Bartender Olympics

Last Sunday we attended the annual Bartender Olympics to benefit the St. Croix Animal Shelter. It was held on the beach at Protestant Cay, a small island in the middle of Christiansted Harbor. It was a fun day. Bartenders and servers competed in popping tops off beer bottles, running obstacle courses, mixing drinks, and so on. Our friend Joe had the tough job of jurying the competition, so he got to taste all the concoctions created by the bartenders, which also sold on auction for $80 to $250. Some of the creations included a Crucian Mimosa, Strawberry Cheesecake and the Natural Pina Colada, made with fresh pineapples and served inside the pineapple.

Rick of Molly Molone's in St. Thomas won Best Bartender. His castaway looks belied a sharp efficiency that left most other bartenders in the dust. Kirsten, his able server, should have won best server, but there was no such category. We stood behind them during the competition and cheered them on, and for our efforts we were rewarded with our very own free Natural Pina Colada, the very same potion that had just been auctioned for $250.

Triathlon Weekend

This past weekend St. Croix was hopping with world-class athletes who came to compete in the annual St. Croix Ironman 70.3, a qualifying event for the 2007 Ironman World Championship to be held this fall in Kona, Hawaii. Over 500 athletes put themselves through a 1.2-mile swim at the Christiansted Harbor. Then they jumped on their bikes for a 56-mile bike ride along the North Shore and up a super-steep 600-foot hill affectionately called "The Beast." They returned to downtown Christiansted, dropped their bikes and wound down with a 13-mile run.

There was a Jump Up (street festival) on Friday night to welcome the athletes. Bob and I joined the crowds roaming the streets of downtown. We ate chicken skewers and Johnny cakes and stopped in at various street corners to listen to Jazz from the Central High Jazz Band, quelbe by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knight, steel pans, and finally, at the Caravelle Arcade we joined a throng of fans dancing to Kurt Schindler's music.

The actual triathlon took place on Sunday morning. Many main roads on the island were closed for the event, much to the chagrin of churchgoers looking for alternate routes. We stayed put at home most of Sunday, and in the late afternoon came out and drove away from the triathlon crowds to the west end of the island to watch a quiet sunset.

So Long, Snowbirds!

When Bob and I take our early morning walk, we head down our hill, around the bend, and along the drive into Gentle Winds, a condominium development on the beach with a large population of retirees who winter in St. Croix. All "winter" long, the Gentle Winds drive is full of morning walkers, whom we greet and have come to know by name. Jim and Dick carry plastic bags and pick up trash along the way. Mal walks her beagle that sometimes runs away to chase a mongoose, while Tom walks a sweet white poodle aptly named Marshmallow. Peter from Montreal asks about life up here on the hill, and a plump lady who nods a silent greeting carries a small Ipod in hand while wearing enormous headphones.

But as April winds down, the bustling drive to Gentle Winds empties as one by one, these walkers disappear. They return to their families in Connecticut or Rhode Island or Ohio, and Bob and I are often the only walkers on that stretch. With the snowbirds the tourists go too.

High season in St. Croix runs from December to April. There are families that come here during their kid's summer vacation, but the overall numbers are not as high as in season. We, the year-round residents, get used to the extra space on the roads, at restaurants, beaches, etc., and then October rolls around, and the influx begins as seasonal workers return to their jobs to prepare for the new tourist season.

And Bob and I continue our morning walk along the drive, and one day we see Dick who offers us a hearty greeting, and another day Tom comes along with Marshmallow, and soon the drive is full of life again.

A Taste of St. Croix

Tonight Crucians are in for one of the most popular events on island. Throngs gather at the Divi Carina Bay Resort to sample food and wine from 50 restaurants and wine merchants. You vote for the best food and the winning restaurant gets bragging rights and is sent to compete at a Caribbean food contest in Florida. A Taste of St. Croix is a fundraiser to benefit the St. Croix Foundation, which in turn spends the money in community initiatives. The price this year is $75 per ticket (up from $60 last year) and the event is so popular that I heard this year tickets sold out in 20 minutes.

