Guest ride share update

Wow, there's quite a deal posted right now on the ride share board: "Lunch at Miss Lucy's, if you give the two of us a ride we'll buy lunch for two of you." That's a little more than I imagined the "share" or "donation" would be, maybe the price of gas has gone up quite a bit this week! Hmm, come to think of it maybe I'm interested in giving these folks a ride in trade for lunch at Miss Lucy's this weekend.

Send us some rain!

This time of year brings us to the "shoulder season of dryness" on the island of St. John. For the beginning of April and most of June we tend to see numerous rain showers during the day and night, the type of showers that last all of 5 or 10 minutes, just enough to cool you down during a hot spring day.

It seems especially strange this year to be hearing locals and visitors alike commenting on how dry it is right now on the island; this fall was one of the wettest we've had on record, with massive flooding all over the island. I can't remember how many days in a row we went without seeing the sun, but it was pretty bad.

While our vegetation and cisterns desperately need some heavy rainfall, one after effect of a good rainstorm none of us are looking forward to? the mosquitoes!

Pictured above is blue sky and full sun shinning down on the hillside heading down the Maho driveway, near the Francis Bay walking trail. Pictured below is the vegetation on the side of the driveway heading up towards Maho Bay.......Just a tiny bit of green within a sea of dry brown.

Guest suggestions

The latest idea from our guest suggestion box that has been put into action: Guest ride share. We still have our beloved Mr. Frett making his runs to and from town every hour, but what about guests looking to visit specific restaurants, beaches, or later nights in town?

"You should have a guest ride share board where guests with a jeep can look for another couple to join them for dinner or just the ride into town, or where guests without a jeep and looking to visit specific restaurants, hiking trails or beaches could post." Great idea whoever this was!

I would imagine this would be best or most used by vacationing couples looking to save a few bucks on our now $4.06/gallon gas on island. Having someone else contribute cash for the ride into town you're making anyway certainly can't hurt. We've posted the new sign near registration and we'll see how it goes.

searching for the green flash

Since getting to this island almost 6 years ago I've been in search of what's called the "green flash" at sunset here on St. John. While perhaps not seen quite as often here on St. John as other parts of the world, it apparently has been see here at Maho. The idea told by those that have seen the flash here (and from a quick Wikipedia search) is that seconds after or during sunset you'll see a ray or flash of green as the sun sets.......how cool is that?! Well, apparently the odds of being able to see one are near impossible here on St. John, but that doesn't stop me from trying each night as the sun sets.

Last week I had the pleasure of being able to sail with Capt. Fred & First Mate Renee of the Pepper here at Maho. Pepper is an Island Sloop, just 23 feet long, but with plenty of room for the 6 of us to catch the evening breezes and enjoy a beautiful sunset sail. Watching the sun set over St. Thomas on the Pepper was quite enjoyable, but unfortunately I'm still in search of the green flash.

Guest suggestions

From time to time we'll get some interesting suggestions from guests in our guest surveys and comment boxes. Occasionally we'll see the same suggestions 2 or 3 times in one batch of 30 or so surveys.

The question that kept coming up last week revolved around recycling plastic bottles, perhaps our all-time most popular question/request/suggestion depending on the wording. This week: "please start recycling newspaper and plastic bottles. I saw an employee just pitching these from the recycling bins into regular trash cans."

As crazy as it may sound to most of those reading this, St. John and the USVI as a whole does not recycle anything. There's no separating trash either at home or at the dump, everything goes in the trash. To each and every vacationer on this island our lack of recycling just doesn't make any sense. For the past 20+ years recycling has just been something you do now, how could there still be places that don't recycle, right? Coming from anywhere in the U.S., a place where the vast majority of waste is recycled and very little is actually "trash" to a place like St. John where everything is thrown into trash cans can be a little drastic for most vacationers.

To be fair there was a community effort a couple years ago (and is still in operation) to start recycling aluminum soda cans. The bins, the collection, the signs, everything is all done by volunteers. So yes, on a volunteer basis we do now recycle something on this island!

Maho Bay Camps as an eco-resort has always had a hard time dealing with waste and trying to reduce the amount of trash we generate when recycling on the island doesn't exist. We've done a considerable amount since our inception, perhaps the holy grail of which would be the crushing and melting of glass collected here on camp that is turned into art & practical wares, then sold here at Maho and online.

So the plastic bottles and newspapers being pitched into the trash can by our employees? If anyone has a suggestion on what to do with the hundreds of plastic bottles we still collect weekly please let us know!

So far?

1) we don't sell 20oz plastic soda bottles (only cans). Last year we sold 9,360 20oz soda bottles!

2) our bottled water selection is down to 2 different sizes, one of which is made entirely from plants

3) the only newspapers we carry at Maho are a weekly paper and a monthly paper/magazine

One idea we've had so far for the plastic bottles would be to carry one or two home in your suitcase when departing and recycle them once home. We could have a bin available next to registration and upon checking-out guests could squeeze one or two into their suitcases. Not quite the solution to our island recycling problem but a start?

The good news is that when I went out to take a picture for this post today at 2:30pm (6 hours after we collected trash & recycling) it took looking at 3 separate recycling bins on camp before finding a plastic bottle in one of them! I'm hoping it means not having so many plastic options in the store has paid off, instead of the other option: we're really good at just throwing them straight into the trash now.

Winsconsin is thinking of Maho

Great article written by a guest in the Wisconsin State Journal . Love the comparison of tents at night to illuminated pumpkins. Enjoy the read!

Daily Escape

Its Thursday, which means that your week is almost over. Having a tough one? Needing something to get you through until your weekend? This video is kind of old, but the pictures are the same and can help you escape for just a few minutes back to the National Park here on St. John.