Here are a bunch of photos from a trip I took this past October, to St Thomas and St John in the US Virgin Islands, a small group of islands immediately to the East of Puerto Rico. The population of the island chain is 106,000, on a 133 sq miles. Yes that's considerably smaller than municipal NYC, Chicago, or LA. As my plane was landing and taking off, I could see St Thomas (co-main island, with it's 50k or so population) in its entirety, and it didn't look very big. St John isn't much smaller land-wise, but is much less developed. The islands are self-governing, with the limitation that whatever laws they have on their books have to not conflict with federal law and the US Constitution.
Photos are more or less in chronological order. I spent most of my time on St John, with one excursion to Charlotte Amalie, the main town on St Thomas.
First, St John, most of which is a national park.
Shrub behind beach
Entrance path to beach park
Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas
Jewelry store after jewelry store. The US Virgin Islands are a duty free zone, so while they are part of the US (I believe the idea is that as unincorporated territories, they are owned by the US, but not an integral part of it. Kind of like you own your jeans, but they aren't a part of you),... anyway, so while the islands are part of the US, you still pass through customs on the way back to the mainland, with passport/ID checks and customs/immigration officers. Locals are American citizens just like us on the mainland, but the checks are there, and passports are required of any foreigners.
Despite the lack of respect inherent in unincorporated territory status (and all current US territories are unincorporated), there are benefits. There are no federal taxes from my understanding (no taxation without representation), but there are most of the usual federal benefits we have here in the 50 states. Also, if I were an islander, I sure as heck wouldn't want to be stuck in an independent island country you can see in it's entirety out of an airplane window, without the benefit of American citizenship and the wider world it opens up.
Back to St John. Path from the port to a beach
Largest shopping center in town an on island
Main square in St John
Port view. The pickups pictured are how the taxis look on the island. Fare are by person, by schedule of origin and destination. I wish I rented a car, as even though they drive on the left, the roads weren't congested at all, and I would have been able to explore the island much better.
Evening view from my favorite bar on the island