I went last year. There were 50 tables to visit within a couple of hours. I got my first small sampling plate from the first table and my first glass of wine from the second table, and I ran out of hands. I didn't even know where to put my wine glass so that I could actually eat the food. This predicament repeated itself throughout the night, but I still managed to sample a few wines and I got to try dishes like Shrimp Tagine and Coconut-encrusted Mahi Mahi, and a heavenly chocolate mousse. I went with a group of people and found myself spending a good chunk of time just trying to keep track of my companions. When the night was over and the tables were cleared, I was astounded to discover that I was still hungry!

This year we decided to skip the whole overwhelming experience, but today we celebrated our own taste of St. Croix with a wonderful French lunch at Café Christine. Located in a lush courtyard in downtown Christiansted, this café is open only for lunch, Monday to Friday, and as far as I'm concerned it is St. Croix's best kept secret. After living here for 2 years, I only heard about it a couple of months ago, and today was my first visit there. Christine, the owner, is a chef worth her salt. She told us she gets to work at 6 a.m. to cook a new menu each day. Every dish and heavenly dessert is made fresh that day, and it shows! I had the best duck terrine I've ever tasted, and Bob had a delightful smoked salmon with lentils. Dessert was a grape tart that was creamy and fruity but not very sweet. And the prices were on average $10 per dish, amazing for such divine food. I now know where I'll be heading for lunch every chance I get.

PS: Happy birthday to my cat, Calypso, who turns 12 today!

St Patrick's Day with a Tropical Twist

Last Saturday we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a parade that over the years has become one of the most popular events among continentals here in St. Croix.

The parade starts at 11 a.m. sharp and it winds its way up about 4 blocks of Company Street before it turns the corner at Market Square and marches down the same distance on Kings Street. It is very small and quite short, but it makes up in size with a huge amount of good, goofy fun. The crowd is an eager participant wearing green, sometimes outrageous outfits, brandishing water guns and drinking massive amounts of beer. Here are some shots:

Limin' on Cane Bay

Sunday is definitely Fun Day here on St. Croix. Although I spent the morning finishing a new quilt for the upcoming exhibit at the St. George Botanical Garden, I was ready to come out and play in the afternoon. Here's my husband Bob's account of our visit to Cane Bay, as e-mailed to our friend Rich G.:

"Things are lovely on STX. We spent the afternoon limin' on Cane Bay Beach. We brought books to read, but it was so interesting watching people, and listening to live bar bands, and vehicular sound systems, that we just sat and enjoyed the sights and sounds. We were planning to check out Off The Wall for dinner. It was closed for many months and just re-opened. But then a waiter from Spratnet, a restaurant way over on the west end of the beach, walked over and asked us if we needed anything, so we said, 'How 'bout a pig roast dinner?' and he said, 'Sure,' so he brought that over and we never had to get out of our chairs."

Whale Watching

I'm typing this while on a whale watch by my window looking out towards the water on the north shore of the island. Sometimes whales swim this way and we've developed an unofficial alert system along the north shore. When Frank from Frank's Lobster Reef spots whales from his seaside restaurant, he calls Adele at Villa Margarita, who then calls us. Other alert systems get activated because we then see boats coming out of the Salt River Marina to deeper waters to catch sight of the whales.

From Frank's sighting in La Vallee, near Cane Bay, to our spot along Salt River Bay there's about a 40 minute wait. I've kept my eye on the water and was rewarded a few minutes ago with the sight of a few hearty splashes and a glimpse of a dark torso breaking the surface of the water. I'm happy just to have seen the splashing about because there's only one word to describe the message these whales bring to me: pure joy. And what an awesome thing it is to be in such a majestic presence.

One of the boats out there got a very good show because all the splashing happened just a few hundred feet away. Here's a photo of that lucky boat and the view from our place:

The Height of High Season

Because President's Day coincides with many schools' winter breaks, and because it's hard to resist trading the dark cold winters for the perfect weather of the islands, this is the most popular week to visit St. Croix. In essence, it's the height of high season. Restaurants are crowded, hotels are fully booked, beaches are well attended, and the roads have cars with drivers trying hard to remember to stay on the left.

