Cruising Impressions

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This page aims to summarize our impressions of Caribbean locations we have visited while cruising, partly an organized journal for ourselves, partly in hopes to be helpful to our friends and fellow cruisers.  The exciting part of our Eastern Caribbean voyage is that islands are close together (line of site sailing mostly), but are vastly different in language, local culture and procedence of european/american influence, food, hurricane-pronness, origin of the visitors, types of tourist attractions, economic level, music and types of dance, etc. 

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Our Trip’s Highlights
Out of what we have seen so far, the following are the of our fondest memories:
- Grenada - super friendly locals, very down to earth, people happy to see you, interested in whether you are enjoying their island.  Friday's fish fry in Gouyave is fun, as is Saturday cruiser karyoke in Court Bay Marina and Sunday's BBQ on Hog Island

- Carriacou – friendliest locals, the air of innocence, of a place back in time, great snorkeling reef in Hillsbrough and off Sandy Island
- The Grenadines, including the sleepy island of Bequia, a sailing stop with undiscovered charm, especially on the Belmont Walkway area on the waterfront where bars and restaurants are; turquoise serenity and vastness of Tobago Cays, beautiful non-touristy Petit Martinique and Union Islands
- natural path lined with flamboyant trees in Wallibou Bay, St Vincent, surrounded by Hollywood made set for Pirates of the Caribbean
- anchorage between the Piton mountain peaks in St Lucia, atop of a reef with park all around us, paradise lost!
- pink sand beaches on Barbuda’s north coast, in Low Bay
- undiscovered feel of Les Saints (part of Guadelupe), the dramatic shapes of mountains and trimmed homes in the streets of Bourg Les Saints
- experience of going through the river, River Salee in Guadelupe, where you spend the night in the mangroves with a high 4 lane highway bridge above you and an airport, such a contranst of civilization and remoteness
- the historic quality of Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua, where beautifully renovated stone structures of a Victorian boat yard make it look like England with palm trees
- Simpson Bay Lagoon in St Martin, a cruiser’s Disney World, where all the cheap international eats are easily accessible by dinghy, including many great restaurants on the French side. Did you know St Martin had more nationalities registered living there than NY City???
- gorgeous shape of ridges on West coast of Dominica, green and lush with plantations of bananas and coconut palms hovering above them, green and undeveloped quality of the whole island
- white white white wide and shallow sandy beach in Anguillla with a stunning view of St Martin behind the turquoise seas
- remoteness combined with closeness to civilization offered by Water Island, just off the side of St Thomas. A tiny island with 150 residences, one restaurant and one deli, offering idyllic Caribbean existence, combined with being a 7 minute dinghy ride away from hustle and bustle of St Thomas, Kmart and Home Depot. An ideal place to live, where we bought land and plan to end up living in the long term.
- North Sound of Virgin Gorda - a stunning geographical landmark, full of beautiful well developed places like the Bitter End Resort and Yacht Club, an exciting restaurant Rock Café situated on the rock between Prickly Pear island and the bitter end of Virgin Gorda, fun Leverick Bay. Another memory is seeing the whole bay lit up like Manhattan on New Year’s Eve, when the sound fills up with mega and charter sailing yachts
- bio bay in Vieques is absolutely one of the wonders of the Caribbean

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Grenada and Carriacou

Grenada, including its smaller sisters, Carriacou and Petit Martinique, constitutes one of the most charming places in Eastern Caribbean. What makes it special are the people – the locals are exceptionally friendly, which makes you feel welcome virtually everywhere. Also, given that its underneath 12th degree of latitude, it is less susceptible to hurricanes, which makes it a cruiser hangout for August, September and October months, a fun and happening place to be. We have made many friends and went on joint shopping trips, regatta events, shared rented cars, attended BBQs and karyokes with other cruisers, who are a diverse, but fun hands on bunch. Fish fry is a gourmet event in Gouyave and St George's is one of the prettiest old world like cities I have seen in the Eastern Caribbean.  Carriacou welcomed us with its regatta, when beautiful local boats were sailing all around us. It also offered stunning shorelines and lush green mountain paths. Petit Martinique is a jolly little mountain, a non touristy island retreat with spectacular views.

