Monday we decided to spend the day at glorious Magen’s Bay. Located on the North (Atlantic) side of St. Thomas, is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the island. With 3/4 of a mile of white sand beach and crystal clear blue water I can see why.
The girls donned their snorkel gear, with not a lot of hopes for fish sightings due to the sandy bottom and lack of coral. They were however, able to see a sea turtle which was cool. Off to the left side of the beach along the coastline there were more rocks and coral with creatures such as sea urchins, which Andreas so much wanted to just pick off the rocks and eat. Gross.
As the beach is maintained by the Magens Bay Beach Authority, it is clean, well maintained, although is one of the only beach on the island with a charge, for car and per person. There is a snack bar, with gyros and other snacks that Andreas and Omar enjoyed. The girls packed a picnic of snacks and sandwiches, which makes me ponder if that is where sandwiches got their name, eating bread, meat and cheese on a beach, with sandy hands? (Yeah, Yeah, I know, sandwiches got their name from the John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, blah blah blah.)
The best part of the day? The wonderful bartenders who waded out into the water to bring us our never ending stream of cocktails including rum punches, painkillers and Omar’s new favorite, the Bushwacker, which is similar to a hummer.
After a long, carefree day in the sun, we headed back to our villa for a little rest and get prettied up. We decided to head out to a place called Mountaintop for some shopping and taste their world famous “banana daiquiri’s”. We were all pretty beat and did’t want anything too far for dinner. We wanted to go to the restaurant Thirteen that we kept hearing great reviews about, but they were closed. That is part of the problem traveling “off season” you get smaller crowds, but many establishments and tourist attractions may be closed.
We decided to try a place called Sib’s on the Mountain. The reviews online seemed great – local bar, nothing fancy, but great food. When we arrived, the place was certainly a dive bar. We took a look around and almost left. What kept us there was the fact that we thought we were being too judgmental and if the locals and tourists liked it we would too.
We sat outside on the patio (we made reservations and our table was ready which was funny because we were the only ones there – should have tipped us off.) The next red flag should have been when he brough us all bottled water and said “I won’t drink the water here, I am not going to make any of you”. Ok that is considerate, but made us wonder if the ice was safe.
Omar, enjoying a few too many bushwackers that day, caused me to have to drive, so I just enjoyed a soda while the rest of my crew got cocktails.
We got a few appetizers, potato skins, jalapeno poppers and a garlic cheese bread. All were your typical run of the mill greasy bar food, regurgitated from the bowels of a deep freezer, topped with some sub par cheese and heated through.
I ordered a ground beef wrap, which sounded like a beef burrito. It came with fries, which when served were partially cooked and barely seasoned. The beef burrito had meat that tasted like home made ground beef with too much taco seasoning, added extra unnecessary salt, and left to fester in the fridge for a few days (weeks) before carefully placing on a wrap with lettuce, washed with the water tho must not drink from, tomato and cheese. Tasted worst than any burrito I have ever eaten as leftovers at home. After a few bits, and the greasy appetizers weighing heavy in my stomach, I was done.
Those culinarily challenged restaurant goers that enjoy this bar, more power to you. For those who actually have taste buds. Run. Run fast.
To top off the night, the waiter (owner?) heard us talk about mountaintop and told us it closed at 5. Ah well, another day.
We headed back to the villa, and in the keeping with the laid back island vibe, we swam and I think we were all asleep by 9 p.m. On to tomorrow…
