CaribEthnoExp. X. American Virgin Islands

March 14 ... April 5, 2014

This is the only U.S. territory where people drive on the left.

The U.S. Virgin Islands are American in every sense, despite technically being a separate territory. Even the traffic lights here are completely American. They’re just positioned in an unfamiliar way, facing the left side of the road.

Every other infrastructure detail is exactly the same as in the rest of the U.S. Just look at the post boxes.

A license plate.

License stickers.

St. Thomas

The neighboring British Virgin Islands’ legendary minibuses with elaborate backside cutouts have made their way here as well.

This part of the Virgin Islands used to belong to Denmark. A couple of cute streets with wonderful curbs laid out in brick still remain from that era. The curbs look absolutely fantastic; I have no idea why no one does this anymore.

Another relic that has survived here is American pedestrian traffic lights with text. On the mainland, they’ve been completely eradicated and replaced with pictogram lights.

The payphones, on the other hand, will soon be gone. There are already no phones inside, and the stands will be taken down shortly. Cell phones are taking over.

There’s a myth that you can get great deals on diamonds here. So all the cruise ship passengers make a beeline for the jewelry stores.

The shopping streets end rather quickly, and god knows what begins after that.

A trash can.

An elegant mesh coffer for a fire hydrant.

Christiansted

There’s a nice old Danish fort here.

And an equally nice historic district.

The city reminds me of Yelets.

The local fire hydrants have a cap that looks like a knit hat.

The trash cans are capacious and modest.

Frederiksted

A small, cozy, well-preserved colonial town.

It consists entirely of porticos (like Bologna or Havana).

The city’s main distinctive detail is its concrete street corner protectors, which are additionally reinforced with decommissioned cannons. A cart that fails to negotiate a turn won’t cause any damage to the architecture.

Street signs in two languages.

An ordinary trash can camouflaged to fit in with its historical surroundings.

A trash can that compacts waste using a solar-powered hydraulic press.

Every pup knows that this is America.

It’s time to return to our gaudy cruise ship.

Who would have thought I’d end up liking it here? The limited amount of alcohol you can bring on board, the confined space, the throngs of old people, the gaudy kitsch at every turn—you just don’t notice any of it. The cruise ship turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant experience. I hate to admit it, but I even thought about doing this again sometime.

Oh, the Caribbean.