St Vincent and the Grenadines

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Guadelupe
Guadelupe is a “department” of France. When we went to send our FedEx they actually put Department of Guadelupe, France as the return address – treating it like Hawaii to the US. Thinking of the island as France presents interesting contrasts. The locals are self named “black Frenchmen” and French presidential candidates came to campaign here. Why it is somewhat poorer than their mainland and the flavor of Caribbean is undeniable – fish and fruit markets, palm trees, etc., they are also two lane highways, recycling plants, French manners and foods commonplace. It seems more French than French side of St Martin that we previously visited, euro is the currently instead of the dollar and very few people speak English. Guadelupe has great geography, which lends it well to boating. From Bas-du-Fort, the largest marina I have ever seen with 15 piers, located in Pointe-a-Pitre, you can take your cruiser to beaches on north or south side, through two mangrove rivers and to Marie Galente or Les Saints nearby islands. Also like Puerto Rico, its West side has a rainforest, which makes the climate somewhat cooler here with the rains and there is more wildlife. We saw a booby at the marina sitting somberly on a boat’s dock line and there are those black birds jumping on the boats. There are also tons of fish all about the marina – barracuda and schools of sprats.
The part of Guadelupe which we found absolutely charming and fell in love with are the islands to the south, called Les Saints. They are very similar to what Vieques is to Puerto Rico, i.e. a weekend retreat for Guadelupeans, with simple accommodations, slow island life, plentiful beaches (albeit with black sands) and fun bars. The city on main island, Haut Terre, called Bourg Les Saints, is infinitely cute, where houses have wooden trim and are painted pastel colors. They have red roofs and are surrounded by pleasant gardening. There is also a well preserved fort. The steep hills make for stunning geography. This place is a must.

Local fishing boats on windward side of Basse Terre	Cabret water fall
Bridge on River Salee during daylight - a major bridge in the midst of mangroves	Bridge on River Salee opening at night

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Antigua
I fell in love with Antigua from the first site of its gently rolling hills with purplish red soil shining through the scrub and Cyprus looking trees. Stepping ashore, I found locals friendly and hospitable, encouraging of tourism. Nelson’s Dockyard is a historic jewel, fully renovated complete with tour guidesses in traditional dress. It’s surrounded by forts given navy’s importance during 100 year French English war in eighteenth century which also played out in the West Indies. Shirley Heights, one of old forts provides a lookout onto English Harbour, where Nelson’s Dockyard is located, and larger Faulmounth Harbour behind it. Both are full of boats and constitute the heart of Antigua’s sailing community, which not only has one of the oldest traditions in the Caribbean, but also hosts annual regattas, such as the Classic Regatta for gorgeous wooden boats. The old forts and the Dockyard are very English, with green lawns complete with sprinklers and stone architecture (actually made from English stone brought as ballast on ships) of buildings that look very European, historic and pub-like, where you expect to see a formal butler and a fireplace. It comes as a surprise to see these buildings surrounded by palm trees.
Antigua will also hold a special place in my heart since we have gotten married on our boat in Nelson’s Dockyard, and I must mention that we found government officials friendly, efficient and accommodating. People are very house proud in Antigua, so houses are well kept and nicely painted. Locals are very proud and somewhat reserved. They seem very proud of their heritage, and English influence seems much stronger here than in BVIs, as evidenced by EC dollar use with the Queen on them, lots of English foods commonly available in grocery stores and more reserved demeanor. Antigua was also the first island where refreshingly I found local produce available: sweetest pineapples, milky sour sap, mangoes and veggies.

