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Saint Croix is the biggest of the US Virgin Islands although the capital city, Charlotte Amelie, is located on St Thomas. Saint Croix itself has two towns Frederiksted (pop. 830) and Christiansted (pop. 3,000). The name of the island comes from the original Spanish name given by Christopher Columbus in 1493 – Santa Cruz or ‘Holy Cross’. As Santa Cruz, Saint Croix gets a great deal of mention in swashbuckling stories of pirates and buccaneers sailing on the Spanish Main.

The populace before the Europeans got there was Arawak and Carib and they had probably been there since about 5000 BC. After 1493 the population of the Caribbean got involved in a 100 years war with the Spanish and the type of people living on the island altered forever.

Saint Croix has been owned and therefore chiefly occupied by the Spanish, The British, the French, the Dutch, the Maltese and the Danish all of whom had slaves and plantations

The slaves were manumitted in 1848, but many decided to stay on Saint Croix. Descendants of slaves still live on the island. The total populace of the island is now roughly 60,000.

English is the official language and is the most commonly spoken, although there is also some Spanish, French Creole and Virgin islands Creole, also known as Crucian, which is spoken by most people in informal situations.

This Hispanic segment of the Crucian populace is mostly of Puerto Rican lineage. The US bought Vieques from Puerto Rico during the Second World War and evicted its inhabitants. Many moved to St Croix because of its similarity to Vieques. These people have integrated well, but also kept a few of their old customs. They usually speak a mixture of Spanish and Crucian English in a distinctive form of Spanglish.

Continental Americans make up about 13% of the population and mostly live on the eastern side of St Croix. Arab Palestinians are also a sizeable minority owning most of the petrol stations and supermarkets on St Croix. Other modern immigrants have moved from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Philippines.

There has been some tension between immigrants and those calling themselves ‘real Crucians’, but it has largely evaporated because of to intermarriage. There have been attempts to define a ‘real Crucian’.

The issue seems to have been sorted out when in 2009, the proposed U.S. Virgin Islands Constitution voted by the Fifth Constitutional Convention laid down three definitions of U.S. Virgin Islanders: “Ancestral Native Virgin Islander”, who have ancestral ties (and their descendants); “Native Virgin Islander”, who were born on the island (and their descendants); and “Virgin Islander”, who are any United States citizen who has lived in the region for five years.

Christianity, in the guise of Protestantism is the main religion, although the Hispanic community is Roman Catholic. There are also small groups of Jews and followers of Rastafari, Islam.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

If you are thinking of buying a vacation rental property, there are two things that you can ultimately do with it. Some purchasers of vacation rental property aim to live in it most of the year round themselves and others aim to rent it out for most of the year. There is no doubt that vacation rental property can provide an outstanding income stream.

However, there is a huge difference between vacation property rental and residential property rental. This has to do with the fact that holiday makers are not inevitably looking for the same amenities in a vacation rental property as they are in a home.

One item that does affect the attractiveness of both vacation rental property and residential property is location. However, a good residential property for a young family may have to be close to schools and other services and for older people being near a school is more of a nuisance.

Similarly with vacation rental property, you have to know your target market. You have to discover the answer to the question: why do people come to this location? And then buy a vacation rental property that matches the highest volume profile.

In this way, you will never be short of tenants and you will be sure of high rents too. For instance, some people might go to the Caribbean island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands for the diving options it presents while others may want to investigate the tropical rain forests. However, younger travelers might not want to go far from the only largish town on the island, Christiansted, so that they can take part in any nightlife happening.

One thing that everyone requires is security. The person who hires your vacation rental property will want to feel safe. That is secure from falling masonry and rickety stairs and secure from burglars. That means that your property should be well lit both internally and externally and have well-made doors and locks. Windows should be lockable too.

It is a good idea to present a kitchen like the one a family would usually expect at home. So, an American kitchen with American style appliances for American families, if they are the people you are trying to attract. Again, you will have to study the typical visitors to where you want to buy a vacation rental property. A younger family may eat in at night, an older one may never eat in at all. The kitchen should be well-equipped, furnishings should be comfortable and recreational equipment should be provided too.

A lot of people like to take their dogs with them, so you might like to think about making the vacation rental property friendly for pet owners. If the furniture is robust, massive oak or something like that, dogs will not be able to damage it easily. Plastered walls without wall covering and tiled floors are also favourable for having animals in the house. This is a positively growing niche market for vacation rental properties

And last but not least, remember that people like to be able to keep in touch when they are away from their loved ones, so Internet access is a growing essential too. People can VOIP, so a phone is not so imperative these days. If you bear these points in mind, you can have a profitable vacation rental property where you can holiday free too.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

If you take pleasure in travelling and seeing new destinations, I recommend a cruise. I have cruised the Mediterranean and the Baltic and my next cruise will be a Caribbean cruise. I am genuinely looking forward to it. If you have never been on a cruise, start saving up now, because it is luxury like you have never imagined before.

Never having been on a Caribbean cruise before, I do not know how much the various Caribbean islands differ from one another, so I do not know how varied that cruise would be. However, I have cruised the Med and the Baltic and woken up to a different country every day and in both of those seas and every country is very different from its neighbours.

On our Baltic cruise we left from Southampton and cruised to Gothenburg in Sweden. From there we went to Helsinki and Leningrad (in those days). On the way back, we called into Copenhagen and the Tivoli Gardens. None of those countries was in any way similar to another or even Britain.

