With checkout at noon and my flight at six, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. I decided to take my chances with the taxis and head into town. I talk to the front desk about the best way to do it. Basically they said walk down the road in the direction I want to go, and someone will offer me a ride. They said it’s only $1, and I noticed that that’s what the locals pay. But to the tourists, it’s $4. Same route, same taxi – $3 surcharge.

No two taxis are created equal in St. Thomas. It seems to be an owner-operator deal, and they just belong to the taxi association. So each one has its own flair – particularly the safaris (the open-air ones). I didn’t get pictures of any really interesting ones, but here’s a few examples:

Small:

Medium:

Large:

And the regular vans too:

This is the bay in front of Charlotte Amalie, the main town:

And this was my visitor last night:

He’s got googley eyes!

While I was in town, I stopped for a drink. Sitting at the bar, I ordered my virgin fruity drink and listened to the bartender talk to a lady at the other end of the bar. He asked her a question that sounded like “Have you ever watched a lot of movies?” I don’t think it made any sense to her either, because she asked him to repeat it. Even if that was what he said, surely he’d fix it up on the second try. He repeated: “Have you ever watched a lot of movies?” I didn’t hear her response, but he followed up with asking if she had seen a specific movie. Was that question just to prime the pump? I just don’t get it.

Tags: No Comments