Antique Methodist Church on a hill	Goats fighting
Admiral’s Inn at Nelson’s Dockyard	Nelson’s Dockyard view from water
Place where they took down Ship’s sails at Nelson’s Dockyard	Radcliffe Quay – a cute street in St Johns, frequented by cruise ship customers and local business workers

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Barbuda – The Island of Fun and Sun
Barbuda is a sleepy place whose 1,600 residents live in Codrigton, town located on the inside of the lagoon. People are friendly and property is communal owned – you can build but cannot own land, even if you are Barbudian. There are endless gorgeous beaches, some with pink sand (see pictures below). There is also a large frigat bird colony on the lagoon

Frigat bird colony	North Bay palm tree house
Pink sand beach	Lagoon and Hotel view
Beach wood	Codrington

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St Barts - the Chic Island

I was well prepared for glitz given St Barts reputation. Some of it was true, but I couldn’t help becoming enamored with the little place. Skyrocketing prices are a negative, undisputable European charm is a positive. Here are a few things that come to mind when I think of St Barts
- Red roofs of Gustavia harbour – I am all about development rules now that I can see how cute it can be
- Lady getting into her dinghy with 5 gallon jugs of water, while wearing a designer dress (skirt while on boat!) and jewelry, very French and impressive
- Mad driver boys on mopeds checking all the girls out and moped girls in skimpy clothes, such as the one in the red mini-dress proudly flashing her white underwear
- $13 mojitos at Baz Bar with exellent live music (live guitarist couple from LA)
- Chic European feel accomplished by narrow streets with sidewalks, plentitude of small cars and mopeds, charming houses with peaked roofs with elaborate wooden trims, clean streets with no evident poverty
- we managed to find the only bum in the place, sleeping outside Le Select, the cheapo burger joint with excellent food and 50 years worth of rum serving tradition
- it being low season (slim pickings I suppose), I found myself being checked out A LOT, but French men sitting in cafes smoking cigarettes, by beefy French construction workers and yacht crew, very ego boosting!
- Vast majority of who we see is white, which is peculiar in the predominantly black Caribbean
- there is a bit of Swedish tradition, such as Swedish flags strung about the place, street names in Gustavia (named after Swedish King Gustav) and a picture of old Swedish ladies in a white headdress here and there
- Eden Rock resort, beautiful, airy modern white jetting out on a rocky outcrop into Caribbean blue bay surrounded by white beach
- SBH, the St Barths airport, is a short oceanfront runway with steep descent. Every time you pass the roundabout on road to airport, you see cars parked there and tourists waiting with cameras for a plane to land, passing right above them as they make steep descent before runway runs into the St John Bay
- lots of seagulls in the harbour looking for food and it must be breeding season as they make strange noises while chasing each other

SBH Airport runway is set against mountains on one side and plunges into the ocean, making for rather dramatic descents. I took a picture of one taking off.	Artist painting large anchor at mouth of Gustavia Harbour
Eden Rock hotel is a rocky outcrop, modern and luxurious inside. This photo shows dining area and its view of the beach	Beranger car rental in Gustavia, also a pet shop, fishing gear and boat fixing services
The humping seagulls, you can see them on top of the boat, against red roof. Their rituals are impossible to ignore due to loud noises they make while going at it	Opening hours 10-1PM and 4-7PM, nice huh?

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Anguilla

Anguilla has some of the most beautiful beaches I have seen, and not much else. Anguilla is very flat, surrounded by wide strips of fine white sand, mostly wild and empty, but those beaches that are developed are artfully done, with cute restaurants and beach bars. The island is formerly British, so you drive on the left. The people are nice and friendly. According to the guidebook, you can open an off-shore insurance company here, so this sleepy island surprisingly has some sleek modern office buildings around its capital city called The Valley.

