Peace Hill

How great is this?

So Margo and I had brunch at one of the shopping areas once we got to St. John. Our waiter saw us looking at a map and gave us the scoop on how to spend a day on St. John. One must-see he mentioned was a place (not on the map) called Peace Hill. This was such a great adventure because we really didn't know what to expect. We just had to follow trails and trust that it would lead somewhere nice. And that's what we did, with some laughs along the way.

First we had to find the place. Yikes. Directions from the local (very typical, by the way): You might have passed it. Did you see the small mirror on the stick? (Why no, I didn't happen to catch that...) Well, go out this way and you'll eventually pass a rock and then the mirror. Then you'll see the small place to park your car and that's Peace Hill. Amazing. We eventually did find Peace Hill, the mirror remains undiscovered.

We park and see a few cars there, but no people. We start up a little path, which eventually leads us to this round ruin of a building you see below.

We have a fun time exploring the building, which is a wonderfully unique spot for portraits (as you can hopefully see, although the subject here is certainly not America's next top model!).

It also provides a fabulous view of some of the British Virgin Islands, as also seen below.

Now, we pass through the building to the other side and there is at least waist-high grass all around with some beaten-down paths. We try all of these paths and they lead to steep drop-offs. Yours truly gets frustrated, especially after an unpleasant encounter with something we dubbed "the prickly bush," knowing that there must be something else here besides the building. And why are there all these paths if they lead nowhere? Where are the people who have their cars parked by ours? Burning questions, all. Story to be continued on next post...