For locals and tourists alike, the weekends are jammed with tempting activities. Last weekend we had Friday Sunset Jazz, the Good Hope Art Exhibit, the Mardi Croix Parade, The Fur Ball to raise funds for the Animal Welfare Center, the Agricultural Fair and the play "Once Upon a Mattress." This coming weekend there will be the Sea Creatures Masquerade Ball to raise funds for the St. Croix Environmental Association, a full Crucian pig roast at Mt. Victory Camp to benefit Haiti Community Support, plus live music everywhere, including Kurt Schindler at the Domino Club.

Living here, there's only so much energy/time/money to do everything. Sometimes, a simple day on the beach is enough, but it's nice to know all of these good things are happening around us.

Good Hope Exhibit

Last Friday night we attended the opening reception for the Good Hope Art Exhibit. It was a new experience for me as this was my very first exhibit. We arrived to a line that snaked out the door, and inside the place was packed. A fellow exhibiter had told me earlier that she found it agonizing to have her art out on display for critique. "You're bearing your soul!"

For me, the experience was more abstract. I felt detached from my work. It was as if the act of hanging them up for display released any attachments I had to these pieces. What I kept was the excitement I felt when I created them; the pleasure of hours at the studio immersed in my work while listening to great music or a fine audible book.

I did receive very encouraging feedback from the audience. But for me, the most rewarding feedback was when the director of the program told me that my quilts were a big hit with the Good Hope students. I love it that the kids got it, so next year I'll be doing a demo for the kids, and I'm thoroughly looking forward to it.

Here's a picture of the exhibit space:

Crucian Funeral

Terence, the husband of one of the cleaning women who works here at the villa, died of a heart attack and yesterday we attended his funeral, our first on the island. Because they were from St. Lucia and had relatives all over the world, the funeral was scheduled two weeks after his death, but this seems to be the norm. It's also the norm for his obituary to run in the paper with the names of every relative and friend of the deceased rather than an actual biography of his life.

The viewing was scheduled for 10 a.m. at the church, with mass at 11 a.m. We arrived promptly at 10 to find people milling about, but there was no casket and no family to be seen. Not knowing the protocol, Bob and I sat and waited quietly for something to happen. About half hour later, someone walked in with a box of programs, but rather than distributing it along the pews, everyone clustered around the person and took the programs from her hand. Bob got one and so we sat engrossed reading a beautiful booklet with pictures of Terence and loving messages from his family and friends.

Suddenly there was wailing just a few pews behind us. We looked back to find that the casket had been brought in and placed near the entrance. The family was crying before the body while everyone else was jockeying for position. The funeral director attempted to get everyone to form a line, but it was nearly impossible. We waited until things settled down and we were able to come up to the family and pay our respects.

We couldn't stay for the entire service, but we left moved by the love and the grief for this kind man who knew how to enjoy life. Maybe the logistics of grieving are different from place to place, but the grief is the same.

Quakes and Volcanoes

On Monday the volcano on Montserrat shot a cloud of ash more than five miles into the sky, signaling a warning call for anybody still left on Montserrat. For us higher up the island chain here on St. Croix it signals a few days of haze and ashen residue on rooftops and windows. For me it signals allergies with lots of sneezing.

This photo is a view from our home. You can see the green lush vegetation, Salt River Bay in the middle of the photo, and way in the distance on the far right of the horizon line, there's a faint trace of Buck Island. It is faint thanks to the Montserrat haze, because otherwise we would have a very clear view of the island.

Yesterday the local paper reported the news from Montserrat alongside an article about a quake that rattled the Virgin Islands on Sunday morning. It had a magnitude of 4.4 but we apparently slept through it. What astounded me was the report that in the 10 days of this year, we've already experienced 22 quakes!