Boat Bar in Road Bay	Anguillla customs, right on the beach – get of dinghy, cross the beach and you are in this government house
View of Road Bay from the boat	Road Bay view from the Irie Life restaurant, shop & Bar
Jimmy Buffet show - the speakers on the beach	Jimmy Buffet show - our friends with a parrothead dude

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St Martin

St Martin is my favorite island so far and one of the few I would consider living on (after Vieques-PR and Water Island-USVI that is).  Prices in St Martin are cheap, they drive on the right side (the American side) which is refreshing after BVI and USVIs, its free wheeling economy which means if you want to seize opportunities you will not have government obstacles, its got a European influence which means great food and groceries, lots of international tourists (lots of Europeans) and its fun.  If our kids grew up here, they could speak French, Dutch and Papiamento (sounds Spanish-based), in addition to English and Russian!  Here is a scenic view of the Dutch side with mega boat marinas all over:

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Duty Free:

-          Compared to PR, everything here is much cheaper, given that it’s a major Duty Free zone.  You can buy a Heineken for $1.50, have a breakfast egg/cheese bagel for $3 and rent a beach chair (bathroom token and a rum punch included) for $5.  We were consistently surprised that things were cheaper than we expected and consequently spent a lot of money here – I am sure we will compensate by saving in other places where there is not much to do and food is terrible (most of the Caribbean)

Multi-culturalism:

-          Compared to sleepy rural BVIs, St Martin is a booming megapolis.  It has many restaurants, clubs and most importantly, very cruiser friendly, as many services are reached around the bay by dinghy.  On our first day, for example, we dinghied over to Mailboxes where we checked internet, rented a phone and got a mailing address, had lunch at the dockside restaurant and dinghies to another pub for a drink

-          International restaurants – Lebanese (Adelwyne), German (Bavaria), o-la-la: lots of good quality French food (Spicy in Grand Case), Argentinean steakhouse (Rancho’s), Indian cuisine (Laz) and much more.  There is great Belgian beer everywhere (Stella, Leffe, Duvel) and cheap Heineken on tap in most places

-          Bi-racial couples – this is so refreshing, probably first time I see this in such multitude since New York, usually white guys with gorgeous black women

Places:

-          SimpsonBay Lagoon – you can reach most services by dinghy.  Most importantly chandleries, but also grocery stores, pharmacies, pubs, cinemas even strip clubs.  You can also reach French side as well as the Dutch.  We have stayed here for a week and enjoyed it immensely

-          Grand Case – amazingly cute colonial feel city with a mile of restaurants and beach bars, bikini shops, all cute and touristy but with a very authentic feel

Boat friendliness:

-          Cruisers & cruiser net – At 7:30 in the morning we connected to cruiser net and have introduced ourselves as the new arrival. There were lots of cruisers connected and they were very friendly, exchanging many ideas and buy/selling boat stuff. We truly feel a part of a boating community here, as dinghy traffic in the bay is quite common and we run into other boaties everywhere: tied at the docks at Marine stores, pubs, bars and restaurants – its great!

-          Chandleries – there are two giant marine stores - Budget Marine and Island Water World and needless to say, we spend most of our time shuttling between.  And, given duty free, boatie stuff, although still expensive, is 15-20% cheaper than in PR or VIs

Mega yachts:

-          I have never seen so many megayachts in one place, both sailing and power (80+ feet long).  Most of them are very ostentatious, but some sailing yachts are graceful and beautiful.  They are usually stationed here without their owners, but with full time crew.  Palapa Marina which we hang out at, has a crew bar and some people I met have assumed that we are crew.  The crew on these yachts are usually young and good looking (both girls and guys), uniform emblazoned with yacht name (Apogee, Utopia, Primadonna etc.) and somewhat snooty – they never wave when you pass them by.  It seems like a perfect job for summers or between high school and college – like ski instructor or lifeguard

Customs:

- One of my favorite Dutch side memories is the customs office, which is full of smoke, graceful Europeans and a tip jar in front of the customs officer, who never got off the phone to her girlfriend while clearing us in. The French customs had limited working hours – 9:30-11:30am and 2-4pm – obviously not minding the plenty unchecked cruisers wondering the streets in-between. Stark contrast to efficiency at US Virgin Islands where I got cleared on the ferry by 3 stern looking officials in 20 minutes along with 100 other passengers.

