St. Croix vs. St. Thomas

St. Croix (STX) is bigger, flatter, and more laid back. St. Thomas (STT) is smaller, steeper (much!), and faster paced. STT has more big-name cultural events than STX, but about the same historical venues. I don't know if STX even has a place where ballet, symphony, plays, etc., can be staged. The local gripe has it that STX is the poor stepsister to STT, which supposedly gets everything because the Legislature and the Governor are there.

Also, lots of cruise ships go to STT, contributing to a sense of hyperactivity there. Most days, two to four ships pull into Charlotte Amalie for the day, but it's not unusual for up to six and seven ships to pull into the harbor on any given day. Then, anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 passengers disembark all at once for a frantic round of sightseeing and shopping, starting around 8:30 in the morning and ending between 4 and 6:30 pm. When this happens, the congestion--automotive and pedestrian--on STT in the downtown area becomes downright awful.

St. Croix has far fewer cruise ships. Indeed, no ships docked here for several years, which had caused the economy to suffer badly. This winter saw the return of a couple of European cruise companies, which mainly came to STX to take on cheaper oil, thanks to the presence of Hess Oil on this island. Only two or three ships came per week, and then only one at a time. I suppose it helped the local economy a little; I'm just glad that it didn't impact STX the way it does STT. When the "high season" is over (by mid-April, I think), there'll be no more ships here for awhile, however.

Along with the additional traffic caused by the cruise ships comes more pollution, both the inhaled kind and the visual. The fumes on a hot day along the main road near the docks on STT can literally knock a person out. Also, the trash along the roadsides on both islands is depressing as hell. It's hard to say which island looks worse, but if I had to vote, I'd say the road that runs along the south shore on STT is PDB (pretty damn bad) and probably worse than the trash that piles up on either Melvin Evans Highway or Centerline Road on STT.

If anything contributes to one's knowing that there is no such thing as paradise anymore, it's the tons of trash on these beautiful islands. I've seen everything from baby diapers to rusted out appliances, junked cars to plastic bottles, Especially plastic water bottles now that so many people are stupidly afraid to drink water from a tap. Ha! They continue to do this even when studies have been published that indicate tap water can actually be less contaminated than designer water!