Looking past the deck, my eyes dip first into the bay where a quick search rewards me with a turtle sighting. A skiff bounces by and beyond that East End, a narrow bubbly shaped peninsula, hides Drake Channel but not Tortolla, which rises above it, familiar in its proximity.

This is where I am. Everyday I marvel at the lush colors and tropical vistas that this small Caribbean island offers at each turn of the head. There is no such thing here as a bad view and all days are beautiful: either intensely powerful shades of blue in the winter sun, translucent turquoise in the dog days of summer or cozily reassuring in the overcast of welcome rain.

St. John in the US Virgin Islands is not unique in its luxurious beauty and relaxed lifestyle: it is but one small tropical island amongst the many scattered like birdfeed from Florida to Venezuela: little bits of paradise begging to be nibbled, tasted, enjoyed.

The Caribbean is a whole that is definitely a sum of all its parts: and each of its parts are unique treasures often under flags of distant countries. The language, the lingo, the politics and attitudes vary from island to island as does the terrain and the towns. Each should be experienced separately.

From my perch over Coral Bay on St. John I look out and beyond the harbor contemplating the rest of the US Virgin Islands, the other Virgin Islands (British, Spanish and American), the Leeward Islands (all of the eastern Caribbean) and the Caribbean Basin that embraces them all and what I see is beauty and adventure. It is this view that I want to share.