[Music] six square miles Saint John the second smallest island of the United States Virgin Islands boasts over 20 miles of hiking trails [Music] many of the trails like the cinnamon Bay Trail we hiked earlier this season are fan favorites each Trail offers a unique experience and all guarantee an abundance of natural beauty cultural significance and history yeah but to some there is no Trail more significant historically and culturally than the reef Bay Trail the replay hike I would describe as a slice of St John's history it really covers all the different cultures that have been through here all the different types of people and it also shows you a lot of the different environments we have on this tiny little Island currently we're going down toward the reef Bay Trail twice a week that's the guided hike and the boat ride return we'll be increasing that as the season progresses probably to four or five days a week about 2.1 miles long there's plenty of interesting things to see along this Trail to include a waterfall and carvings made centuries ago by African ancestors and those carvings are the petroglyphs which can be found near the end of the trail now there is some debate over who left behind the carvings most say they are the work of early Taino Indians but some feel they are from African ancestors who are in the region long before the arrival of Christopher Columbus now that's interesting now the trail begins 4.9 miles east of cruise Bay one of two main towns on St John's the trail is well maintained and it descends about a thousand feet through a shady moist Forest this moist Forest eventually turns into a dry Force for some the trail takes an entire day to complete so we better get a move on joining us on this hike is our good friend and tour guide olasi Davis if you can remember Mr Davis accompanied us on several of the hikes on the island of Saint Croix the largest of the Virgin Islands put it this way wherever there is a hiking trail you are sure to find Mr Davis there according to Mr Davis the trail we are on was once an old Danish Road the stones we see along the trail were placed to stabilize the trail and allow water to run off into the guts now as I mentioned earlier this is a moist forest and as you can see there is a little bit of rain that in addition to the protruding rocks you see here can make the hike somewhat challenging so as far as I'm concerned slow and steady will get us through our destination if I was I didn't talk about what flowers really does as it rained it's still the rain down number one secondly the water is able to populate in the ground and therefore the underground Aqueduct come on top and begin to flow this is open you will get more wet and the water went off and these have a major impact on our underground natural resources okay so that's where you're hiking inside the Paris and it's raining basically raining but you barely getting two Cup on it I don't want to keep it moving down which is very good immediately as you begin the trail you realize the Lost vegetation that runs along the trail and surrounds you we have a lot of plants that most people from the states consider indoor plants house plants we have a lot of anthuriums and bromeliads both of which are quite dramatic and different looking from what you see Stateside we of course we have a lot of significant trees native trees such as the Bay Rum tree we have the Locust and k-pops so there's a lot to be seen so Mr Davis this is a massive tree tell us a little bit about it this tree of course we call a K-pop or silicating okay it's more it's more than 20 years old it could be over 200 years old the local Legend habit is a man and a woman got married I don't know women got married you gotta notice you see this could be the man it could be the woman so folk the argue about it and in the center you can see how it joined together and this is the trail well if you imagine earlier eating this is the woman because you have alcohol it's so curvy you know that makes a lot of sense I would say this is the woman okay a big woman compared to this little man but anyway the silicating tree there was still cutting because traditionally here in the island we collect the silk they make pillow okay that's what the world silicating came into beam this trigger along stream Bears or guts and many years ago that you were used for kayak or whether you use it for the the cut it from this side and go right up and they make kanu canoes out of the tree okay and you [ __ ] in some literature mentioned how close to Young close to one 50 men's so that's a huge stream wow and they can kayak from South America and come all up in the Caribbean region do most of the k-pak trees grow to be this massive the the Dogo massive Street you could see the the root system uh-huh and you can see the reason why they go near the river got a stream because the whole is soil together the whole intact it's not a very Woody tree even though it looks it feels very solid it feels very very okay but it it got a vast root system that whole um salt together and this tree looks to be about how old it's close to 200 over 200 years old wow and you look right up you can see a form or the rare form is common here in Saint John and Saint Thomas and Iran synchrists what's that is a form okay one of the form that we have in the island yeah and basically the farm does the tree is the horse and the farm that's gather the neutrons at this rain and fall in the heart of the farm itself to the sports floor all over I'm a land on top of tree like this okay and then when they start to spot and start to go this is really big on the other hand the Scarlet jump between because Africans um especially in Africa that this is native to the Caribbean in in tropical America and Africa they planned this tree next to the Village to protect them from evil spirit and this tree in the same family of the bay Baptist okay so many times people get confused with a silicating okay they look very very similar but in the same family in addition to these massive trees there are several trees and plants that produce fruits which are edible like these guava Berry trees and these bromeliads which are bromelia penguins also referred to as wild pineapple this is the wild pineapple fruit it's edible and is rich in vitamins see so what I do in here is peeling It Off and it stays very sweet and why we say locally Thai gonna type a tongue a little bit but it tastes very sweet and that's