The View from Solitude

Tourism

Watch and see the beauty that lies beneath me. As you can see the cruise ship that docked at Fredericksted Dock or as we call it "Big Dock". When I see cruise ships I think to myself and imagine how St. Croix look to them. On my way home, I stopped and talked to a tourist from Grenada. She told me that St. Croix looks more beautiful than how she saw it in pictures on the Internet. She also said her favorite part of St. Croix are the beaches. There is no reason to be down at our island. Because it has people that will take it from us any day. As you can see, the island is improving with water parks, hotels, restaurants, and malls. More and more we think that our island is just a island but we are more than that to tourist.

Pre-Columbus Residents on St. Croix

This photo resembles how The Pre-Columbus Residents on St. Croix used to look back in the year of their lifetime.
There is an exhibit located in The Frederiksted Fort.

This is the Poisonous Fruit called Manchineel (Man-CHin-eel). The Indians, including the Calinas (Carib Indians) and Tainos used this apple to defend themselves against Christopher Columbus and his men. 

Did you know St. Croix was the first place The "Old World" meet The "New World"?

Haiku

Sunshine in morning

Clouds dissapppear in the night

What beautiful island

Enslaved people work 

Working in the plantations

sunny afternoon

Fort holding prison

With dens and dungeons in sight

No way to escape

Columbus's sailing

D. Hamilton Jackson rights

Queen Mary Burn

Haiku

I am so clueless
Because of the lost history
Sigh if only I could learn

Beautiful Islands

Beauty

Drifting in the waters

Rich in history and health

Beautiful St. Croix

Drifting in the past

Waiting to be remembered

Lived on this Island

Enjoying its beauty

Not knowing its pain

Artistic view 2

This drawing is of the Annatto fruit from the Achiote tree. The red seeds that can be found within a spikey green shell were used as paint or dye by the enslaves and the native Indians that walked the lands before us.

Artistic View

The drawing is of the Old Richmond Prison that was built in 1834. the building was left  unmaintained and forgotten as result the rich history and beauty of the build is being lost. the drawing is of an entrance to the jail cells from the back of the prison as if there was a court yard or open space that used to be there. To me the drawing shows a building that has been threw years and years of natural elements, human neglect and abandonment. but yet it still stand strong and tall in all its glory to show us a blast from the past.

Historical Windmill

This Historical Windmill was used by the Enslaves to make Sugar Canes and other crops that was grown in the area. They used the windmill to power a machine that was almost like an old wringer. Instead of only two poleslike rolling pins, it had three. It squeezed the juice out of the sugar cane. 

Trumbull Trail to Tide Pools

Many of the people that live on St. Croix go to the tide pools and use the Trumbull Trail. Others don't know the trail name is Trumbull Trail . Trumbull Trail was used by the Maroons (runaway slaves) to escape being captured or running from being hunted. This trail is more than 2.7 miles long and has very rough terrain in the middle. We also saw a tree that "we" never heard of which is called "Monkey Don't Climb That Tree", which  really means to have caution. It has spikes coming out of the bark to project itself from predators. We walked this trail with shoes and supplies with us but imagine the enslaved back then when they have no water either food and no shoes. To add on to that, they are running for their life. Trumbull Trail is mainly on a hill. It leads to Tide Pools. It is a series of tides filling up over a shore line with walls. It gets very deep on an high tide but today it was shallow. Rocks and walls all around us. For us today the whole trail to and from plus a trip to the mill just up the hill was 6.9 miles long. A lot of hiking but worth it when we went in the tide pools.

Monkey Don't Climb That Tree

Old Richmond Prison

The Richmond prison was built in the year of 1834. The reason this prison was build was to lock up the most rebellious slaves that was on St.Croix when slavery was effect. Moses Gotlieb also known as Buddhoe, who help lead the 1848 emancipation was one of the prisoners at the Richmond prison. Queen Mary was also a  prisoner in this prison and she was the one who brought up and lead the 1878 fireburn. This building is full of history and alot of people doesn't know about it. When we visited the old prison,  it was covered in grass and had alot of insects. V. Celeste Fahie was our tour guide and she gave us a pencil, a piece of white printing paper, and something that looks like a concept map but she calls it a mind map. She gave us the paper to draw what we saw at the prison and the mind map to come up with ideas to transform this prison into something that would be beneficial to the people of the virgin islands. We came up with alot of cool ideas that will be effective when the time and money is right. We saw alot of writings on the walls about how the prisoners felt about being imprisoned and the words was not very nice. Our very own Mario Moorhead was held in the prison for one day in the 1970's but we still don't know when was the last time the prison was used.

Follow the Leader to the Plantation

With Ms. Fahie and Mr. Goldstein leading us on a journey to all the sugar cane plantations that were there. Our first discovery today was at the Cane Garden Plantation where Hovensa storage plant was clear at sight. There was maybe about 14 village houses that was used for the enslaved,  1 overseer house, 1 windmill, 1  hospital, and 1 ruin that looked like a animal powered mill. An overseer is like a guard or a soldier who's job is to watch over the enslaved or anyone working for the slave master. It was exciting to see some of the stuff still remain there.

Christiansvaern/Christiansted Fort

This fort was finish built in the year of 1749 by the enslaved people blood, sweat, and tears. It also took 11 long and hardworking years to be completed. The colors of the fort are yellow and green with black cannons. The fort is named after King Christian VI and his symbol still stand at the entrance of the fort. This fort is now under national park service and it's a visitor's center today.

Baobab

The baobab tree was a spirtual tree for the enslaved people. People usually call it the tree of life. The reason it's called the tree of life is because it stores the water in the trunk of the tree during rainy seasons & then produce this hairy like fruit when the area is dry. The picture below is the fruit that this spiritual tree produce.

Annatto

This is an annatto which is a fruit from the achiote tree. Indians would use the seed inside for war paint. It's now used for food coloring and lipstick. In the picture below with the lady is an example of how the paint would look on skin.

Our Day in Our Green Rain Forest

On a next adventurous day, we spent it in the rain forest at Fredericksted . We visited Butler bay where we saw the old sugar factory still standing but worn out. The sugar factory was really the center of attention at the time and in the area. We also drove down Creque Dam road also known as Creque road. We went to the sustainable farm. This farm is able to sell crops, feed over 20 campers, and feed 15+ other people. We also visited the Domino club which is one of tourist attractions on St. Croix. It is because of the non-alcoholic beer drinking pigs. It was very fascinating. Basically, our day was tiring but yet fun.

Beer Drinking Pig

Creque Dam

Old Sugar Factory at Butler Bay

Credit 3 photos above to Nisha Lazare 

Free Gut Area

Free Gut was an important area for all the enslaved people in both Christiansted and in Frederiksted. They lived in 30x30 homes for each family. When slavery was in effect, the enslaved mothers would make alot of children & live in a small home. The Danish people refuse to live near guts because of insects that would live in that area. The enslaved people would use the gut as an advantage. They use to fish, talk melee, and receive water. We were trying to get genip from the tree and we were successful. The blue house was Melvin Evans house and he was the first elected governor and last appointed governor of the Virgin Islands. Melvin Evans house was by the American Hill area. American Hill is an area in Christiansted near Free Gut, where you would find few enslaved people because the people who lived on that hill was wealthy and was from America.