The European discovery of St. Croix was by Christopher Columbus in 1493. He named the island Santa Cruz, of which St. Croix is a French translation. The island has lived under the flags of Spain, France, Denmark, and several others, being sold by Denmark to the United States in 1917. It is hilly and has lovely beaches as well as a number of coral reefs fringing the land, as shown below. Saska is shown at Pt. Udall at the easternmost end of the island.
Here is Point Udall from the air and Saska on the Christiansted waterfront.
Hmmm... C cells, D cells, AAA cells, 9 V batteries galore, but no AA cell batteries. Island economy! On the right is the main building of the Buccaneer Hotel.
On our last day before leaving St. Croix we made a trip around the island. Below left is a view of the rugged northwest coast of the island. To the right is a huge tree in the rain forest in this region.
To the left is an old, overgrown reservoir in the hills of the rain forest. On the right is my kind of beach -- no annoying sand! Carlos and Saska were finding all sorts of interesting sea shells.
We visited the St. Croix Landmarks Society Whim Museum, which is housed in an old sugar plantation. Until the introduction of beet sugar, the production of cane sugar by African slaves under overseers from various European countries was a lucrative business. Below left is the plantation owner's house, and to the right is a fascinating wooden lathe in the cellar of the house. If you are on St. Croix, this museum is well worth visiting. The docent at the mill entertained us with wonderful stories about the history of the plantation.
The old bath house is shown below left and the windmill that was used to press the cane to get the "agua miel" is shown at right.
Apparently cane was also pressed by mills driven by steam engines. The one shown below, left was build in Scotland. A horse-driven mill (one assumes) is shown at right.
Everything comes to an end. Here Saska and I are boarding the creaky American Eagle ATR-72 to San Juan at the end of our part of the project. To the right is a view from the air of Christiansted and the Buccaneer Hotel (to the left of the lagoon) as we depart.