Similarly, my Mediterranean cruise left from Minorca in north eastern Spain going east to Sardinia and then north along the southern coast of Europe. Italy, France and Spain. The second week of the cruise left Minorca again and went to Sicily and then south along the northern coast of Africa including Malta.

The luxury on a cruise is almost indescribable to someone who has never been on a cruise. There is no standard higher than five stars, but the cruises I have been on offered superior levels of luxury than any five star hotels I have stayed in anywhere in the world.

Food and shore trips play a major part of cruising. The food is top notch with no mistake. Breakfast on a cruise liner is better than most Americans and most Europeans have for dinner. Whatever you want from prawns to steak, from exotic fruit to porridge. Lunch and dinner are even more sumptuous.

Shore excursions are well prepared too. They include a ferry from the cruise liner to the shore and then a coach trip by a local firm to the destination, which could be an historical site or a shopping mall. Most cruisers go on these trips, but some would rather stay on board and take advantage of the reduced number of passengers and the free food.

I went on every shore excursion and thoroughly enjoyed each one. The excursions are usually pricey though, but you are part of a trapped audience, so what can you expect?

I thoroughly recommend a cruise holiday to any and every one. You should go at least once in your life, but do not leave it until late in your life because you will want to go again.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

Though not as venomous as other species, the copperhead snake causes the majority of snake-bites in the US. The copperhead can be recognized by its stubby shape and the clear distinction between the neck and the rest of the body although the cross bands that make up the overall pattern make classification possible too.

Copperhead snakes have pale bellies, which makes it look very similar to its background, but their colourisation also be whitish sometimes. There are obvious spots or pits on the heads of these animals that appear like tiny dark specks. There is also a rather vague stripe on its head behind its eyes; less prominent on the top, the stripe gets a lot darker towards the sides of the snake’s head.

Copperheads live in a wide variety of habitats. They can be found under rocks, in woods and on river banks or in pond areas. Their choice of abode is dictated by the presence of prey, as they like to live on frogs, small rodents, cicadas, lizards, caterpillars and anything else that is no match for their size.

The most usual hidey-holes for the copperhead, wood piles, stone slabs, walls, debris and abandoned or ruined buildings are the most common, which explains why people come across copperheads so often in such areas. The active months of the year for these snakes are in the spring and summer for as long as the weather stays warm. After that they go into hibernation.

Copperhead snakes return to the same dens to hibernate year after year, and more often than not, there are large nests counting many individuals during hibernation. On very hot summer days, copperhead snakes will remain in cooler areas during the day and use the cover of the night to hunt. On balmy summer days, the copperhead will lie in the sun on rocks or wooden debris. Copperheads do not hatch eggs, but give birth to their young live. The number of young ranges from one to fourteen and they are usually born from the summer untill October.

The bites of copperhead snakes must have immediate medical care since they are not only very painful but they may also lead to permanent scarring and tissue loss. Avoid copperhead snakes when you come across them, since many people get bitten when trying to kill or handle them.

Snakes will not harm you unless they sense danger, when you will see how fiercely they can defend themselves. Statistics indicate that these snakes are the most frequent life threateners in the US, because these Copperhead attack quite out of the blue without sending any warning signals like other species do.

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categories: snakes,reptiles,unusual,pets,exotic,animals,florida,california,tropical,fauna,America,USA,outdoors,other

After your wedding day, your honeymoon is one of the most memorable times of your life and so must surely count as one of best holidays you will ever have. It is the beginning of a new life with the person you love. As such it is a good reason to visit somewhere you have always wanted to go, somewhere very special.

One of the most popular places for people to go to on a honeymoon is St Croix, The US Virgin Islands, in the Caribbean.

The Caribbean is the first choice for many newly weds for several reasons: the romance, the people are happy and welcoming, the sand, sea and sunshine, the food and the music. St Croix in the US Virgin Islands is one of the most well-liked destinations in the Caribbean islands.

St Croix has picturesque beaches and that perfect tropical climate that is so appropriate for a wonderful honeymoon. The hotels and the island’s inhabitants love to take care of newly weds and go out of their way to make sure that the honeymooners have the time of their lives – a holiday that they will remember affectionately for ever.

Cost is always a factor when one is planning a honeymoon in the Caribbean, but you do not have not be too concerned on that front. A honeymoon on St Croix need not be expensive and as it is only 1,300 miles from the USA, so travel costs and travel time are low.

You will not have trouble finding somewhere on the island to suit your desires. However, St Croix is a popular honeymoon destination, especially for Americans, so it is worth booking your honeymoon holiday as early as possible in order to obtain the reservation that you want.

There are three main kinds of places to stay: a hotel, a vacation rental or a holiday home. The difference between a vacation rental and a holiday home is that the former is a condo or villa purpose built for holiday makers, while the holiday home is actually somebody’s house who has let it out for a short time.

When scheduling your honeymoon, you should think about when you will go away. It was traditional to leave for the honeymoon after a short reception on the day of the wedding, but many couples postpone their departure date nowadays. Over the last few decades, it has become the norm to hold an extensive reception hours after the wedding, often at night. This will often go on until midnight or later, which makes leaving for foreign climes rather difficult. A hangover is not a good travelling companion either.

Therefore, you may want to put your going away date off until two days after the wedding, although I think that flying out on the wedding day is still the best idea. If you choose a holiday home or a vacation rental on St Croix, you will need to make all your own preparations for getting to the airport, flying to St Croix and getting a taxi from the airport to your place of stay, so I suggest that for this, your first visit to this beautiful island, you take a package tour, which will take care of you from your local airport to your hotel on St Croix and back again.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.