Beaches and Butterflies in St. Thomas

A US Virgin Island

I’ve visited St. Thomas a few times, each time each experience better than the previous.  That is not to say I think St. Thomas is an exceptional island.  It is one of my least favorite spots in the Caribbean, which the links at right show I have a pretty big sample size.  It’s not that St. Thomas isn’t a beautiful Caribbean island with beautiful quartz sand beaches abundant with marine life.  St. Thomas is all of those things.  The problem with St. Thomas is that I am much less one to sit on a beach and soak in the sun.  I’d rather be touring a whiskey distillery, hiking a volcano, or learning a foreign language.  St. Thomas offers none of these options, instead limiting itself to soaking in views and sun.  I think each of my St. Thomas experiences has gotten better, because each time I have relented to accepting what St. Thomas has to offer, and going with the flow instead of making the island something it is not.  

I take in the sun at Magen's Bay in St. Thomas relenting to soak in the sun, with sun screen applied of course.

The first time I visited St. Thomas I wrongly expected to walk off the ship and see a hoard of locals advertising zip line and snorkeling tours, or at the very least a city tour.  Alas St. Thomas is not like most other Caribbean ports, because I found none of those options, only a taxi to downtown.  The taxis of St. Thomas are much like those of neighboring Tortola, more like shuttles than taxis, brining many passengers to the same location. 

Magen's Bay is one of the more popular beaches of St. Thomas.

We wandered around downtown sipping Piña Coladas and dipping in and out of shops.  Since St. Thomas is a member of the US Virgin Islands, the prices of souvenirs about at par with what they go for in the US, and are just as likely to be made in China.  We did stumble on a jewelry store that sold very reasonable priced earrings, just slightly cheaper than the US (going by weight), but more importantly in the plain style I so love.  In all that first trip to St. Thomas was nothing I could not have accomplished at the neighborhood mall back home. 

See the needle fish under the water? I took this photo in Magen's Bay.

I thought my second trip to St. Thomas would be better.  Knowing better what to and not to expect at the port I did more research on activities ahead of time.  Most of what I found centered about shopping or beaches, but I did find a little gem located a few blocks away from the port, a butterfly garden.

This time when we pulled into port it was hot, and we took our time getting off the ship.  We stepped off board to find a sign a block away pointing to the butterfly garden, and proceeded to follow sign after sign until we arrived at a quaint yellow paneled building.  After paying our five dollar entrance fee we stepped into a small screen enclosed garden filled with butterflies native to the island.  We had the garden all to ourselves, which I found miraculous considering the probably thousands of tourists who had just walked off the ship a few blocks away. 

Another fish, probably a sea bass, in Magen's Bay.  This one almost swam under my legs.

We spent almost an hour in the garden trying to get the perfect photo with the butterflies.  The dominant species were large and changed colors, but tended to freak out and fall off or fly away when we gently tried to nudge them onto a finger.  After a quarter of an hour passed we tried a new approach.  David had bought some Gatorade in the gift shop to keep from getting dehydrated in the severe heat.  We poured some of the sugary liquid into the bottle cap to entice the butterflies to drink and stay still on our hands.  It worked.  This was actually the first time I have ever held a butterfly successfully, and I was excited at the prospect I started sprinting around the garden trying to pick them all up.  I stopped when one fell off my hand and broke a wing.  I felt awful about it, and decided maybe I had had enough.  We left soon after, and a finding only souvenir shops nearby decided our time was better spent on the ship.

A typical street in St. Thomas.

The last time I visited St. Thomas, I did so only because I so badly wanted to visit the Baths National Park on Virgin Gorda, and the only itinerary that got us to the British Virgin Islands also happened to stop at St. Thomas.  This time I decided to give in fully and visit a beach.  I decided on Magen’s Bay, because it was listed by National Geographic as one of the top ten beaches in the world.  The whole excursion cost us about fifteen dollars a person, ten dollars for the round trip taxi and five dollars admission.  Finding a taxi was easy, and again we loaded into a shuttle-like taxi with a bunch of other people heading to the same destination. 

One of the many butterflies int he garden we visited on St. Thomas.

For the most part what we found at Magen’s Bay was not surprising.  The scenery was beautiful, with lush mountains forming the edges of the bay.  It was also really crowded, like really really crowded.  The beach itself was only ten feet wide or so, and some parts of it were so crowded with towels and children throwing sand it was difficult to walk.  We headed to a far end and laid down our blankets where the crowd dispersed due to the effort required to lug so much equipment across the sand.  We brought minimal supplies, a small backpack and blankets, with out bathing suits on under our clothes. 

Look! I'm actually holding a butterfly!

I waded into the water to cool off and was surprised at the abundance of fish so close to shore.  I even spotted a sea turtle just outside the swim buoys poking its head above the water for a gander at the masses.  I don’t think anyone else noticed.  He was hard to spot with only brief appearances of his head above the horizon.  I was starting to like Magen’s Bay, but that’s when I decided to buy a soda.  There was one food and soda shack, and I wound up standing in line for thirty minutes squeezed in between other pasty sandy bodies to buy two sodas.  All the magic of the bay disappeared in that time frame.  Hot and bothered by the crowdedness we left after taking one more walk around the bay.

Feeding butterflies gatorade to convince them to pose for a photo.

So St. Thomas stands with a pretty low rating.  Seeing the sea turtle was cool, but they are much easier to spot from the top of the ship, where I have seen many while in the Virgin Islands.  I think next time I visit, I will take the ferry to St. John where I can go hiking in the national park.