St. Croix Continued... Beer Drinking Pigs and Rum Punch Sail

Beer Drinking Pigs:  Nestled up in the rainforest, on the west side of the island, lies this rustic jungle bar called the Mt. Pellier Domino Club. (Not be confused with Montpelier, the capital of VT.)  One of the most intriguing aspects of this place is they have beer drinking pigs.  And by beer drinking, it’s more like beer guzzling/can crushing.  And by pigs I mean giant, ugly, smelly boars… like the ones that used to chase people through the jungle on LOST.

Now, for all you animal lovers who think this is absolutely horrible, not to worry.  The PETA people had a field day with this place.  You can no longer buy them your beer of choice, and they can’t just chug-a-lug all day, every day.  For the bargain price of $3 you can buy an ice cold O’dules from the bar, and every 20 minutes they will lead you to this locked “barn” where you can have the opportunity to share a pint with a pig.

Oh how the times have changed for these beer swigging swine’s. Do you think they got confused or disappointed when they stopped getting a good day buzz?  Or if they went through detox/withdrawals when they abruptly went dry?  Clearly it’s a much healthier situation for them, but a drastically different lifestyle for sure.… this little piggy went to AA :(

Big Beards Adventure:  What do you get when you pile 2 VT’ers, 8 Bostonians, 5 Minnesota’ers, and couple Canadians on a boat for a day - in the Caribbean, in the dead of winter? A hell of a good time, that’s what!  

I introduce you to Capt’n Big Beards Adventure Tours. The full day tour sail’s you to two different beaches on Buck Island.  Considered a National Monument both above and below the surface, it’s a great place for beach combing and snorkeling.  They even have underwater plaques with pictures and descriptions of various marine life for people to identify the fish as they swim by.

And once everyone’s done snorkeling, and back on the boat, the rum punches start flowing.  And flowing, and flowing. We sail back over to the mainland for a private beach bbq.  Burgers/dogs and freshly grilled Mahi, YUM!  And did I mention rum punch?  

The rest of the afternoon was spend frolicking on the beach with a gallon of rum punch and my 18 new best friends (Capt’-n-crew included).  Do I care that after X amount of rum punches (they were tiny cups) I kept forgetting to reapply sunscreen and got completely fried?  Do I care that I woke up the next day with a giant hangover and “sea lice” from snorkeling through insect laden seaweed?  Hell no!  I’d take a mild case of “mystery bumps” over another day shoveling in a heartbeat.  It was totally worth it!