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Cuba, the Caribbean Islands,
and Central America in 2001
US Virgin Islands (St-Thomas)
Bec2004-09-17 16:33:41
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Rating: 3.00 out of 5.00. 2 members have rated this article
Charlotte Amalie
I flew from San Juan to Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas Island, the capital of the US Virgin Islands. It was a short flight on this small propeller aeroplane.
After seeing them in San Juan, I'm beginning to learn about these big cruise ships. Some of them carry as many as 3000 passengers. Actually they are floating hotels with swimming pools, restaurants, bars, night clubs, casinos and even shops that compete with whatever their ports of call can offer.
The Caribbean has been called the millionaires' playground and this private yacht is certainly not a cheap toy to play with.
Too many cars with nowhere to go on the small island of St-Thomas, jam the traffic on Waterfront Drive.
The Virgin Islands Museum in the restored Fort Christian built in 1671, was interesting but hardly worth the trip to see.
There are also a couple of quiet back streets that are nice to look at.
The real attraction seems to be all the duty free shops that line the streets near the harbour. Car traffic was bad on Waterfront Drive but pedestrian crush is even worse in the shop lined streets.
I really don't know why people come here to buy goods they could also get duty free on board their cruise ships at net prices no better than those they would pay at home including duty and taxes! I don't know about jewellery but I was not impressed by the camera prices.
Charlotte Amalie is really quite small and shoppers from four big cruise ships can equal the local population of 12 000. The US Virgin Islands get 422 000 visitors a year. That is three and a half times the total population of the islands of 120 000 people!
It can safely be said that the US Virgin Islands are saturated with tourists. Their score of 1,784 on the Tourist Saturation Index would be much higher were it not for the important contribution to the GNP of the alumina plant and refinery on St Croix island.
All I remember about this place is that it looked like a big shopping mall. Absolute madness!
After a few hours I had seen enough so I took the ferry to Road Town on Tortola, the capital of the British Virgin Islands.
Copyright Bernard Cloutier
All rights reserved.
Please visit my website
See photographs from:
Virgin Islands (U.S.) Gallery
