We have reached Frederiksted. Waiting for our boat to take us away to day of adventures!

Nikita and I were walking around the property when I spotted that interesting coconut tree.

“A recalcitrant tree,” I told her.

“What?”

Well, the rest of the trees went up for sunlight. This one said “Nah, I am going the other way”.

Nikita looked at the same tree and gave her verdict – “Cotangent!”

That is nerdier than me! And something that makes me very proud of her!

[If you do not remember your pre-calc from high school, google up “cotangent graph”]

Sharmila and I were walking on the beach when we saw this. Fairly large piece of rock. Which is really a reef, looks like. What is that bright color? There were a couple of much smaller rocks with patches of the same color on them. Is this the original natural color of the coral?

For a few minutes before it all became dark, the sky took a very interesting spread of tint – almost purplish/pinkish color. I guess “Violet” is still one of the seven colors of the sun. To the eyes, the pigments looked more pronounced than depicted in this picture.

This is from my iPhone 11. I wonder if a later iPhone or my mirrorless (which I was not carrying) could have done an even better job.

Returned to the hotel after a hectic day. After freshening up, went to grab a drink by the bar. This is what hit me first thing! We cannot see the sunset because of the mountains. But the streaks of sunset colors made for a beautiful sky! It was like the palm tree was bursting in flames!!

Remember the picture I had posted of spotting St. Croix for the first time from the plane?

We went to that beach after lunch to relax in the sun!

Turned out today was St. Croix Carnival day. People here take it really seriously. The women’s accoutrements were off the charts. They loved nothing more than posing for the camera.

One interesting side observation. The two last vehicles in the parade were two trash trucks. People were taking turns to pick up every bit of plastic glass, beer can and confetti left behind. That is some serious fun followed by some serious civic duty!

Lunch break in Frederiksted