Crucian Festival

Locals celebrate the Christmas season in style here on St. Croix with a Festival of organized events that lasts an entire month. A "Festival Village" is erected at a local park in Frederiksted and every night there is food, amusement park rides and musical performances with dancing till the wee hours. Music includes Latin, Reggae, Calypso and Quelbe (the local brand of Calypso that is a favorite of mine).

There is also the Prince, Princess and Duchess Pageant, followed by the Calypso competitions. The Calypso Juniors are for kids and the Calypso Monarchs for adults. Everyone sings and acts out calypso songs that range from the patriotic to stinging political satire, all received with howls of laughter and cheers from the audience.

The Festival also hosts the Miss St. Croix and Mr. St. Croix Pageants, King and Queen of the Bands, Water Sports Day, Latin and Quelbe Cultural Dances, a Food and Crafts Fair and a few Tramps. Tramps traverse town led by a Quelbe band playing out of the back of a truck followed by a crowd on foot dancing in the streets. Yesterday morning there was J'ouvert, the traditional tramp that began at 5 in the morning!

But the biggest events are the two parades that complete the Festival. Today there will be the Children's Parade and tomorrow the Adult's Parade. In attendance will be all the bands that participated in the festival; floats; colorful dancers with feathers and glitter galore; the winners of all the competitions including Miss and Mr. St. Croix plus the Prince, Princess and Duchess, King and Queen of the Bands and the winners of the Calypso Contests. The parades begin at 10 a.m. and are still going at sundown.

Last year I was keen to participate in as many events as possible. This year I've been so focused at the studio that the festival has gone unnoticed. In the unlikely event that I go to the Adult Parade this year, I'll bring a chair and ear plugs because it is long, crowded and incredibly loud.

The New Year Found Me Dancing

Last night the moon had a multi-colored aura and the air an indigo hue that was simply magical. It was a gorgeous night to celebrate the new year here on St. Croix. We kept to our plan and after a homemade dinner, we went to Chicken Charlie's Roadhouse. Outlaw Bressie James played well, as usual, but the Red Bull on ice didn't entirely take away the sleepiness that came over me after a hearty slice of cheesecake. It took Tutto Bene's disco party for the cobwebs to clear. We wasted no time hitting the dance floor and getting down with James Brown, ABBA, and the Village People. We welcomed 2007 dancing to the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight. Later, we drove by a crowded Club 54 but opted to go home instead, vowing to return to Tutto Bene's monthly disco party very soon.

As far as New Year's Eve celebrations go, it was a good one, considering that, historically, I am one nudge away from going to bed early and foregoing the entire hubbub. The new year found me dancing, and that's exactly how I want to spend 2007: dancing with simple joy over victories big and small. I want to enjoy life for what it is, without imposing elaborate expectations on every moment. I want to be grateful for all the blessings and stop wasting energy sweating the small stuff. There it is, my wish list for 2007. Happy New Year!

Ending the Year

There is no shortage of things to do here on St. Croix tonight. Every restaurant and beach bar has dinner and music lined up to ring in the New Year. In addition, the week-long Crucian Christmas Festival is in full swing with Festival Village erected to offer carnival rides, local foods, dance performances and live bands tonight until 4 in the morning.

Tonight Bob and I are teaming up with our pals Adele and John for a last hurrah with Mary Anne, who will be moving to Florida in a couple of days. Not wanting to commit to one place all night, we're creating our own a la carte celebration. We'll convene at John and Adele's for dinner and then we'll go east to Chicken Charlie's Roadhouse to see Outlaw Brassie James, a great local rock and blues band. From there we'll work our way westward and backwards in time to Tutto Bene for a sampling of their Disco Night. If we still have enough energy, we'll stop in to Club 54 to see Banooba, a NY-based funk rock group very popular here on St. Croix.

I may need a nap before all the festivities, but more importantly, I want to sit today and take stock of this year and focus my thoughts on the new year. As I do every year on this day, I'll make a list of everything that I want to leave behind in 2006, and another list of everything that I want to welcome in 2007, and you can bet that quilting is going to top that list!

