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On the Market: Impeccably-Maintained Home w/ 360-Degree Views!

Jenn Manes

Did you know that home sales typically increase following a presidential election? If you didn’t, there’s your fun fact of the day!  Now that the election is in our rearview window, let’s start shopping for a new home in St. John! I have quite a beauty to share with all of you today.

Dos Palmas is an impeccably-maintained, four bedroom, 4.5 bathroom estate. It is located on a .63-acre parcel that has panoramic, 360-degree views in addition to its beautiful, well-established stone terraced landscape. There are numerous fruit trees on the property like starfruit, mango, banana and papaya. This home is truly a gardener’s dream!

Dos Palmas is located in Coral Bay and is easily accessible by fully paved roads. The three-level main house is flanked by two driveways with gated entrances, and has ample parking for cars, boats and other fun toys.

A newly rebuilt caretaker’s cottage is nestled perfectly in the hillside with plenty of privacy, offering opportunities for an on-site caretaker or simply to have a spot to nest if the main house is occupied.

Dos Palmas has so many other great features like a poolside bar and an outdoor shower in addition to ample shaded decks and verandas. There is even a newly finished bonus room on the lower level that can be used as a gym, office, art studio, or kid’s game space. Check out some pics:

Dos Palmas is suitable for both a family home or an investment property. The owner rents as vacation rental from time to time, but not full year. Numbers regarding rentals can be provided upon request.

Dos Palmas is listed for $1.92 million. Please contact Rosanne Ramos Lloyd, an agent with 340 Real Estate Co., at 340realestaterrl@gmail.com or 401-996-6751 for more information.

Coral Bay Cleanup Looking for Volunteers

Jenn Manes
Coral Bay

The community of Coral Bay is holding a large trash pickup event this weekend, and they are hoping that you will come out to help.

Get Trashed St. John, Coral Bay Community Council and the Coral Bay Yacht Club are holding the Coral Bay Cleanup even this Saturday, November 9th at 9 a.m. We all love Coral Bay, so let’s work together to keep it clean and beautiful.

Coral Bay is working in conjunctions with the University of the Virgin Islands for their Coastweeks project, so volunteers may be asked to note the types and amount of trash collected.

Corona is even getting in on the action – how fun! They’ll be providing beer to all participants at an after party at Skinny Legs. Dasani will be providing water for the event.

I don’t know about you, but it breaks my heart when I see donkeys eating trash on the side of the road out there, so let’s all pitch in to help!

If you would like to volunteer, please meet in the parking lot behind Skinny Legs on Saturday at 9 a.m. Please bring a reusable water bottle. Bags, gloves and water will be provided.

Thank you all for loving Coral Bay!

Spread the Love

Jenn Manes

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room – Election Day. We cannot vote for President in the Virgin Islands, so rather than get involved, I am choosing to spread some love.

I know many of you need a break from politics, so please take a couple of minutes to check out this little video I made for all of you. Turn the volume up, because I borrowed a song from one of your favorite part-time Love City residents. Enjoy. 🙂

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Click Here to Book Now. 

See the Flamingos on St. John!

Jenn Manes
The flamingos at a salt pond. Image credit: Gail Karlsson, 2023

Hello everyone, and happy Monday! I’m super excited to share today’s story with all of you. The flamingos are still hanging around St. John! Where are my fellow bird nerds??!!

For those of you who are new to reading Explore STJ (welcome!), we hadn’t seen flamingos on St. John in years. One would show up here or there, but would quickly disappear, and we would, once again, become a flamingo-less island. Well, that was until February 2023 when a flamboyance of flamingos was spotted near Salt Pond, sending the island into a bird frenzy! (A lone flamingo was spotted a few months prior to that.)

So it turns out that flamingos were native to the Virgin Islands, but all were eaten or lost to development until the reintroduction on Anegada in 1992 and then another flock later on Necker Island. Anegada and Necker Island (a private island owned by Sir Richard Branson) are located over in the British Virgin Islands. According to Gail Karlsson – a St. John resident who is an environmental lawyer, author, photographer and bird watcher – there is currently a “smallish” flock on Beef Island (near the airport on Tortola), the Necker Island flock and about 300 on Anegada, according to the last bird count.

A lot of time has been since this first sighting, so I wasn’t sure if they were still hanging out. I was on an island tour last week and had guests out near Concordia when we spotted two in the salt pond behind Salt Pond Bay. I was ecstatic!

So the point of today’s story is, yes, the flamingos are still here! If you would like to see the island and possibly spot one of these beautiful, please consider taking an island tour with me! You can learn more about Explore STJ’s island tours at www.explorestj.com/tour.

Have a fantastic day everyone, and happy birdwatching!

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Click Here to Book Now. 

 

Halloween Happenings!

Jenn Manes
Dalton’s jack-o-lantern that he carved himself!

Happy Halloween! It’s going to be a wet one here on St. John, but the weather won’t deter our fun! Here is what’s happening today…

Mongoose Junction is holding its annual trick-or-treat event today from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. As you know, we don’t have the best trick-or-treating neighborhoods here on island, so we are fortunate that some of our businesses step up to help the kids celebrate. A BIG thanks to Mongoose for holding this event year after year.

Trunk or Treat is being held in the gravel lot from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. This event is so much fun and gets bigger and bigger every year. A BIG thanks to all of the parents who put this together! This event will be held rain or shine.

Skinny Legs reopens today in Coral Bay with their annual Halloween bash. Drink reopens too in Cruz Bay and will be the place to be tonight! The Beach Bar and Parrot Club are also having costume contests tonight.

Dalton is dressing up as a ninja today. I’ll be sure to share pics with all of you! Happy Halloween!

Something Cool is Happening at Cinnamon Bay!

Jenn Manes

I walked down to Cinnamon Bay Monday morning, and I was surprised to see that the old Danish warehouse was fenced off. I walked a little closer, and I learned that the building – one of the oldest Danish buildings on St. John – is undergoing historic preservation.

Some history…

The first inhabitants of Cinnamon Bay were the Taino. It is believed that they lived at Cinnamon Bay from about 1000 AD until the end of the 15th Century. The Danes settled St. John in 1718 and soon began building sugar plantations. The warehouse that is being preserved is part of a sugar plantation that was once located at Cinnamon Bay.

Cinnamon Bay was originally named Store Caneel Bay, which means Big Cinnamon. Caneel Bay used to be Klein Caneel, or Little Cinnamon. They were named due to the abundance of cinnamon trees (bay rum) in the area. The bays were then translated into English and became known as Cinnamon Bay and Caneel Bay.

Cinnamon Bay was devoted to sugar production in the 18th and 19th centuries. Production ceased, however, due to the emancipation of slaves in 1848, the depletion of the soil and increased competition. Once sugar production ended, the land was used mostly for cattle production. Cinnamon Bay was sold to the Jackson Hole Preserve in 1955 and later donated to the National Park.

Crews are expected to complete a variety of tasks including clearing vegetation around the structure; rebuilding some of the stone structure; fixing cracks; and more. Work is expected to be complete next month. Here is the scope of the work in its entirety:

And here are a few more pics:

I will share photos once it’s done. Have a great day, everyone!

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Click Here to Book Now.