Cruise-Saint Thomas

I woke up to a balcony view of beautiful St. Thomas. It all seems so surreal. You wake up and you're in a different port. You get out of bed and open the shades to see an island you have never seen before. It's absolutely gorgeous. Once fully woken up we shower, get dressed, eat a quick breakfast and get off the ship. We find ourselves on the sunny island where we make our way to the parked taxis. When I say taxi, I mean a truck with the back turned into rows of seats to make it look more like a trolley than an actual car. So we jumped in the "taxi" and headed to the beach. The beach was fabulous. We rented lounge chairs that were right next to huge iguanas on the sand. After we settled in to our spot on the beach, we went straight to the water. While everyone else jumped right in, I took my time. As I was walking in the water a fisherman walked by and said "oh wow look at that fish" and my reaction was to jump out of the way. The fisherman then said "there's a barracuda right behind you." I laughed, and he said "no really there's a barracuda right behind you." I didn't see anything and assumed he was joking. However, a little bit later we saw something jump and realized that there actually was a barracuda that had swam right behind me. Apparently none of us saw that sign at the front of the beach that said be careful of the barracudas. So I ran out of the water and was quite unhappy to think that these barracudas were ruining my beach day at St. Thomas.

Now that I felt unsafe in the water, I relaxed and watched my boyfriend swim trying to take pictures of this barracuda, all from the view of my lounge chair. I stayed on the beach for awhile, and we ordered lunch from one of the beach side cafes. We fed some of the ducks and iguanas, and eventually I was ready to get back in the water. I am glad to say the barracudas did not bother us. Even though the locals said they were harmless unless provoked, I did not believe this and was still a little wary of where I was swimming. However, before I knew it, it was time to leave the beach.

The taxi picked us back up, and dropped us off by shops. Again, I shopped for souvenirs as we all realized we were extremely sun burnt from the beach. So, we also had to purchase a bottle of aloe. After we got back on the ship I took a very painful shower and then dressed warmly because I was feeling cold from being so burnt. Thinking back about the pain now, I cringe just knowing that I could barely walk without feeling hurt. This caused my ankles and knees to swell up because the burn was so bad, not exactly my idea of a fun vacation. Still, we had a few more stops on the cruise before heading back to NY, and I don't regret anything that has happened so far.