Virgin Islands NP and San Juan NHS

No matter where we go, we always have our NP radar on.  When planning our cruise with my parents, uncle and aunt we began to identify if there were any NP's on our route.  We were in luck when we found both St John and San Juan had great places to visits...and of course some NP stamps!  The challenge: the cruise ship was only in port at certain times and for 4 hours for each island port.  That meant we had to know where we were going and couldn't mess around. 

Our first NP stop on 3/4 was to St Thomas.  The Virgin Islands NP is actually on St Johns.  The only way there is to rent a vehicle and take a 30min ferry over to St Johns.  Of course, we opted for two wheel transportation.

The biggest bike we could rent on St. Thomas - a Kawasaki 250.  Quite a difference from the 1500 Classic.  Our destination: Virgin Islands National Park on St John via auto ferry.

 

Our Kawi ride getting a little picture love while we enjoy the view



A nice VI rearview mirror shot.  Crazy thing is: the mirror is so small there's only room for the camera!  lol

First time riding on the left side of the road

Virgin Islands Visitor Center

 

We were sandwiched between flatbed trucks, work vans and cement trucks

A view of the harbor and our cruise ship waiting for us

St Thomas VI twisties

Downhill twisties with oncoming traffic and sharp left turns

 

Some interesting "out door johns" at a St John gas station.



The following day, we stopped off at San Juan.

 

San Juan NHS was a 1.4km walk from the cruise port.  We arrived on San Juan at 7am; however, the visitor center didn't open until 9am.  We had time to walk around outside and check things out

Grapes growing along the fence line.

The capital building

 

City workers paint the streets with kid gloves!

 

Old San Juan looking into New San Juan

Walking the half mile between the two parts of the NP, there was this cool ocean print basketball court.  There is a chick down there practicing his moves.

Where the canons used to be with rotating tracks

The triangular staircase. Guys may not get as dizzy as spiral staircases but could be more difficult to climb quickly when an impending attack was prominent.

 

This plaza with the tiki-like structure commemorates the Quincentennial of the European Discovery of America and Puerto Rico

The sales tax is pretty steep!