Winter Solstice

Although "winter" here gives us a dimmer sun and slightly shortened daylight hours, today being the shortest day of the year is a fact that bears little overt significance in the tropics.

In New Jersey I used to observe the winter solstice as a time to prepare for the deep freeze of winter and the resulting period of introspection and reflection. I was like a bear preparing for hibernation. With the short gray days, my energy was low and my need to sleep was gargantuan. I remember dragging myself out of bed at 8 a.m. and being ready to succumb back in bed at 7 p.m. Writing and cooking hearty soups were the only activities that seemed worth pursuing.

My winters are very different now, with abundant fresh air and sunshine. I don't need to be in bed half the day, though I always cherish a full night of sleep, a good writing session and a hearty bowl of soup.

Today I will still observe the Winter Solstice. I won't be burrowing away under thick blankets waiting for the thaw, but I'll be retreating into the studio for a period of quiet creativity. And just knowing that I'll have the opportunity to hibernate in such a delightful way is enough reason to celebrate!

Kurt Schindler at the Domino Club

Last night, as we do on the last Sunday of the month, we went to the Domino Club to see Kurt Schindler perform his wonderful flamenco-style music. The Domino Club is also known as the Montpellier Club and as the Home of the Beer Drinking Pigs. Locals usually just refer to it as going to Norma's.

This straw hut in the middle of the rain forest is an institution well loved by tourists and locals alike. Tourists come to see the massive 500 lb. pigs that will almost stand on two legs in their effort to reach out and snatch the can of non-alcoholic beer from your hand. They hold the can between their teeth and guzzle the beer in a couple of big gulps to the amazement of the crowd. At the bar area Norma is usually serving the locals her famous "mammawanna," an infusion of rum and herbs that is drunk as a shot or sipped slowly like a liqueur. I like to sip mine and chase it with a Corona.

When Kurt plays, the dance floor is packed with people of all races and all ages. It's great to sit back and watch everyone having so much fun, but I do little of that because I'm usually busy dancing with my pals Adele and Kim (our husbands join in occasionally). Last night there was one guy dancing his heart out. He was punching the air, twisting, crouching, howling and trying out his idea of sexy moves on all the girls on the floor who good-naturedly danced with him for a spell or two. The rest of us were smiling, knowing that his euphoria was one part Kurt, two parts mammawanna. Kim admitted this was her doing. She'd met him at the beach earlier that afternoon and told him he must come to see Kurt. I imagine that he is probably a very conservative lawyer in a high-stress job, and he was overdue for an opportunity to let it all hang out. But in truth, this is the power of Kurt's music. Mammawannas or not, the music is so infectious that we can't help but have a good time. It is why we go see him every chance we get.

Jump Up and Moko Jumbies

Last night the town of Christiansted threw a huge street party, or "Jump Up" as we actually call it here. The historic streets in the center of town were closed to traffic and full of people enjoying the scene. The shops stayed open late and offered many sales. There were food vendors along the sidewalks, and on many corners bands played music for every taste: Jazz, Soca (an off-shoot of Calypso with rapid percussion), rock and roll, and of course, steel pans. The Ebenezer Methodist Steel Orchestra, an impressive group of about 60 teens and pre-teens, always draws the biggest crowds as they perform anything from church music to Christmas carols to Beethoven.

But the sight that always steals the show is that of the Moko Jumbies. They walk in stilts and wear colorful costumes. They don large hats and masks to cover their faces. These towering apparitions dance their way through the crowds and stop in corners to perform amazing acrobatics with their stilts. They pose for photos and accept tips from their appreciative audience. Dancing to ward off evil, Moko Jumbies, have been a feature of St. Croix celebrations since the slaves brought the tradition from Africa in the plantation era.

When I first saw the Moko Jumbies, I watched them dance down the street in single line formation. Looking up to watch their jerky dance moves, I could feel the awe they must have inspired in the African slaves who had to leave so much behind, but simply couldn't part with this important part of their tradition.

