When a 15-month project at work came to a triumphant end, I needed a vacation to get as far away as possible, within budget, from the stresses of city life.

I hopped on a plane to the US Virgin Islands, with a brand new snorkel set in tow, for one week of relaxation, rum punch, sunsets and, yes, cemetery touring.

Charlotte Amalie, the main city of St. Thomas, was founded in 1666 by the Danish. Once frequented by pirates, today it is a popular cruise ship port. But what most of those 1 million annual tourists probably don’t know, is that just a few blocks away from the duty free commercial shopping streets and just around the corner from the chaotic, single-laned, dusty streets with hanging clothes lines is Western Cemetery.

I stopped by on my way out of town one day in my little rental compact (which I nearly broke taking a steep swurve one day up on a mountain road, but that’s a story for another day…), and am so glad I did.

Western Cemetery is laid out in a grid and is very, very compact. You can walk down one lane and if you’re not careful get lost after you take the third left or the second right and have a tough time finding your way back to where you started from. It’s a little eerie walking down the Manhattan-esque caverns, as the angled morning light plays shadow games with you, and you turn the corner to find an abandoned shopping cart sitting in the middle of one of the avenues.