TBW Travel Today: IXORA: Coral Bay, St. John

On 1/11/15, our scheduled nonstop 8:30am departure from Washington Dulles to St. Thomas got complicated by a series of airline delays, which ultimately led to an actual departure time of 6pm. Hard lessons from previous travel experience often proscribes that once one's neatly-planned travel itinerary begins to take a downward spiral, very rarely does that spiral ever reverse direction. However, we finally caught a couple huge breaks that allowed us to finally arrive at our villa in St. John a little after 1am. First, we managed to catch the last midnight ferry to St. John and then our property manager kindly met us at the Cruz Bay ferry dock after midnight on a rainy night and drove us across the island to our villa. All in all, we felt quite fortunate to arrive on St. John at the end of our long travel day!

IXORA in early morning light

Sunrise over Norman Island, BVI

Together with Manfred & Linda Von Fricken, this was our fourth stay at Villa IXORA (http://www.stjohnhouserentals.com/Ixora.htm). IXORA was once owned by best-selling author and historian, Stephen Ambrose (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_E._Ambrose) who wrote over 30 books, among them were best-sellers "Band of Brothers", "Undaunted Courage" and "D-Day". Accessed by a steep driveway, IXORA is located on Ajax Peak overlooking Coral Bay at the eastern end of the island of St. John.

Driveway to IXORA

Automatic gate into IXORA

Mark, the manager who drove us to IXORA after midnight

Ixora is a genus of flowering plants in the Rubiaceae family, which flower year-round in tropical climates like St. John. The grounds of IXORA are purposely planted with a wide variety of flowering trees and shrubs.

Centerline Road runs 13.8 miles east-west along the mountainous spine of St. John between Cruz Bay and the easternmost end adjacent to the British Virgin Islands. Arriving by ferry from St. Thomas, there are more than a dozen jeep rental agencies in Cruz Bay. By some coincidence, the rental rate for a Jeep Liberty/Wrangler is about $85/day from all vendors. For this reason, some choose to rent their vehicle in the more competitive rental market on St. Thomas and pay $25. to ferry the vehicle over to St. John from Red Hook.

Katie, Queen of Colombo

For the past 18 years, the Colombo Smoothie Stand has become a key local landmark as you near Coral Bay on Centerline Road. A small sign at the counter offers "free rum in your smoothie upon request"...don't you LOVE the Island vibe? They also sell a large selection of Haitian metal sculpture made by a artist co-op in Haiti. Just to the right side of the smoothie stand, a rocky trail winds 1000 ft. down the mountainside for 2 miles to the Love City Mini Mart (as Dave Barry would say, "I'm not making this up") in Coral Bay.

The Love City Mini Mart has everything you need!

That's IXORA up on the hill above the trail

Once I discovered this trail, I hiked the 4 miles r/t every morning to Love City. The only person I ever encountered on this trail was a Caribbean woman named Marcella, who walks the trail twice a day with her dog...and her pet goat. It was immediately apparent that Marcella was not an insular native and a little conversation revealed she once lived in Yellowknife, which is located in the Canadian Northwest Territories 1000 miles north of Calgary! Although she was a teacher in Yellowknife, she is currently a fire dancer at the upscale Caneel Bay Resort near Cruz Bay.

Marcella and her dog, but her pet goat stayed at home

After making my turnaround at the Love City Mini Mart, the paved section of road quickly degenerates to gravel as it passes the Coral Bay Nursury, owned by a Malaysian man named Alex. Previously he worked on a Malaysian cacao (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_bean) plantation before the "cacao pod borer" insect and "black pod" fungus made cacao production unsustainable. Now Alex produces arugula & fresh herbs (cilantro, parsley, dill, etc) in addition to trees & shrubs.

Coral Bay Garden Center

Traveling a bit further, the gravel transitions into a rutted rocky trail passing by a few shacks and a beekeeper. Nailed to a tree in front of one of the shacks was a handmade "Tourist Information" sign that succinctly described the predicament for most tourists who find themselves on this road...YOU ARE LOST".

Termite nest in tree

Typical daily routine at IXORA was coffee, breakfast, hiking and then rum drinks in the blender at noon--sometimes earlier! The beautiful beaches on the north side of St. John were only 10 minutes drive. At Maho Bay, we snorkeled with Hawksbill turtles as they fed on vegetation along the rocky, sandy bottom.

A view that's easy on the eyes!

Much of the day was spent reading and IXORA has a 60 ft. lap pool and a hot tub. It also features all forms of island inhabitants including geckos on the walls, scorpions, tarantulas and even a bat that flew around inside our main living area until he finally found his way out. The second evening at IXORA, Manfred reached into the cabinet for a wine glass and quickly discovered a tarantula had made it his home. Kenny grabbed the tarantula with salad tongs and tossed him outside!

Manfred's tarantula scooped by Kenny and her salad tongs

Due to a unexpected change in our return flight after the villa had become fully booked, we decided to spend an additional night in Cruz Bay at the Gallows Point Resort. Over the past few years, we had been seeking an opportunity to stay at this innocuous cluster of fifteen 4-unit condos on the westernmost point side of Cruz Bay. It is not until you enter the condo complex that you see the great views looking towards St. Thomas to the west. There are great coral formations for snorkeling down the steps just off the dock.

Gallows Point Resort on the west side of Cruz Bay

The scenic side of Gallows Point Resort

View from our patio towards St. Thomas

There are nine 4-unit buildings that look west and six more that look towards Cruz Bay. Units 1-5 have the most privacy, 6-9 have easy access to the pool/hot tub/snorkeling and 10-15 will have the most noise from the ferry boats and restaurants in Cruz Bay. One of the leaflets in the arrival packet introduced the friendly black cat, Ellington, who "owns" the complex. Sure enough, Ellington found us on our patio and adopted us for a few hours.

Ellington is a very friendly cat!

Gallows Point at sunset

Quarter moon over St. Thomas, USVI

The final night at Gallows Point was an excellent decompression stage transitioning from the laid back villa life to re-entry back into real life. Reality can only be deferred for so long and the next day found us at the ferry dock returning to St. Thomas for the flight back to Washington Dulles.