Page 74 - 2003 - Atlantic Islands

We had left downtown Jamestown (the only town on the island) by Napoleon Street

as we headed up and up towards Longwood. The flowers were gay and vibrant and

most of them well known to us such as the hibiscus, bougainvillea, lantana,

jacaranda, Agapanthus, crotons, iris, poinsettia, and portulaca. On these tiny specks

in the South Atlantic, the flowers and plants are brave and insistent in their colors.

Nearly every house was decorated and enlivened with this happy fact, but the houses

themselves were also attractive and well kept. Though many of the buildings are

quite old, most of them have been remodeled out of necessity because of the

invasion of termites from Brazil (via a captured and salvaged slave ship in the 1840s)

which took out the wooden portions of the buildings.

As we climbed the 3 miles from Jamestown to Longwood, Vernon showed us the

elementary school and told us about the secondary school which is “on the other

side of the country.” We were amused by this terminology in referring to this tiny

spot of earth surrounded by the most surreal cobalt blue sea. The teenagers are

bussed across to the other side. He did not consider himself a Napoleon authority

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