Charlotte Amalie
Today after a morning class we hiked down to find the Dollar Taxi into town. It was quite the squished ride but successful. Food was our priority, so we split into two groups to get some lunch, then met at Emancipation Park (so named because it was there that the emancipation of the slaves was announced in 1848) to start our walking tour of the town. First we had to go by many taxi drivers who were bound and determined to get us in their taxis, and we needed to find sunblock for our boat trip (the locals joked with us that they don’t use it). We succeeded in finding sunblock as well as fending off attempts to get us onto taxis and then to get us to go into the many jewelry stores here. We are a determined group.
The hills here are impressively steep, so they got a workout checking out the sites. This is a wellness trip, however, so there were no complaints heard. Here they are heading up to see the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere:
We went by a place that somehow looked familiar:
Here’s the group on some of the stairs they mastered:
Eric stood guard at Government House:
Up and up they went, and this picture shows Katie, Ethan, John and Amanda standing above the ruins of a house, that presumably didn’t make it through the hurricanes that besieged these islands just a couple of years ago:
On the way back to the center of town we came upon Franklin Roosevelt Park, where we found a tiny library. Wellness includes intellectual curiosity, and there was a flurry of interest in the books to be found in the library box:
Now we are back for our final night at Tillett Gardens. Last night a bunch of them found a bizarre movie that pleased them greatly, and I strongly suspect that they are now watching another nollywood movie which we will hear all about tomorrow amidst great laughter. It’s a cheerful crew we have here, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they do on the boat.
Once again, please remember to check out the Ship’s Log on the website of World Ocean School for the period when we are on the Roseway (Tuesday – Saturday).
