Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
OUTDOOR ADVENTURE BOOKS
Sailing enthusiasts say you shouldn't set out to explore the islets, cays, coral reefs, and
islands of the B.V.I. without John Rousmanière's well-researched The Sailing Lifestyle
(Fireside, 1988).
Exploring St. Croix, by Shirley Imsand and Richard Philobosian (Travelers Infor-
mation Press, 1987), is a very detailed guide of this island. The authors take you to
49 beaches, 34 snorkeling and scuba-diving sites, and 22 bird-watching areas, and
lead you on 20 different hikes.
A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico & the Virgin Islands, by Herbert A. Raffaele,
Cindy J. House, and John Wiessinger (Princeton University Press, 1989), is for bird-
watchers. The illustrations alone are worth a look, with 273 depictions of the 284
documented species on the islands.
Film
St. Thomas was one of the sites selected for background shots on the Brad Pitt film
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Islanders hope that the success of the
film will inspire other movie companies to come to St. Thomas to revive fading film
production that reached its heyday in the '70s and '80s, when major TV shows such
as Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, and All My Children were shot here.
Many films have been shot in the Virgin Islands, including Open Water (2003), the
adventure story of a couple stranded in shark-infested waters; Weekend at Bernie's II
(1993), shot in both St. John and St. Thomas; and the final scene of The Shawshank
Redemption (1994), when Andy Dufresne escapes the harsh Shawshank Prison for a
tropical island. The final island scene in Trading Places (1983), starring Eddie Mur-
phy and Jamie Lee Curtis, was shot in St. Croix. A 1980s film classic, The Four
Seasons (1981), was filmed in part in the Virgin Islands; the film is a tender-sweet
melodrama that stars Carol Burnett and Alan Alda. Three middle-aged couples take
vacations together in spring, summer, fall, and winter.
The true classic of the archipelago is Virgin Island (1958), starring John Cassavetes
and Sidney Poitier. Filmed in the beautiful British Virgin Islands, it is a fairy-tale type
of story about a young man and woman, who buy a small, uninhabited island and go
there to find their dream. The film was based on the actual experiences of novelist
Robb White, who, along with his wife, decided to pursue a Robinson Crusoe exis-
tence on the islands.
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Don't Let the Jumbies Get Ya!
“Don't let the Jumbies get ya!” is
an often-heard phrase in the Virgin
Islands, particularly when people are
leaving their hosts and heading home
in the dark. Jumbies, capable of good
or evil, are supernatural beings that are
believed to live around households. It
is said that new settlers from the main-
land of the United States never see
these Jumbies and, therefore, need not
fear them. But many islanders believe
in their existence and, if queried, may
enthrall you with tales of sightings.
No one seems to agree on exactly
what a Jumbie is. Some claim it's the
spirit of a dead person that didn't go
where it belonged. Others disagree.
“They're the souls of live people,” one
islander told us, “but they live in the
body of the dead.” The most prominent
Jumbies are “Mocko Jumbies,” carnival
stilt walkers seen at all parades.
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