ST. CROIX, U.S. Virgin Islands — Hot and sweaty after a long humid day visiting the northwest portion of St. Croix and the overflowing Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm, we rumbled past enormous foliage, little huts, verdant fields and the occasional mongoose carcass in the road.
Jane, our guide, abruptly pulled her dun-colored SUV into an unpaved parking lot featuring a few old pickups and ancient, beat-up Datsuns. The adjacent shack's corrugated tin roof, open walls and dirt floor brought to mind not paradise, but an honest-to-goodness jungle dive bar. Called the Montpellier Domino Club, located in the west end of St. Croix, the place looked like an outtake from "Romancing the Stone." Seemed like fun.
The few slightly seedy customers inside gave us glancing shrugs as Jane quickly bought a six pack of beer, in cans. Before we had time to sit down, she turned and said, "Follow me," and handed each of us a can of non-alcoholic beer.
I wondered, "What's going on, and why can't I have a real beer?"
Without another word, Jane marched us past the parking lot, up a couple of cracked stairs toward a pen of some sort. I smelled a musky, animalian aroma and heard muted grunting noises. Inside the pen was a massive pig, dark chocolate brown with hints of black and grey, greedily eyeing us.
It was enormous, like an old Volkswagen bus. The pig immediately hopped up on its hind legs and leaned its grotesque head over the railing. Jane calmly sauntered over and gave the pig a beer can. The pig's huge tusks stuck out menacingly, but really, like Homer Simpson, he was only interested in one thing — beer. He expertly chomped the can in a few healthy bites and knew to tilt his head back to drink in the suds without spilling.
Soon, he dropped the can on the floor, joining many other "dead soldiers." Jane cajoled me to approach the pig and hand over my beer. He downed it in a few seconds. The bar now serves only non-alcoholic beer to the pig since (from disastrous experience) a fat, drunken 800-pound porker can become quite a problem. The pig went through the six-pack like a seasoned college student.
The "beer-drinking-pig"experience presented a curious juxtaposition since I was primarily on the island to experience the St. Croix Food & Wine Experience, billed as the largest and most extensive Food & Wine Festival in the Caribbean.
The 2012 festival runs this April 17-22 and brings together top named food purveyors, restaurateurs, chefs and winemakers plus visitors and many U.S. Virgin Islands residents. The Taste of St. Croix portion is the big finale event where all the participating chefs and vintners cook, pour, compare and mingle with attendees.
It's a huge party for all concerned. Funds from spirited wine auctions, chef's dinners, wine seminars and the proceeds go to the programs at the St. Croix Foundation, a local non-profit helping island youth. Programs include literacy courses, funding a computer lab, basic school reconstruction and hospitality initiatives.
"Many diehard philanthropic individuals make the Food & Wine Experience happen,"said Doug Armstrong, a local restaurateur. "Their hard work and vision put us on the map."
Indeed many of the island's rich and powerful donate plenty, but hundreds of the hoi polloi come out too, mixing and mingling at this fun, multi-ethnic gathering.
Scott Ramsey, a successful investment banker who relocated to St. Croix from Virginia said, "This is the undiscovered gem of the Virgin Islands. It's so secluded if you want a magical place in the Caribbean, this is it."
Under seven flags
St. Croix's colorful history really took off with the arrival of Columbus, who "discovered" St. Croix on his second voyage to the New World in 1493. In fact, Arawak and Carib natives were inhabitants of this island long before the Spanish. Subsequent waves of Spanish conquistadors enslaved the natives who were eventually wiped out and by the end of the 16th century, the island was entirely uninhabited.
After the Spanish came the Dutch, and then the English. Around 1650, the Knights of Malta seized control of the Island. Then the French arrived, before the Danes took control in 1773. Denmark sold the Virgin Islands to the U.S. in 1917 for $25 million because the U.S. wanted a naval base in the Caribbean during World War I.
Arriving on the island today, visitors will find friendly locals, a balmy Caribbean climate, an azure sea and few tourists. The island does have many pretty shorelines, plus snorkeling and a sub-tropical moist forest, but St. Croix also has genuine working towns including Christiansted, the capital. You can't miss the mammoth CITGO oil refinery, the largest in the Caribbean.
The inhabitants are a curious mélange of America plus the Caribbean, joined with descendants from Africa and many European nations.
This languid island has taken a back seat to the main U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Thomas and St John.
"St Croix was always the orphan of the U.S. Virgin Islands," said Johanna Miley, a local originally from New Jersey. Never highly developed nor strictly tourism oriented, for years St. Croix was shunned by developers and cruise lines. There are no large hotel chains or in fact any tall buildings on St. Croix. This may have been a blessing since this island is still surprisingly rural, down-home and low-key.
Nate Olive, program director of the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute said, "The thing that really strikes me about St. Croix is that it lives by its own definitions. It's the fact you can't sum up anything here in a word that makes it attractively approachable but never fully attainable."
As for food and drink, besides the exciting St. Croix Food & Wine Experience, visitors will discover restaurants featuring fine cuisine all year long, a local rum producer and an excellent local brewery. And a very thirsty pig.
Bob Ecker is a Napa-based travel writer.
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