IT'S NOT OFTEN, WHEN walking along a secluded beach, you become aware of a large eyeball scoping you from the depths and seemingly following your every step along the virgin white sand.
Welcome to the Caribbean island of St John, the most unspoiled of the US Virgin Islands and home of the tarpon, the world's biggest herring. This specimen was at least six foot long and tailing me as it lazily pursued the small fry that makes up its
lunch.
The tale of Trunk Bay, which frequently tops lists of the world's best beaches, and its tarpon, was just one of the highlights of a five-night trip to a St John yoga retreat that included sunrise and sunset yoga sessions, fantastic food and company, island hopping by motorboat, sailboat and kayak and some world-class snorkelling.
A quick hop and passport stop from the British Virgin Islands, St John and its neighbours, St Thomas and St Croix, make up the US Virgins. St John is a small, largely undeveloped island about 35 miles from Puerto Rico, or a couple of hours from Miami. Rich in natural, cultural and colonial history, it has a year-round tropical climate.
Hosts Deborah Bernstein and Scott Wahlen's luxury Florian Villa sits high up in lush jungle, overlooking island bays and St John's main town of Cruz Bay. Mostly the attractions here are the white-sand beaches, clear warm water and ultra-exclusive Caneel Bay resort, founded by philanthropist and conservationist Laurance Rockefeller in the 1950s, but Deborah and Scott realised, after several holidays here, that the island's calming environment – 90 per cent of which is protected national park – would be perfect to host their yoga, adventure and water retreats. Deborah is a former management consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who left the confines of the office to buy her own Boston yoga studio about six years ago, selling it in 2007 to buy the Florian Villa retreat with Scott, a fire service veteran with 11 years' service.
In between their paying guests, the couple host the families of injured and deceased firefighters, providing a week's stay and tours of the island, free of charge. Five weeks of guest bookings bring in enough for them to be able to offer these families the seclusion of a holiday away from the world, and injured firefighters some valuable time to recuperate.
Scott, 40, a former fire captain, says: "We just felt it was the right thing to do in so many ways. We've had firefighters or their families here from Boston to California and North Carolina. And if anyone in the UK, in Edinburgh or Scotland, has a story, we would like them to tell us through our website."
Deborah, 37, teaches a mix of Hatha, Vinyasa, Ayurveda and Kundalini techniques to groups of between four and ten in a relaxing and stimulating outdoor poolside veranda environment. Utilising Vinyasa flow, or body healing through control of breath, she guides both beginners and experts through the complex series of exercises, adapting her lessons to the skill levels and requests of each guest. Fellow yoga practitioners, all more experienced than me, loved Deborah's adaptive teachings that reinforced previously held good practices and gave us new ways to appreciate and develop the relationship between body and mind. She also examines her guests' techniques, offering considered, sensitive advice on correct positions or props to help minimise stress on the body.
"We get a certain type of independent traveller here, but really we take all kinds. The villa's location is great in so many ways," says Deborah.
A split-level, west-facing dwelling named after the patron saint of firefighters, Florian Villa has four bedrooms. There are three bathrooms, one of which has an outdoor shower so you can bathe surrounded by tropical foliage. Exceptionally clean, bright and spacious rooms have most of the usual amenities, including wireless internet access. The open living and dining area is nicely laid out with comfortable wicker sofas and a low, round stone-top table on the balcony that was perfect for eating snacks or drinking wine with our hosts while watching the sun set over St Thomas across the bay. The best thing about the villa's schedule is that it's as flexible as you are. If you like yoga twice a day, at sunrise and sunset, that's perfectly fine. If you like a more intensive, perhaps three-session day, that's no problem either. Want to skip the sunrise yoga after a couple too many margaritas after dinner the night before? All good, we'll see you when we see you.
Scott, a good-natured host and one-time bartender with easy patter, mixes the margaritas and will gladly accompany anyone to a local bar for a Painkillah – the local cocktail of choice whose fame has spread beyond the islands. Scott won't touch a drop, though: he has the somewhat perilous task of driving guests around the island's rolling and sometimes broken roads in one of the retreat's two SUVs – the preferred mode of transport in a place where flash floods can strand an unwary driver in seconds. I will venture that nowhere on earth are there more SUVs per square foot than on St John – well, perhaps Knightsbridge – but don't hold that against the island, please, as they're required.
