tropical drinks, tropical creatures

As promised, this post brings you some of my favorite drinks from St. John and the Virgin Islands, as well as a few bonus pics of all the cute creatures running around the islands! One of my favorite parts of the vacation was getting to come into such close contact with animals that I don't otherwise get to see every day.

Ok, on to the drinks. If you want to party, Virgin Islands stuff, first start out with a nice bottle of dark rum, preferably Cruzan, which is made there (on St. Croix). You can probably google any of these recipes, but it is funner to improvise to make drinks that fit your taste.

First you have the painkiller. It is a delicious drink comprised of pineapple juice, orange juice, coconut cream, and rum.

However, it is not complete without a generous sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg on top. You can see Daiku grating nutmeg into a couple of painkillers in the photo above.

Next, you've got the lime 'n coconut, a more acerbic twist on the beloved piña colada- coconut milk, rum, and the juice and zest of a lime. It is refreshing without being too sweet.

Next up, a passion fruit mojito- again, a twist on the classic. To your mojito (rum, sugar syrup, lime, and mint) add some fresh passion fruit pulp. Blend and serve chilled.

Another twist on the piña colada, perhaps my favorite: the kiwi colada. I watched the bartender add an entire kiwi to a the mix and voila- something that tastes more like a milkshake or smoothie than a cocktail- awesome!

Of course, it wasn't all alcoholic beverages. Here you see my guava drink from the Fire Foods Ital food stand.

It wasn't just important for me to stay hydrated, but also to alleviate my motion sickness. St. John's roads are very bumpy (bad for motion sickness), and best navigated in sports-utility vehicles (even worse). Add to that boat and ferry rides, and you've got yourself one dizzy Bazu. Well, I managed to keep things calm by sucking on ginger candies, having a stash of saltine crackers on hand at all times, and most of all, drinking a LOT of ginger beer. Ginger beer is like a much more intense ginger ale- the combination of ginger and carbonation really help to settle my stomach, and I would recommend it to anyone with motion sickness. Ginger beer is also an essential component of that other famous drink, the dark and stormy.

And now, creatures!

We made the mistake of giving this guy some crackers. Well, he came back to our room every morning yelling and squawking and demanding to be fed.

Which wasn't so bad because there were chickens and roosters running all around the island. And you know what that means, right? Every morning, the roosters crowed us awake at the crack of dawn. It was annoying for some people, but I loved it! By the way, lest anyone try and tell you that chicken are stupid or uncaring animals. I was walking along a back road in St. Thomas and came upon a rooster and a young chick. I gave them crackers. After cautiously grabbing a cracker from me, the rooster ran back and gave it to the chick! I was really touched by that.

There are also a lot of cats running around on the island- this one jumped into Daiku's lap during dinner at a restaurant.

You would think the combination of chickens and roosters would be disastrous, right? Well think again. Here you see a chicken and her chick (on the right) scaring away a cat (left). The cat ran under the shack rather than face the mama chicken!

Speaking of mamas, here was a goat with her two kids, crossing the road leisurely. We saw goats everywhere.

Even behind a restaurant. I had to get up and join the kids who were feeding the goats- they were too cute.

After they were done, they settled on chairs to go to sleep for the night- too much goat cuteness for me!

Then there were the lizards:

small,

and big. These beautiful iguanas were everywhere, and I couldn't stop staring at them.

I hope you enjoyed these photos! If you're somewhere warm, why not make yourself a nice rum cocktail today?

tropical drinks, tropical creatures