Death Apples! Location: Cruz Bay, St. John Island, US Virgin Islands Day 13 by Wayne & Karen Brown

We didn't stay in St. Thomas because it is crowded with lots of ships, hotels and people. It is a good place for shopping, but not a great place for exploring nature. St. John is not as crowded with ships, hotels and people as St. Thomas. More than half of St. John is a national park. The Virgin Islands National Park in St. John is the largest U.S. National Park in the Caribbean! The National Park is not just land, but coral reefs, too! One third of the park is underwater! Like other National Parks, there are lots of trails to explore on land. Unlike other National Parks, this Park has an underwater trail! This Park has the world's first underwater snorkeling trail!

It is too far to walk over the hills from Cruz Bay to Trunk Bay, where the underwater trail is located, so we take a taxi. The taxi we find is not like any taxi you've ever seen. It is a big pick-up truck with seats and a top in the back! Our driver is Rodney. Rodney is a native St. John Islander.

It is about a 20 minute ride to Trunk Bay Beach. Rodney warns us that the winds are coming in from the north and the sea along the beach may be rough. When we get to the beach we race down to the water with our masks, fins, and snorkels. Surfs Up! It doesn't look like we will be doing any snorkeling here today. Big waves, over 4 feet high, are breaking on the beach. Rodney tells us that usually the water at here is totally calm, with no waves at all. The big problem for snorkeling is that the sand on the beach is powdery, like sugar. When it is stirred up by waves the sand stays floating in the water for a long time, making it hard to see.

We put on our masks, fins, and snorkels and swim through the crashing waves to see if we can find the underwater snorkeling trail. Now we know how a Cheerio feels! It is like swimming through milk! There is so much white sand in the water that the water looks like milk! When we stick our hands in front of our faces we can't see the ends of our fingers! Today we will not be showing you the underwater trail.

A whistle shrieks! A lifeguard is waving for us to come back to shore. When we get back to shore the lifeguard asks us to stay out of the water because it is so rough. He tells us three people were injured by the waves today already.

Well, if we can't explore underwater we can explore above water! After we dry off, and put on shorts and a T-shirt, Rodney takes us exploring St. John above water. Before we leave the beach Rodney tells us that if it starts to rain don't hide under this tree! He is pointing to a harmless looking tree. It is about 30 feet high, and has shiny, green leaves. It looks like an ordinary tree, but Rodney says this is the deadly manchineel (man-CHIN-neel) tree. The sap on this tree is like acid. It can take the paint off of any car parked under it. If it rains the water dripping off the leaves can burn our skin! The Carib Indians that used to live here used the sap to poison their arrows. In the summer this tree produces fruit that look like green apples, but are very poisonous. Columbus called the apples "death apples". The only animals that can eat the fruit of the manchineel tree without getting poisoned are land crabs. Rodney warns us that even bumping into the tree trunk can get poisonous sap on us!

Rodney takes in his taxi around St. John to visit some of the island's history. Rodney tells us that St. John was a Danish colony. In early 1700's, before the U.S. got its independence from Britain, almost every part of St. John had been dug up and made into 109 sugar and cotton plantations. Slaves were brought here from West Africa to work on the plantations. Rodney's ancestors were brought here as slaves to work on the plantations before slavery was ended in St. John in 1848. (This was 15 years before slavery was ended in the U.S.!)

Rodney stops to show us the ruins of one of the largest plantations, called Annaberg Plantation. The ruins of Annaberg Plantation includes a windmill, a horse mill, and factory buildings. All that is left of these buildings are the stone walls. All the wood used in these buildings has been eaten away by termites. Back in the time of the old plantations people did not appreciate coral reefs. We can see that coral was used, along with stones, in the walls of these buildings.

Fortunately today people appreciate the coral reefs. Coral reefs are not torn up to be used as building materials any more. People know that coral reefs are an important natural resource. Coral reefs protect land from erosion from big waves. Coral reefs provide homes for fish. Corals reefs also bring tourists to the islands so they can see the underwater beauty of the coral reefs.

It is time for us to return to Cruz Bay and return to Yorktown. We are sorry we did not get to visit the underwater snorkeling trail. It actually worked out OK for us, because we were able to explore St. John with Rodney and learn some things about St. John's history.

Join us tomorrow as we leave the US Virgin Islands and return to the British Virgin Islands. Tomorrow we will be exploring the island of Tortola above water.

Best Fishes,
Wayne & Karen

St. John Islander, Rodney, takes us around the island in his open-air bus. (It is really a pick-up truck with seats and a top in the back.)

Trunk Bay is the home of the world's first underwater snorkeling trail. (The trail is along the small island you can see just to the left of Trunk Bay Beach.)

Surfs up at Trunk Bay. To the right of the picture, above the breaking wave, you can see a lifeguard on his rescue board.

Rodney stands next to the deadly manchineel tree. The sap of this tree was used by the Carib Indians to poison their arrows.

The ruins of the Annaberg sugar plantation. The tall tower is the remains of a windmill. In addition to stones and bricks, corals were used to make the walls of the buildings.