Scott drives guests to sunbathing and snorkelling spots that only locals know about and half and full-day adventure programmes are included in the cost of a week's stay. He dropped us with Captain Nate of Nate's Custom Charters at the beach at the nearby Westin hotel and we set off for a day of speedboating around rocky coves, white-sand beaches, translucent snorkelling spots and secluded bays only accessible by water. Nate also gave us some great historical tidbits about the islands, some of which were once owned by Denmark – many have the ruins of windmills that processed sugar cane during the Danes' 18th-century rule – including taking us to a ramshackle cottage that housed British customs officials in the late 19th century. You can also visit Magen's Bay where, in the mid-16th century, Sir Francis Drake concealed his fleet and watched the Spanish sail by before the young explorer's disastrous battle of San Juan Ulua.
Slightly more recently, Rockefeller in the 1960s teamed with NASA and General Electric on an oceanic research project into weightlessness, on a deep-water site that can still be dived today. Other spots on Nate's tour included Caneel, Cinnamon Bay and Maho Bay, and a site allowing divers to explore cannonballs on the ocean floor where British ships banned from carrying loaded cannons into port discharged their arsenals into the sea, or took pot shots at a rocky outcrop named Gairville that still bears their scars. Snorkelling and dive spots reveal beautiful sealife including pufferfish, parrotfish, stingrays, moray eels and octopus, all of which we saw over the course of a couple days.
Han at Sailboat Safaris uses a wind-powered beach cat to get around the islands, occasionally sailing it the 35 miles to Puerto Rico and back, and offers sunset sailboat trips that were both beautiful and relaxing. Han, an upstate New Yorker who grew up on boats and moved here in 2002, told us about his parents, who had lived in Aberdeen (his dad is a lecturer) until they recently emigrated to Florida.
Next day, guided by Sarah at Arawak Expeditions, we set out in several large kayaks to watch turtles. Kayaking is a mildly strenuous but thoroughly fun way to get about the islands – we paddled against the prevailing trade winds toward Honeymoon Bay, passing right by a couple of native sea turtles, before enjoying some of the best snorkelling to be had, in the waters around the chief ranger's house. The national park rangers all have subsidised houses, and several, like this one, are within spitting distance of mansions costing £10 million or more. Land here costs upwards of £500,000 an acre and is in seriously short supply. Rockefeller's 1956 bequest to the US government of more than 5,000 acres of land has helped the island remain largely undeveloped.
Nightlife in the nearby town of St Cruz is fun and busy – crime here is virtually nonexistent – and has the familiar combination of tourists, small independent beachside bars and a couple of colourful local establishments for the more adventurous.
We watched a local primary school's steel-drum group perform and a set of pirate dancers juggling fire (it was Halloween night, after all) on the beach outside a popular bar serving margaritas and generous measures of island rum to locals and tourists alike, as a live band played traditional calypso music.
Scott is happy to pick up people late in the evening, while stragglers can safely hail a taxi back to the villa. Be aware that food is expensive in bars and restaurants here, and the island's location can mean the food is not of great quality, while service can be frustrating.
Which makes an all-inclusive stay at Scott and Deborah's Florian Villa retreat a particularly enticing proposition. Just look out for the herring.
Factfile PACKAGEHalf-week all-inclusive stays at Florian Villa (001 617 429 6182, www.florianvilla.com) start from £1,000pp for four-nights' double occupancy or £1,400 for a single. Week-long trips start at around £2,000pp for double occupancy or £2,400, single. Options include the yoga, adventure, or water retreat.
HOW TO GET THEREAmerican Airlines (www.aa.com) flies from Edinburgh to London, Miami and on to St Thomas, a short ferry ride from the island of St John, from around £500 through Travelocity (0871 472 5116, www.travelocity.co.uk).
AND THERE'S MORENate (001 340 643 7795, www.natescustomcharters.com) offers trips out of Cruz Bay.
Han at Sailboat Safaris (001 340 626 8181, www.sailsafaris.net) offers guided sailboat and snorkelling tours.
Arawak Expeditions (001 800 238 8687, www.arawakexp.com) offers kayak trips out of Cruz Bay.
Scotsman Reader Holidays offer various long-haul trips. Visit www.holidays.scotsman.com
The full article contains 1685 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