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Restaurants:

One thing Dutch side has in abundance is diversity and multitude of amazing food.  Here are some places we have grown to love, all accessible by dinghy from the lagoon:

- Lal's Indian restaurant - next to airport, cheap and amazing Indian food - great Tandori and Korma specialties and great beer - cherry kriek, bush beer, leffe and hogarden

- Hungarian Coffee House - across the street from Palapa Marina, great breakfast, fresh squeezed orange juice, $3 bagel with egg & cheese - NY prices!

- Adelwine - Lebanese shish kebab, keeps you going

- Bavaria - German fare with Paulaner pilsner

- White Swan - what is lacking in decor is made up for in food quality - next to Pineapple Pete's on Lagoon

- Pineapple Petes - friendly place, good bar food, great parmesan lobster

- Lee's BBQ - anything from the grill is a hit, if you can bare the live music with casio DJ

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The Dutch Side

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The Smallest  Bar on the Planet	Sailing Mega Yachts
Budget Marine – since we spent so much time and money here, this chandlery with a dinghy dock deserves a picture	The Black Pearlesque ship called Santa Clara which is probably a booze cruise boat was docked right on our Budget Marine route, so it was fun to see it every day
“The Witch’s Tit” hill, as its called on the Dutch maps or “Mont Fortune” for the classier French, as seen right behind us in Simpson Lagoon	Simpson Bay Lagoon from the hill – the road from Philipsburg towards SimpsonBay.  The red flag is announcing upcoming elections on the Dutch side

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The French Side

St Martin rainbow, Marigot Bay	St Martin Sunset, Marigot Bay
Marina Royale	Hotel de Ville (Town Hall)
View of Marigot from French side	Enjoying Marina Royale restaurants

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British Virgin Islands

The best thing about BVIs is the stunning marine nature, which the government is preserving at all costs. Its got many great anchorages, snorkeling sites, live reefs, un-spooked fish, natural wonders such as the mega rocks at the Baths and natural beauties such as North Sound. They are also strict about development and speculation, so the foreigners who buy here are rich and the development is done in a very classy way. Overall, it is a generally sleepy place ideally set up for sailing and nature cruising. The locals are very friendly folks. Since local population is quite affluent, most of workers here are from other islands - St Vincent, Grenada, St Lucia or Jamaica. Its got a small town feel, for example, hitching rides is a very common method of transportation around the island, so we have ourselves picked up a couple of people going into town. Most tourists here are affluent American families on sailing charter vacations. March is still peak seasons so many bays were full. You drive on the left here and can get great English food – fish and chips are served at many places and English beer is commonplace. Many English ex-pats run water related businesses here. The music is either reggae or calypso, although we have heard some regaetton as well.

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The table below has some places which we either especially like or are representative of local flavor and culture:

Most beach bars are doggy friendly, such as this Last Resort bar and restaurant, a very cute place with good food	DP Gas Station motivation sign
De Loose Mongoose Bar and Restaurant in Trellis Bay - what a great sign!	Virgin Gorda's North Sound - to me, one of most magical and beautiful places in the World!
Sheenah on the ferry pier of Bitter End Yacht Club in Virgin Gorda, a nautical Caribbean Resort for the whole family, very cute and upscale	The Last Stop Bar in Vurgin Gorda, right next to the ferry to the Bitter End, has truly end of the world feel
Stu & Nat having famous Bomba Punch at Bomba Shack on the West End of Tortola – a fun place for tourists and spring breakers, reminiscent of Cancun stories	Signs & Panties at Bomba Shack
Sheenah getting ready to anchor at yet another paradisiacal anchorage at Peter Island	Immense Rocks at The Baths on Virgin Gorda - impressive rock formations at the beach, another World's wonder

