Aloha!

Knock wood, WAPA has done pretty well for the past number of months....sorry, folks, for the probable blackout now that I've put the curse on us...we've only had a few outages in probably six months, and only a couple that I can think of that lasted more than 3-4 hours. We are center island, perhaps those on the far ends have had a different experience.

Median age? My guess would be the 40+ crowd? Unless you count the younger ones who come down to wait tables just for season or something....of course, since we are older we don't really hang with the 23 year old hard bodied crowd, so I might have called that one wrong.....the people we have met through this board and through casual contact who have relocated here are from all walks of life and all ages, some with children, hippy chicks, professionals, retirees - just a good mixture. More people than I would have expected moved here 30 years ago, or 15 years ago - heck, I didn't even know where St. Croix was or even that it existed at that time!

Keep the Terminix man on your Rolodex for the centipedes and millipedes. We have regular service and are high on a hill but my husband met up with one just three days ago in the wee hours of the morning. At the sound of the initial scream I assumed there was a tiger in the bathroom; nope, just the 'pede, although he was quite healthy. There are no snakes, but we have an impressive mongoose population....and rats and field mice.

Thanks, Becky!
Tiger... HA!

You say you're center island. That's where we have been looking. Could you please give us the low-down on the different neighborhoods? Any info would be helpful and appreciated!

We are in Estate St. George, which we absolutely love. I know Kmart, Plaza, the airport, and UVI...I'm kind of a hermit!

If you would like to write me privately I will be happy to talk with you and tell you what little bit I know. I wouldn't want my opinion to be the only one you got, though...try Hip Crip, who lives in Sion Farm by Sunny Isle as well...Native Son (where are you, Native Son?) is also out this way.

Everyone has their "favorite" area and I wouldn't want anything to be misconstrued that is only a personal opinion versus whatever someone else's reality is.... ssrr@runbox.com

Just so you know, St. Croix is far less Americanized than Hawaii, so you might have a bit of a culture shock if you're unprepared.

Hi Lara and Tim,

As Becky said, we ended up settling in the Sion Farm/Sunny Isle area, which is just a short hop west of C'sted. This is where the KMart and Plaza Extra east are located (Becky R lives near the west end stores). We bought a 2200 sqf fixer upper home that sits on a 1/3 acre lot that has fruit trees (bananas, limes, mangoes, shared passion fruit) that backs up to a nice patch of wooded land in a very diverse little area of the neighborhood where the houses and yards are kept up nicely. We managed to buy the place for an insanely cheap price, and then put about twice what we paid for it into renovations and remodeling. Lovely neighbors, very little traffic, and quiet surroundings except for the new chicken and rooster who settled in our yard about two weeks ago (we love them anyway and can't wait for their inevitable little flock of peeplets to make the scene). Absolutely love it, and would be happy to talk in greater depth about my impressions of various areas of the island through PM.

Not going to speculate on who relocates here except to say it seems to cover ages from 20ish to closer to retirement. We've easily met many folks within a decade up and down from us (we're in our early 40's) who are friendly as all get out and we find shared interests fast. That's not to say we haven't met lovely older and younger relocatees...they are plentiful as are wonderfully warm and welcoming STX natives and long-time residents.

Bugs. Ick. Having good screens, weather stripping and monthly exterminator service can dramatically reduce how many of these critters make it into your abode. Before we had all that in place, we had a lot of millipedes invites themselves in (esp. after a good rain), and about a half dozen disgusting 5"-7" centipedes during that same year. Hubby got extremely adept at hunting and extracting the centipedes -- always aided by our cats! -- using a pair of hot dog tongs. Once caught, he would take these evil-looking insects outside, douse them in raid, and chop them in half. The ones that were still kicking after all that got a second dose. I believe we've had no millis and only 1 centi since tightening up access.

Sugar ants have been our biggest pest. Even with monthly Terminex visits, we've laid out supplemental sugar ant traps near where the cats get fed, and where we store store food and cook. As I imagine you needed to do on the Big Island, plan on tupperwaring and/or ziplock bagging all of your dry goods for added ant/other pest protection and deterrence, and to prevent the constant high humidity from ruining your food in a very brief period of time.

Welcome to the board! Between this site and forum, and the bible for moving to the USVI (Settler's Handbook), you should be well prepared to make a move as hassle and shock free as you can.

Feel free to drop me a PM anytime -- it may take a day or two for me to reply but I'll do my darndest to do so as quickly and helpfully as I can.

--HC

From one Big Island to another. Welcome to St. Croix. I am from St. Croix but I lived in Hawaii for 12 years on Oahu. I am back living part time in St. Croix. It would be fun to meet someday. Things I miss about Hawaii......the food...Lau Lau, haupia, pipikaula, Joni's Philippino Restaurant, Hee Hings for dim sum, plate lunch.... shopping.....Ala Moana, the people..the people...the people. The view as you go thru the Pali tunnel of Kaneohe and Lailua... Lanikai beach, Kailua Beach Fireworks on 4th of July...good fun. Leis..the smells.....aloha spirit...Aloha Fridays....casual dress, and many more that I can't even describe or express. What I will not miss....the traffic.....no parking......rough water...too rough to swim and snorkel...the cost of everything!!!!.....being so far away from everywhere....long flights. You will find St. Croix to be VERY different from Hawaii not better or worse just different. Like in Hawaii the culture in the VI is unique and not as well "defined" or decipherable. It too has it's own "flava" and you will need some time to feel like you can go with the flow. You might want to go to the get together at Cramers park if you are on island that this board has put together. Not quite like Saturday at Ala Moana Beach park but you will meet some locals that can give you some good advice. I am going to try to make it there. St. Croix has it's own special da kine ....enjoy finding it. Aloha , Krista

Hello Lara & Tim,

Power outages.... often when it goes out it’s only for a few minutes so its possible you may not notice these outages in terms of their frequency (except that your clock is flashing the wrong time ;)). If you are on the computer for much of the day however it’s noticed and sometimes it seems like it’s several times a week... some weeks are better than others. Longer outages that last say an hour happen maybe once a month and those that last a few hours every few months.

There are two main groups of relocatees from the US mainland to the USVI. The younger group that is college aged and attending UVI or on island to work for season - some come just for a few months and some come with the intention of staying and end up staying or don't. They do tend to hang out together. The second group includes some young professionals, working-class America, some wealthy, some retirees; so there is a range. Couples with young children that move seem to make up a small percentage.

Snakes: The Virgin Islands Tree Boa is an endangered species and is rarely seen. There are small garden snakes. I remember finding them much more often when I was a kid. Over the years I saw them less and less and haven’t seen one in years, but they are still around.

P.S. on Power Outages...

Here are some outage stats from our surge protector/battery backup. For last 6 weeks: 40 blackouts for an average of 2 hours 57 minutes total, 3 out of the 40 times the battery actually shut down which means it was running out of power (its good for about 30 minutes). And there was one over-voltage for 10 seconds. This is on St. Thomas.

--Islander