Bequia to St Croix, US Virgin Islands, to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

22 - 25 April 2006

An old Danish colony

22 April 2006. Bequia to Kingstown (refuel, VFR 0:05 hrs) to Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands (IFR 2:45 hrs).
The first flight of the day was probably the shortest ever on this trip: just 5 minutes to Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for refuelling and departure formalities which don’t take long in these laid-back Caribbean islands.
After a 2h45 flight, we landed in Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands. There we would have been in trouble if we hadn’t had the waiver for our plane and visas for ourselves. Yes, visas are required for all nationals entering the US in a private aircraft.
We were well received in US style by William Bohlke, the owner of the friendly FBO in Saint Croix. Norma, his assistant, was very helpful taking us through the customs and immigration formalities. The customs official was a bit grouchy, even though all our papers were in order. He said, ‘Next time, you should fill in all the forms before you come and see me.’ Not easy when you’re not travelling by airline and get given the forms to fill in while in flight.
We rented a car and drove to Christiansted. St Croix used to be a Danish colony during the sugar cane era. We checked into the historical King Christian Hotel which was in the process of being renovated, no doubt not for the first time since the Danish era!

23 April 2006. St Croix was one of the three Danish West Indian Islands, which was sold to the US in 1917. We visited the old fort and other beautiful historical buildings in Christiansted in the morning, and toured the north coast of the island in the afternoon. We even stopped for a snorkel – rather disappointing, but then we hadn’t really come to St Croix to snorkel.

24 April 2006 St. Croix, USVI to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (IFR 1:44hrs).
We visited the Whim plantation museum and Frederiksted at the western end of St Croix island in the morning. Whim plantation, like most of the land on St. Croix was actually owned by a non-Dane. The Danes weren’t really interested in living on St Croix, preferring to sell off the land to foreigners willing to cultivate it. Compared to Christiansted, Frederiksted had not been so well preserved and we only found a few historical buildings.
We took off early in the afternoon for the 1h44 flight to Punta Cana. It was a smooth, quick and friendly arrival in Punta Cana. We checked into the Natura Park Eco resort and, with Flemming's crew card, we obtained an all inclusive (all meals and drinks!) rate of US$ 40 per person. It’s a pretty and well managed resort, with flamingos and other birds in their ponds. And our bedroom was huge and well designed with comfortable kin-size bed, luxurious bathroom and even a spacious balcony overlooking the garden. All in all, a relaxing holiday from our holiday, although we are not used to being surrounded by so many package tour tourists.

25 April 2006. Flemming went scuba diving with Flavio, while Angela enjoyed a quiet day on the beach. Returning to the surface after the scuba dive was interesting, as the dive boat apparently had disappeared, and we were a long way from shore! After waiting about 15 minutes at the surface, the boat driver fortunately found us and brought us back to the beach.