the inside of it and I will take a bite um delicious golden [Music] the fruit is sweet and rich in calcium and vitamin C however one must be careful not to rub their eyes or touch his or her skin after handling it the wild pineapple skin produces a chemical which can burn eyes and cause a slight skin rash about Midway into the hike you come across the ruins of the joycy gut sugar estate a plantation that operated in the early 18th century okay Mr Davis we seem to be standing in some sort of Plantation tell us a little bit about this area okay we're still within this Bay Plantation okay what happened over the years Plantation expanded otherwise they join them or they combine them together one reason for that because some planters cannot survive by themselves because of the sugar economy and this is apparently is one that was joined together with the risby plantations and these are the runes ITC what's the name of this Plantation okay the name of the plantain is just the sugar estate again Justice man or woman woman you got it and so what happened other Plantation they brought these smaller Plantation and they combined and where they create a central Factory and so the Sugar Bar to one main Factory which as you go further down the trail we will see the Sugar Factory down there and so all the sugar in this particular area here and so on the estate ability to Sugar Factory the tree here in front of you is the big tree is over 200 years old huge and those trees were Timber species when the Danish came here that was some of the tree was used to build great houses Sugar Mill um Slayer quarters on the Cook House and the likes and I also called black olive okay does it have any uses okay or anything medicinal the the tree is used for the coal okay and they usually for um for fever and of course you boil water and then you add a leaf in it and sip it and drink it you got a little bit of sugar if you want to a honey I have a little bit of um lime or lemon I either drink it how far is this area from actual Reef Bay Plantation I know we're on the same route but how how far is it we we have a about a thousand miles to go just kidding but um we're not too far from the Petroglyph at the godong we see the pretty cliff and we hike up to the waterfall and we'll come back and we go down to the bottom we probably have the whole Plantation structure and it's right on top we are now on our way to see the petroglyphs however there are still a few ruins that can be found on the trail this is what remains of the Park Forest Village it was a worker's Village for the Sugar Factory however at the end of the sugar industry era The Village became known for raising cattle and cultivating crops and then there is this beautiful stone wall so Mr Davis I know we're on our way to see the petroglyphs but I can't help but notice this beautiful wall formation could you tell us a little bit about it okay these two would put put what 200 years ago but in straight Africans and one of the reasons they keep in animals today in those days they use Stones so they create what we call a Terrace so you can see just imagine this Stone being there for over 200 years with all the hurricane that we have over those years and still standing so this is a Monumental dose that came before us and put this Stone together and these things gathered from all the mountain sides and come down and where they brought the stone here and stood along the area and create this wall to keep in animals and they use wild formations like this throughout the island throughout the island and throughout it as Trot Estates and reef Bay is a good example even in Honduras when I was there a couple years ago you see the same Foundation to keep animals in we are now about two miles into the hike and we've reached what many consider the highlight of the reef Bay Trail the Petroglyph site unfortunately there wasn't enough rainfall on this day to produce a steady waterfall nonetheless to see the different carvings on the Rocks is an amazing experience foreign the most significant is the petroglyphs which were early Rock carvings done by Taino Indians in the early thousands through 1000 through 1400 A.D and they are seeing nowhere else in the Virgin Islands so that is pretty significant oh my God Mr David this is absolutely amazing tell us a little bit about what we're watching here what you're watching is the petroglyphia and reef Bay waterfall and Saint John over the years there were different controversy how these Patrick get here okay but this particular African Mr Davis's conclusion is based on a 1974 archaeological find in hallway Saint Thomas the sister island of Saint John located just a few miles Southwest of the island it was there that the remains of possible pre-columbian Africans were found test by the Smithsonian Institute on artifacts found with the remains date back to 1250 A.D however due to environmental factors such as sea water contamination the findings were ruled inconclusive that's why many believe the petroglyphs were made by Taino Indians nonetheless for some the hall they find along with other similarities between the petroglyphs and African rituals are proof enough that these carvings were made by African ancestors these have glyph is here represent in time of the Sun and some folks believe some information believe that the Ashanti tribe of the particularly Fair it depicts the Sun explaining about how they get energy from the sun no they do you know why they would think that it would be Taino Indians versus the Ashanti tribe but basically because of research you have to do your research a lot of research the archaeologists and and historians but from my sort of information early results have done and it's perfectly for a lot it is they go back from the Taino on some of these same practically you can see in West Africa wow that is amazing so tell me why do you think they they chose this area I'm assuming they may have something to do with the waterfall that we're also looking at it is the area the specific area they use you know and of any importance the possibility the guy could see there's an open hair and since some of the pressure grip represent the Sun or Sun God and of course the water reflect the Sun and what if I come down from a ride down and it runs down to the to the shore to the possibility and then the type of rock you have a sedimentary rock and somebody rake is kind of require blue bits which is very hard rock that you use for