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US Virgin Islands

Our favorite island is of course, WaterIsland, where we own some land and are planning to build a house in the near future.  It’s right in front of Charlotte Amalie, a favorite cruise USVI ship destination and a bustling city by Caribbean standards which even has a Kmart and Home Depot.  Despite this, once you take the ferry from CrownBay marina (located 5-10 mins taxi ride from international airport) and in possession of a great Tickles Pub, you are in the middle of residential tranquility.  You get off 5 minute ferry, take your golf cart to your house and find yourself enjoying a Caribbean vista, miles away from civilization.  There is one grocery store and one restaurant – a cart on the beach which does hot dogs for lunch and posh menu for dinners.  There are 60 houses, but only 20 of them are full time residents and everybody knows everybody.  HoneymoonBeach is one of renowned USVI anchorages.  You can walk everywhere.  There is one fire truck and no police.  There is no crime either, so residents leave their doors open.  Monday night is a movie night when a screen is strung between two palm trees on the beach and you sit on chairs or in a golf cart watching something PG-13 with a cart selling popcorn, beer or hamburgers.  As a matter of fact, we have segregated and are selling lots next to ours – check them out at www.waterislandlots.com (Great website, Chris!!!).  We love WaterIsland and would love to have our friends buy around us so we can have a friendly compound of four houses.

Sail Rock between Culebra and St Thomas	Anchored off our favorite Water Island
Safari Taxi – a common way for getting around the island for $1.00	Charlotte Amalie view from St Thomas hillside road, with a cruise ship in town and Hassel Island visible right in front, with Water Island behind it
View of Charlotte Amalie Harbor from Safari Taxi. As we are riding (on left side of road) by the harbor on way to airport, I take this picture. You can see how Hassle island ends on left and Water Island is two mountains on the right	View of Charlotte Amalie with two cruiseships in town as seen from Water Island whereabouts
Charlotte Amalie Ferry Dock – you can see the pink ferry dock right in the middle and on the left is the seaplane terminal – you can see the seaplane there which just landed in the bay. In the hills above Charlotte Amalie you can see lots of private houses – St Thomas is pretty densely populated which makes a nice contrast to Water Island, right next to it, yet so pristine	Honeymoon Beach on Water Island

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Puerto Rico

Since Puerto Rico has been our home for past 3.5 years, it was an easy one to summarize. 

Top 10 List for Puerto Rico 1. Party and Happy People!!! Puerto Ricans know how to party, stop by any beach on a weekend and you will know what I  mean – barely there bikinis, coolers filled with Coors Light & Medalla, boom boxes with reggaeton. . 2. Holidays Imagine Wal Mart closed six days a year! More holidays than anywhere – amount of holidays double when you sum all the US and all the local holidays. . 3. Beaches Amazing beaches everywhere. . 4. Love for power boats and Power boat raft ups Most impressive of the Caribbean, I am sure. Palominos Medalla raft up party is a blast. . 5. Vieques and Culebra Stunning natural beauty of beaches, vast national park, bunkers, navy heritage, Vieques Airlink. Bioluminescent Bay of Vieques is truly one of wonders of the world. Also love horses roaming wild and Puerto Rican love for horse activities. . 6. Music Reggaeton and salsa – music capital of Latin America, having generated such heavy hitters as Ricky Martin, Chayenne, salsa masters such as Hector Levoe, most recently famous for Daddy Yankee’s Gasolina and Calle 13. . 7. Chicken, rice and beans Local specialties include mofongo and tostones, but nothing can beat a hearty plate of Pollo con arroz y habichuelas or Lechon - yum! . 8. Fave Eats: . - Old San Juan– El Picoteo–great tapas and best Old San Juan setting;Arepas y Mucho Mas–Venezuelan food and under new management; Macarios–Middle Eastern food, best hummus and gyro; Baru– posh Italian bar with lots of wine and great carpaccio; Old Harbor Brewery-great locally made beer; Agua Viva- expensive, but best ceviche. . - San Juan Metro area: Fleria (Santurce) – greek food in a comfortable family style setting, great activities room on the side; Bistro de Paris (Miramar) – French décor and authentic food; Giovanna’s Latin Bouffet –Montehiedra Shopping Center, behind Caribbean Cinemas; Bebo's Cafe (Santurce) - best grilled chickenwith rice & beans or mash EVER; . - Mid island: Casa Bavaria (Morovis) – Germany in the midst of Puerto Rico; La Piedra (Aibonito) – gourmet local food with a breathtaking view . - Fajardo Area - Brisas Verdes (on route 3, near Westin Rio Mar turnoff) – murcilla; Sandy’s (Luquillo downtown) – yummy sea food soup; Rosa’s Seafood( Fajardo) – best fried fish – whole red snapper . 9. Nature wonders Waterfalls and hiking of El Yunque, Camuy Caves rapelling tour with Aventuras Tierra Adentro and bayoluminescent bays of Vieques and Fajardo. . 10. Ancient architecture Old San Juan and San German

