Michael Jordan is My Neighbor

Once again I'm bringing you an update of why you should be jealous of where I live. It's not because I'm trying to rub it in, it's just that every day you learn something new about the place you live and it amazes you.

Just the other day I was in training to become a zipline guide, sweating from the strenuous labor of hauling other trainees along the line, when one of my co-workers pointed to the little spit of land that juts out past Magens Bay and said "that's Peterborg".

Magens Bay

Peterborg

"Do you know who lives out there?"

Yes, apparently Michael Jordan has a house out on the wealthiest part of the island along with a place for his father and possibly his grandmother too. I guess building on mainland St. Thomas is a little more cost effective than building on your own private island. The only drawback? you have more neighbors.


It's a little crazy to think that on the far north side of the island you have these multi million dollar complexes with vast expanses of marbled and tiled accoutrement and just about three miles away you have extreme poverty. I suppose it's just like anywhere else just on a very small scale.


Now that we got all that depressing sociological stuff out of the way we can talk about the incredibly interesting and storied 'history' of the islands. I put history in quotes because most of what I've heard comes second hand from islanders who told me to take everything with a grain of salt.


To me, being of the nautical mindset that I am, I find the strong piratical presence here to be most fascinating. The tourist destinations on the island are dotted with myriad shops purporting to have genuine pirate ware, from treasure to scrimshaw.

But the really interesting stuff comes in the form of islands names Dead Man's Chest, which I'm informed, was the place of an infamous marooning where a wayward pirate was left with just a flask of water and a cutlass. That's pretty cool.

Whether or not this is true, I'm not sure, but I'll play pirate any day so this island is really the place for me.


Another good example is the beautiful overlook named Drake's Seat, which is perched high on hillside to see the Infamous Drake's passage, both of the namesake Sir Francis Drake.

You get the idea. This place is so cool. Incredible beaches, hundreds of gorgeous sailing yachts, and enough rum to fuel another four Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It doesn't get much better. So if, like me, you're living here or you just plan to stay for a few days; make sure to take in the whole of the island, don't let yourself get stuck in the tourist traps when there is so much more to explore. (but please do spend your money here, its how we get paid!).