On to St Thomas and the Mountaintop

Before we reach St Thomas, here is a photo that got left behind in St Maarten-a pretty funky bar, don't you think? Taken through a bus window so we didn't have time to investigate further.

The ship eats up the miles while you have dinner, go to a show, play in the casino, sleep...

There are two cruise harbors in Charlotte Amalie, the capital city. Havensight and Crown Bay.
We are docked in Crown Bay, the furthest from the shops and tourist bars. We'll see Havensight later.
Here you see the Ruby, far below as we are in an open sided "bus" on an excursion into the hills.
The bus is basically a Ford pick-up truck with seats for 15 or so people on the bed. There is a roof but the sides are open. There are no seat belts  so hang on when we go around corners. On the narrow mountain roads there are some sheer drops. Although our driver gave a commentary over the PA she kept her eyes firmly planted on the steep twisty roads.

We see the airport down below- a very scenic place to land

Other islands lie nearby

Down below is one of the World's Top Beaches. Many people from the cruise ships in port will make their way there today by taxi - Megan's Bay.

Someone has brought their big white yacht into the bay to enjoy those turquoise waters. If you are a beach person then this is the place to while away a few hours.

Our excursion today was to a former Colonial Mansion called St Peter Great House. The big draw for us was the tropical garden there. On the way though, as in many excursions on cruise ships there is a Shopping Opportunity- in this case a visit to a tourist shopping complex called Mountaintop. It also has panoramic viewing terraces and lives up to it's name.

The buses pull in here...Cruzan is the name of a powerful rum sold in the islands. The bottles you buy are much smaller than this one.

As we're in the Caribbean we expected to see some pirates and were not disappointed. They seemed to be employees and I was concerned to see some of them drinking on the job and spoke to one of the managers in the gift shop.

I think this one is a security guard

This guy, who needs a haircut, has brought a whole barrel of rum to work.

 This pair is holding up the liquor store!

Sitting down on the job..

 The view from the top once you walk through the massive tee shirt and key chain shop

After a 45 minute stop at Mountaintop- "The Home of the Banana Daiquiri " (which I guess has to live somewhere) we returned to our bus to continue our short tour....