St John, the roads

One thing we were unprepared for was the roads on the islands. 

Narrow, winding, steep, 

and,

they drive on the left side of the road.

Driving there was pretty exciting!

When the owner of the house we rented met us outside the car barge ferry and we followed her to the house,

Kent and I couldn't believe the roads. Even our Jeep struggled to get around some of those corners and hills. At one point we watched the landlord swing around an unbelievably steep corner in front of us, and we stopped and just laughed,

thinking, 

wait, are we really supposed to follow her up there?

Yep.

This is the road to the house we rented.

A little past this, our first night there,

a massive crab, about as big as a dinner plate, 

scurried across the road in front of us. 

 I may have shrieked a little.

Kent may have also, actually.

I wish these pictures accurately showed how seriously steep these roads are.

Notice Mike's hands bracing himself as we come down the hill here.  

Crazy!

They don't have garbage collection services on the island (because how in the world would a garbage truck navigate these roads??)
so you have to take your own trash out, to big dumpsters alongside the road everywhere.
These dumpsters are surrounded by all sorts of broken furniture, tires, rubbish, 
and layers of broken glass.
Which, we found out, is a very dangerous thing to drive over,
even for a tough little jeep.

Cue, our attempt to fix a flat tire on a narrow, inclined road high on the mountains of St John.

We thought we could do it.

Turns out, there's a reason the jack has a little picture of a car on a hill, with a great big X drawn across it.

Fixing a flat on an incline is something best left to the professionals.

So we called a professional.
And one of us may or may not have been forced to relieve themselves in the jungle while we waited.
Let's just say we were working really hard to stay hydrated in the heat. 
We succeeded.

We got our tire fixed thanks to an incredibly friendly repairman named Jack (with a "Be Kind" window sticker on the back of his pickup---the people of the Virgin Islands truly are the kindest people we've ever met) and we were soon back on our way to the beach.

But not before we found some road construction, VI style,

(What you can't see is the gaping hole that falls off the cliff right behind that orange barrier)

and seeing some more of the island wildlife.

So, 
the roads are nuts.
But the views from these roads? 
Make it all worth it.