.

C'mon now: you didn't think I'd do this long a blog post with this many randomass pictures without including some ONIONS, did you? Really?

Especially for R and A, here is a video clip of one of the many "Soldier Crabs" that inhabit the entire island, and according to one guidebook make an annual trek in August to the beaches to lay eggs (and presumably find new shells.) We were initially quite surprised to find them, since the first I saw were at least 3/4 of a mile away as the crow flies, with a 440 elevation gain: about a dozen were marching along in a line alongside the America Hill ruins. Yesterday at the Reef Bay Sugar Factory ruins, we saw them as big as an average adult's fist.

Edit: I'm not sure if that video clip is working for y'all out there in Internetlandia, since it's not working for me, so here is a screenshot of the solider crab in question:

Also at the America Hill ruins, since mom loves these shots of me behind signs indicating that it's dangerous and I shouldn't be there.

Okay, I'm going to post this sucker, and maybe, if you all play nicely, you'll get more later.