PR Pride (these pointers come from an email forward - thanks Zamaly! - and are very true) Our women are the most beautiful in the world (5 Miss Universe) We are LATIN, and yet AMERICANS In PR, any road will take you to a beach..... or a bar. We are the only "territory" of another country with our own Olympic teams. We don't need to take vacations to be in a tropical paradise. We make some of the best coffee of the world. We are the country with the most roads by square mile (and there is still traffic). We have the longest swimming pool in the world (Cerromar) La Calle del Cristo (San Juan) was the first road of "The New World" to be paved. 86% of the rum drank in the U.S. is from Puerto Rico. We have more female engineers than any other country. We know how to party, without absurd curfew laws. The bats for the Movie Batman Forever were filmed in Las Cuevas de Camuy, P.R. Salsa music was the fastest growing genre in the last 20 years. Only 4 baseball players have 2 Home Runs in the same Inning; 3 of them are Puerto Ricans (Roberto Clemente, Roberto Alomar and Carlos Baerga) Junior Cordero (Puerto Rican) won the Kentucky Derby 3 times. There is only 7 fluorescent lagoons in the world; we have 4 of them. Giovanni Hidalgois considered the best percussionist in THE WORLD. Jose Feliciano is in the top 3 guitar players in THE WORLD (don't forget he is blind). We established the first lottery system in the New World. (these additional pointers are from my work buddy Eduardo) • The person who added the three points line to the basketball game was a Puerto Rican – the most revolutionary change to the game since it was invented. • WKAQ AM was the 5th radio station installed in the world and the 2nd in the American Country. • Carlos Baerga's two homers in the same inning were batting from both right and left hand side. . NOT TOO BAD FOR A 100 X 35 MILES ISLAND... Some Pet Peeves 1.  Driving Manners You are a sucker if you signal since fellow drivers will speed up to assure you are not let in, ever.  Whoever drives a scooter or a bycicle has a death wish.  Having learned to drive here, I can now drive anywhere, so get out of my way! 2. Laws Laws are expected to be broken and there is little enforcement.  Sometimes a plus (yeah freedom!), sometimes a minus (freedom for idiots too!). 3. Food Thank God for Costco since the non-Puerto Rican and non-junk food options are somewhat limited.  The few places that exist are excellent (see #8 fave eats on the left), albeit most are pricey. 5. Manana   Usually the only delivery option available, common across the islands but this excuse has a legendary latin flavor. 4. Clicks Which high school one went to is extremely important, you hear grown ups discussing this all the time. .

 

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Sulfur bubbling atop of volcano in Soufriere, world's only drive in volcano	Colorful Diamond falls in Soufriere
Majestic Pitons	Picturesque palm trees in Marigot Bay