House Hunting Trip - Villa Bambooshay (Day 5-6)

We've had a couple of exciting days. Yesterday we met with a realtor and looked at our long term living options. We are concerned at the small number of available places, but were pleased by the quality of the places on the market. Unfortunately, it looks like we will be leaving most of our belongings behind, as most of the rental properties come furnished.

Then we met with the vacation villa property manager who rented us Villa Bambooshay. She showed us four EXTREMELY nice places which are available for us during our two month temp quarters. The least luxurious of these is also listed for sale at just under $2M!

Today we played tourist! We set out at 9:30 this morning on a glass bottom boat heading for Buck Island. It was about a 45 minute boat ride to the island which sits along St. Croix's north shore toward the eastern end. It was a bumpy ride out, not sickening as much as a fun mild roller coaster! Just before reaching the island H spotted a school of dolphins! The captain manuevered the boat and soon we had dolphins on either side of our boat - one was a small baby!

Buck Island, a national park, is best known for it's great beach and snorkeling area. First we snorkeled (which is nowhere as exciting as SCUBA diving so I was a little let down). Then we traveled to the beach where we were both very impressed. The beach is ranked among the world's ten best by National Geographic. July is the beginning of the turtle egg laying season, so we were asked to stay close to the water and not venture off onto the sand for fear of stepping on a nest of eggs.

Our return trip was very calm and relaxing. We spent a majority of our time speaking with the captain about island life. We try to do this with every local we meet, most questions posed (what type of cell service is the best) are unanimously agreed upon, but some questions asked (what part of the island is the best to live) have resulted in a wide variety of answers, leaving us even more confused!