One of the nice things about living on a Caribbean island is your friends and family like to visit and you get to explore the island with them!😍
This week Michelle’s old high school friend, Ann, is visiting and staying in Coral Bay at the Concordia Eco-Resort.
Concordia is an eco-friendly resort area with 25 tent structures and 17 resort style studios. Staying here is more like camping but a bit like Glamping because the tent structures are wooden frames with canvas stretched across them with mesh screens , windows and doors. They have hybrid compost toilets with a flushing system and a garden hose as a shower with biodegradable soap and shampoo provided. There isn’t TV or air conditioning but there is a 2-burner propane stove and the small refrigerator provided which runs by a photovoltaic power system for the one outlet available (must charge your cell phone or any other electronic device at the office). Not for the faint of heart because there are 900 stairs but there is a boardwalk spine between the resorts in case someone was in a wheelchair.
Cafe Concordia offers breakfast and dinner except on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Monday nights there’s open mic. Very cool gathering of local talent!
Salt Pond Beach is a short hike down the hillside but going back up is a bit more challenging because of the elevation😅 it’s best to take the hike back up wearing an ocean soaked wet bathing suit and having wet hair to keep you cool.
Ann happened to visit when there was a full moon and we were able to take the park ranger guided Ram Head Full Moon hike. What a treat!
To prepare it is best to wear lots of suntan lotion since the hike begins before sunset. There isn’t any shade along the trail so hats are recommended along with bringing lots of water. Also, hiking shoes or boots are best to wear unless you grew up on the island like one of our hiking buddies and he did it barefoot😆 ( I swear his feet are made of leather!)
The 2.3 mile moderate hike starts at Salt Pond Trail , rather sandy, then you hike over blue cobblestone along the ocean to get to the narrow, rocky trail which will take you 314 feet up to the overlook cliff.
We make our way up to the top where it becomes very windy and the view is incredible!
It’s not long once the sun sets for the moon to rise. God does not disappoint!
Since it is a full moon, we are able to see our way down though I would recommend maybe bringing a flashlight. Also, bring bug spray because once the sun sets, the mosquitoes will find you!🦟😣
We make our way back to Concordia and enjoy the rest of the evening with a light dinner, beer, wine and good conversation. A nice ending to another great day on St. John!
***This writing was from experiences in 2016. Concordia was completely destroyed by back-to-back Cat 5 hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. They just reopened this year after almost 4 years of partial reconstruction.
Traveling Rose in St. John 