building houses or used in a mine or Crusher and so there's a possibility because of the opening area here and the water that's running down and the other possibility tool is near to the shore we're not too far from the show I have to come in into this Bay Area that's all the possibility and so they put the mark in here and this could be asked to be a salmon and area too as well wow that is amazing do you know of any other areas on the island that would that we can find say petrographs like this no I don't have any area but again they might have areas on the island that we now discovered yet that you'll find a Petroglyph within the water we do have we call freshwater Lobster asynchronic it's crayfish and so this waterfall used to run all everyone before there was any instantly African working here as slave remember this with the entire Forest Area and the water went out everyone now we call a signal waterfall so starting from late August to November that's a rainy season here in voice Netherlands and more likely you will see water begin to run this year our wind fall is below average okay in other words we're not getting sufficient during this year so then that's probably that's why the waterfall is not running right now yes so why does the color of the water look like this right now because the trees are running a drop in the water and it decompose with microorganisms and the fish in the water eat eat that for example this the tree behind a view is the autograph Tracy so you write it so okay that's what the native tree here this tree right there some people call it uh God Plum this is a tree right there or got apple and a fire in the water and over the period of time it decomposed and give it that color and brown color good the actual drawings the pictures they're like the facial features are real broad like the lips and the nose so you know like they resemble I guess our ancestors [Music] [Music] [Music] this experience is one I'll never forget and while it would have been the perfect ending to this day there is still one last thing to see on this hike at the end of The Reef Bay Trail there is this well preserved The Reef Bay Sugar Factory it dates back to the 1800s and was used to process sugar cane into sugar and also for distilling rum as you can see the factory building retains much of its original equipment it was the last operating Sugar Factory on St John it actually operated until the early 1900s now behind us it looks like an amazing piece of Machinery what is this that we're looking at it this is a steam engine but before the steam engine it was the animal Mill Animal Mill was here where it grind the cane what happened from starting from the 17th to 1800s they start off with a windmill okay and the animal meal and then later on Advanced to the steam engine so this truck they see right there in front of us now this is the animal Mill where the animal gonna go around and the grand entire King the whole prostitute if you look around you see this wild go straight around so the sleeve is like this [ __ ] like I'm gonna sleep hitting animals and I'm just walking around like this and they're going straight so we're going around okay so I'm gonna run like this all this time they feed in the red if you're feeling a can you can't go into that yeah and I'm going I'm going straight they're going straight to the middle you see the feeling the king it runs and run right through here the juicy run right away and go down to the boiler room okay see you running right through here right down to the boiler room and those at the ballet room inside okay wow that's In from from the from different animal s to the steam engine so that helped a whole lot in terms of the sleeve and a whole lot in terms of the animal too because I'm about to work very hard to grind the kid and do it was to use um ax we call cows with the longhorn something to use donkey or something to use Muse okay [Music] of course [Music] [Music] [Music] so we don't want to talk too loud because we have bats in here but Alaska please tell us what we're looking at this is the steering room this is putting back in 1861. you can see the engines here the engines in here so the one from the chimney to the Sugar Mill to the animal Mill okay and this is steam engine so all you have to do is just get some oil I started up and it just kicking and it started going okay and let's grow some cane the the well preserved but but a little you see all the design of the bricks again you can see the bricks but with the red bird the red bricks and this is the in general not too many not too much Coral not too many Coral it's mostly equivalent of outside of the Sugar Factory but this is a well preserved I want a the best piece of spectacular this is very very preserved you see you have some battery [Music] they looked at the sleep and some is awake so I hope they will not try it on no no we might want to get out of here okay okay I see a lot of soldier crabs the crab gather the nuts those not to see it's dark I'm on we're usually starting from August to September it's a migration period of the hermit card and we can't sow the crab so they migrated to the ocean and the sperm of the meat and they come back up so you can notice in here there's a lot of seeds all over so the gallery seeds and they eat the seeds read me a house which means crabbed in a barn with shell so as I go down to the show and I come back up they look for Shell I'm going to the Shell I want to surely get too small look for others show the crab and the other hand because of the red gun deal the name Soldier crab historically the industry African they eat they saw the crop there's one in the diet and along with white rum she was eating nowadays the crab been used for catching fish [Music] foreign [Music] it's no surprise why this hike was voted as one of the top 10 in the Caribbean its history and the vegetation and structures seen along the trail makes the experience a memorable one foreign wow that was quite an experience for me so much history culture and interesting facts all in a 2.1 Mile Trail I would encourage anyone and everyone who lives on the island or visits to actually walk the trail and see and learn for themselves why it's one of the more popular trails in the National Park system so until next time always remember to cherish your home this beautiful island but most of all cherish each other [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign a Rosewood Resort [Music]