Actually the largest of the archipelago, with its own international airport, a cruise port, and a collection of National Historic Parks and National Monuments, it is enviable.
Surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, perhaps if we want to find a flaw, it is the least visited by the “rich & famous,” does not supply gossip, and prefers to preserve its nature as an original island. But those who do not know its inhabitants cannot appreciate it: the “Crucians”, island residents, are a vital part of it. Mrs. Delta M. Dorsch, for example, is proud to preserve island traditions. She is the only one who knows “Anansi,” the stories and legends of African oral tradition.
Mr. Olasee Davis is instead the spokesperson for the beauty and ecological system of St. Croix. Walking with him on a hike is to discover biology, natural resources, and the coastal environment. He is an active environmentalist, an expert ethno-botanist, a farmer, and a historian. From him, one learns, for example, about the African baobab found on the island or the Estate Butler Bay ruins, remnants of the largest sugar cane plantation of the Danish West Indies on St. Croix.
Mr. Bradley E. Christian is a master dancer who can lead you in traditional dance steps such as the quadrilla.
He is president of the organization St. Croix Heritage Dancers, which has been active for 27 years and preserves the island’s historical dance. Mr. Willard John, on the other hand, is a passionate “Guardian of the Moko Jumbie Culture,” a folkloric character who dances on stilts and who arrived in the Virgin Islands from West Africa in very ancient times. Mr. Richard A. Schrader is very famous among islanders: poet, writer, historian, and preserver of the oral tradition of St. Croix‘s historical past. With him, no historic building remains a secret, neither in Christiansted nor in Frederiksted. Not even the magical windmills, the “pyramids” of St. Croix, which dot the landscape, can hide the 18th-century history.
Mrs. Elizabeth “Betty” Lynch is an expert in “Crucian” cuisine. She can tempt you by recreating dishes she learned by watching her mother in the kitchen.