At the end of that first night, Bob and I were walking down a quieter side street and we saw them sitting on top of a van removing their costumes. A few people were milling around them, so we went to take a closer look. It astonished me to discover it was teenagers underneath these breathtaking figures. I asked one of them, "Was it difficult to learn walking on stilts?"
He nodded. "It takes a lot of physical strength. We practice all the time, at least once a week after school."
I mentioned the awe they inspire and wanted to know if they feel it too. "Yes," he said. "Sometimes when we start dancing, it's like something else takes over and we just go nuts."

A Little Swim

The weather today is perfect here in St. Croix. Despite sporadic rain over the last couple of days, the sun has been shining all afternoon and the breezes have kept the temperature in the low 80's. Looking outside my window after lunch, I began to feel cabin fever so I did the island thing, I went to the beach.

Cane Bay Beach is about a 10-minute drive from our house and is site of "The Wall," a massive coral reef that drops thousands of feet deep and offers the best scuba diving spots on the island. Although I've been making noises for months that I want to give scuba diving a try, I still haven't gotten around to it. Today I just wanted to take a little swim without having to learn a new sport in the process, so I took my snorkeling gear and swam around the shallow coral. I didn't see a sea turtle as I'd hoped, but a large barracuda paid me a visit, and I saw lots of fish and spotted a flounder camouflaged on the sand.

Back on the beach there were about six boys, ages 10 and under, howling as they took turns jumping off the shoulder of their dad or uncle or cousin. Then a man came with his puppy and tried to get him to swim. The doggie could swim, but he was clearly uncomfortable with the whole idea and opted out of the water. The man gave up and headed to a beach bar instead. I was watching them and smiling with empathy for the little guy, and when they walked past me, the pup gave me the most sheepish look I've ever seen on a dog.

Happy Thanksgiving to Gaya

The day began today with a huge clap of thunder and a rainstorm that turned everything gray. It briefly felt like an autumn day, and it happened just as I was kneading the dough to make focaccia for today's meal. I was thrilled.

Most of the baking I do usually revolves around quick breads and cakes, and I steer clear of any yeasted breads because of the time it takes and my general reluctance to work with yeast. But today is a special day and I wanted to give this yeasted bread a try. I'm very glad that I did. Watching the dough rise and then pressing my hands to knead that foamy texture was very satisfying. This must be why the magic of bread making has endured through centuries. Although today there are fancy machines to do the job for us, nothing beats a piece of bread that has been nurtured patiently by a baker.

Baking that focaccia has become the gift that I received today, because it turned my thoughts to gratitude for Gaya, Mother Earth, nurturer of us all, creator of the magic around us, and sublimely generous and patient with us, her sometime-inconsiderate children.

Drumming with Saku

Mt. Victory Camp is one of my favorite places in St. Croix. It is nestled in the rainforest hills at the northwest end of the island. Here's how Outside Magazine described the camp in 2004 when it was named one of the top 10 eco resorts in the world: "... a 15-acre back-to-the-earth outpost, complete with chickens, horses, and 300 fruit trees. The three platform tents and two bungalows are positioned for ocean and hillside views and built of hurricane-felled teak and mahogany. Each has a kitchenette, and guests share a central pavilion for lounging and a bathhouse with hot running water. "

Throughout the year, owners Bruce and Mathilde host events for the local community, and yesterday's drumming circle was one such event. Olu and his two young companions led the drumming and offered spare drums and an assortment of percussion instruments to the rest of us who showed up without our own drums. My friend Kim and I were eager to join in the drumming despite our lack of training. Olu showed us the way and we were off, beating on those drums with all the passion we had, and grinning in amazement that we could keep up with the beat.

While Olu kept the beat steady, it was his youngest companion who would venture out with new rhythms, like a fearless explorer charting out unmapped territory. He wore a green headwrap and an African tunic-type shirt, and he carried himself with the self-assurance and dignity of a much older person. I asked him his name. "Saku," he said.
"How old are you?"
"Fourteen."
"You play very well. Is Olu your teacher?"
"Yes, he is my teacher." He pointed to his slightly older companion and said, "He's my teacher too," and then he gave me a beautiful smile and said, "And so are you."