America Hill

Since we usually work mornings, we try to go on hikes after work – the Virgin Islands national park, that covers most of the island of Saint John, is full of lovely trails, most of them not too long nor too intense – an average trail around here takes about a couple of hours. Some of them can be quite steep, but the most important problem seems to be the speed at which nature takes over.  Most of the less popular trails seem to be overgrown, so whenever you take one of those, there’s usually a certain amount of bushwhacking and also a certain amount of guessing as to where the trail actually goes… Being on a such a small island is kind of reassuring though – you can’t really get too lost, since at any given time you’re no more than a couple of hours from one of the two main roads or from the sea! So one can afford to be a little bit more adventurous than, say, in the black forest…..

So, back to our adventures…. A few days ago we went on the America Hill trail, which heads off into the hills near a lovely beach called Cinnamon Bay. Cinnamon bay is a lovely beach, not very far from Maho bay, where our campsite is. It’s national park territory, and there is a pretty cool National park campsite by the beach (apparently, that’s how the Maho Bay campsite got started – this campsite was overflowing with guests, so Maho was created to accommodate those who could not get into Cinnamon Bay). It’s got big canvas tent units, little bungalows, an open air cinema, and access to a gorgeous beach: 

The trail-head is across the street  from the campsite entrance. The trail was kind of steep and so overgrown that after some point we just started guessing – but we made it in the end, and it was definitely worth it!

At the end of the America Hill trail there are the remains of a red villa, with one of the most spectacular views on the island. 

I've been trying to find out something about the history of the place but nobody seems to know who it belonged to (the only interesting piece of info i managed to find is that one of it's last tenants is rumored to have been Trujillo, former dictator of the Dominican Republic). Now it basically belongs to the forest! The whole place is covered in beautiful flowers and trees. 

We admired the view for a bit, got stung by nettles, saw some millipedes cuddling on a tree, 

and then tried to find our way back through the bushes...

After we got down to the road, we went for a walk around the Cinnamon bay ruins – another abandoned plantation. You can walk around the old factory,

 and past the plantation cemetery, where the owner, his wife and children are buried

Apparently, the plantation house below was inhabited until 1968 (which goes to show how quickly nature takes over, since the place looks like it’s been abandoned for 200 years!).

Both the America Hill and the Cinnamon Bay Ruins Loop trails were a lot of fun, and relaxing at the beach at Cinnamon after a nice hike made it all even better!