Disclosure: I exchanged photographic work for a 5-day stay at the Island Cottage mentioned in the following blog posts. Blog entries or any other social media amplification were not included in the exchange.   I was and am free to say and show anything I want about the trip.  All opinions are my own.

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The Back Story

Last year I wrote about my friend Coco Larrain, her great artwork and her struggle with breast cancer.  

Through her I met a couple, Harry and Cindy Sauers.  I had a few conversations with Cindy in 2011 or 2012 and learned they owned a small cottage on the Island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands. We started liking and commenting on each other’s posts on Facebook and elsewhere.  

 

Early this past spring I happened to read a post from Cindy that I thought indicated she was in St. John. I had forgotten about that and thought I would send her a message asking how the Island visit was going.  She said she wasn’t there right then but would be in a week or two. Then out of the blue she asked if I would be interested in taking photos of the cottage in exchanged for being allowed to stay there for a 6 day stay.  I didn’t have to ponder that for long.  Linda and I settled on a date in June and started to plan.

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Arrival in St. Thomas

While we were flying I drew my first travel napkin of the journey. It envisioned what we would be doing while on vacation.

This didn’t turn out to be exactly how we spent our time, what we did was much more exciting!

We decided we would arrive a day early and leave a day late, allowing us time on St. Thomas, the island we would be flying into before heading to St. John.  We realized we were in the Caribbean when we saw this bar in the baggage claim.

We also saw the first of many incredibly long braided hair styles while still at the airport.

 

Linda picked out a hill top hotel called ‘The Inn at Blackbeard’s Castle’ that was very much like a B & B with just 8 rooms and a fantastic view of Charlotte Amalie, the capital city of the US Virgin Islands.  It also happens to have bronze sculptures of Pirates everywhere with plaques describing who they were and what they were known for.  This is of Jack Sparrow. Did you know he was a real pirate? I didn’t.

 

 

In the meanwhile, this was the view from our bed.

 

While the room was great we did have a bit of a nightmare problem later that evening. The toilet overflowed (my fault) and we had to go find a plunger to deal with it.  It wasn’t pretty, but it was funny (in retrospect).  My second napkin drawing of the trip came out of the experience.

 

Besides that little snafu, I highly recommend the ‘Inn at Blackbeard’s Castle’.  It’s quiet, unique and very friendly.  More like a Bed and Breakfast than a hotel. It’s got a pool, a view, interesting sculptures, a gift shop and an outdoor bar with some great people standing by to help, including a Pirate that Linda stole some rum from.

 

It also has an amazing tour leading down to town that include museum quality homes, antiques and art galleries that show what life was like in the 18th and 19th century in the Virgin Islands.

 

 

 

 

Staying in a small boutique hotel meant we were in the middle of the town of Charlotte Amalie.  Turn away from the gorgeous view and you see a different world, a world where things quickly get overtaken with humidity, plants, recessions, bad planning and start to fall apart.  There were way more abandoned half built homes and apartments than what we were expecting.  The reason we heard was that the recession and construction bids that were way too low ended up meaning people just abandoned projects in the middle of construction. 

 

We found this abandoned kitchen along the tour route and snuck into it.  Great framing and color was too good to pass up.

 

One of two legendary female pirates, Anne Bonny roamed the Caribbean in the 1700s.  I think the idea behind this particular pose is that she wanted the person she is about to shoot know it is a female pirate doing him in.  I doubt that was her main concern in those moments and that it is much more likely the depiction is meant to clue the modern day tourist that it’s a woman.  It did it’s job.  Funny though, this same sculpture was up at the Inn but was turned so that you really had to look to see the side where she was bearing her breast.

 

 

And what tour would be complete without some totally bizarre addition?  We found these odd doll figures off in a side room.  I imagine a future Sci Fi movie with them as the invading force out to destroy the planet!

 

Another thing we did not realize is that on Sunday the Virgin Islands basically shut down.  These tent stores were open but the rest of the town was completely shuttered all day. That was ok, we enjoyed the quiet and had a great time.

 

The next day we shopped a bit then took a ferry to St. John to start our official vacation days at the Island Cottage.  Tomorrow I will introduce you to that magical world.

 

To find out more about the ‘Inn at Blackbeard’s Castle’ you can contact Adam at (340) 776-1234 or take a look at their website http://www.blackbeardscastle.com/index.php

 

Part 1 – St. Thomas
Part 2 – The Island Cottage 
Part 3 – Exploring Coral Bay
Part 4 – Clean Beaches and Dirty Pictures
Part 5 – Hiking Above, Snorkeling Below
Part 6 – Kayaks and Mermaids
Part 7 – The End – the Native and the Screamer

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© 2013, all rights reserved – MAKE Studio | Marty Coleman | Napkin Dad Publishing.