My Trip to the British Virgin Islands - Tortola

6/18/97
The Trip started off with a bang. We stayed at comfort Inn, which was 5 min. from my apartment, but it gave us easy way to the airport and back. We got to the Airport and had problems with departure when we checked in. We arrived at Tortola and were able to get a ride to our Villa, as originally planned. The unfortunate thing was we were not able to pick up our car and food. Our hosts were Carol and Bill at the Serendippie House on the East End. Almost the first thing we did was jump into the pool that was apart of the villa.

The villa we got was pretty big. The porch had plenty of space to eat and a separate area to sit and talk like a mini living room. It had several wide arches that gave a great view of Josiah’s Bay and its beach. Right before the beach looked like a dried up medium size lake. It was a 15 minute walk to the bay. The villa itself is in a valley of sorts. It is more like a horse shoe and the villa sits on the inside hillside about half the way up. It faces the north more or less. Therefore it is hard to see a good sunset or sunrise due to the ridges on either side. The villa has 2 bedrooms, a decent sized kitchen with stove and dual sink. It had a refrigerator and microwave and several cabinets. It was completely supplied with dishes, pans, soda, condiments, beer, a mini bar. The villa also had a living room with a pull out sofa bed and TV including numerous books and old video tapes. All rooms had a ceiling fan and smaller portable fans. The hosts have a maid service every Saturday that come in and cleans up the place. She even folded up your things if in the way of her cleaning. The driveway is extremely steep and had a tight turn or two. It was a challenge to just get up it. They also just hired a gardener this summer, so the plants were flourishing.

6/19/97
We woke up by 6 in the morning. We just hung out in the wee hours of the morning. Ryan walked about a quarter mile to the closest beach, Josiah’s Bay. Our host gave us a ride in to the biggest town on the Island, Roadtown, to get our car. We drove around and got snorkeling gear. We did a little shopping and my mother got a ruby ring. That was the highlight of her day. We then got lunch at Prusser’s Roadtown Pub and Company Store. We came back to our Villa and relaxed for a bit and then went snorkeling for the afternoon. This was the first snorkeling trip. I did not see a lot, but what I did see were white small fish (I think were anchovies), a violet (about 2 inches) oval shaped, and a light blue fish. Ryan said he saw a 15 inch diameter turtle, squid and tons of other fish. followed by an evening of conversation and went to bed earlier then usual for most of us.

6/20/97
We had French toast for breakfast. Today, we went through the Mt. Sage National Park, a rain forest. It was a small park compared to most national parks in the United States, but it was great for a day hike. The family got split up while in the park. Boy are the roads crazy here. We decided to try to find an archeological dig that my sister was interested in. Not only do you drive on the left side that made thing interesting to adjust to, but they were narrow and very bumpy. We missed the turn and did not find the dig today, but the adventure was fun. It was not fun to have five people in the car for such a long time, especially in the small jeep we rented. We came back relaxed and then went to the beach at long bay on Beef Island. we had to pay 50 cents for a toll to cross a single lane bridge that Queen Elizabeth came down to announce its opening and it was named after her. Trust me when I say it is nothing fancy. Did some more snorkeling, but nothing really sighted. Ryan is the big snorkeler. Today, I just saw a couple tan fish. The beach near our villa was better in sightings according to Ryan. We then cleaned up and went out to dinner at a place called CNF bar and Restaurant. Their ribs were excellent. The ribs are well, known and must be tried by every visitor at least once. Now I am feeling some effects of sunburn from the first day when we did shopping in Roadtown. The sun is really intense. I did not tan to much, but rather turned red. I made sure that I put on sun screen or sun block lotion very time I went out from then on. After dinner we returned to our villa and simply relaxed.

6/21/97
Today I woke up to the sensation of sunburn on my shoulders. Ryan did a morning a snorkeling on his own with a guide, so the rest of us did some shopping. We got some drinks at the captains table and the port of the crime of the scene where my parents broke a cable on their boat when they were down there three years ago. The broken cable prevented the boat from stopping or slowing in the middle of the marina. We picked up Ryan when he was done and then we all went to the Islands tropical Botanical Gardens. We saw all kinds of plants including various palms, cacti, and Indian Brymar (not sure of spelling). We spent the remainder of the day swimming in our pool and played a traditional family card game. We went to dinner at a place called Emiles with live Caribbean music. The food was OK. I tried some swordfish for the first time.. It was not to bad, considering I am just starting to get a taste for fish. It was very tender. The live music was Caribbean and was pretty good. There was only one man with a keyboard and a steel drum. My father and sister went to talk to him and asked if he was recorded and my sister asked about the steel drum. Apparently there was suppose to be a guitar play too, but he could not make it. Also I tried the infamous drink, pain killer. It was a good tropical drink, especially since I do not drink much hard alcohol. It had coconut, pineapple and rum were the main ingredients. So far three of four nights I forgot to take my medication., because I just was so dead tire that I would lay on my bed and be out like a light before I knew it.

6/22/97
Today is Sunday. Not much is open on the island, so we hit the beaches and mainly relaxed at the villa. We had to do a grocery run today and get gas for the car (for the first time). One disadvantage of the island is the food and gas is so expensive. like a half gallon of milk was $4 and change, Bread was $2.10, Almost twice as much. As for the jeep, gas was $1.85 a gallon and cost $15 for 8 gallons to fill it.

Other sites we saw on the Island were Josiah’s Bay, Elizabeth bay (which is to the right of Josiah’s bay), Long bay, Brewers bay. We visited Mt. Sage National Park, which is also a rain forest. From the park we saw Sandy Cay, Green Cay (to its right, but in front of little Jost Van Dyke), and Jost Van Dyke (which is directly behind Sandy Cay. While on the South trail we saw St. John.

6/23/97
Today we got up late, about 8. we got going and ate breakfast and the three kids got on the road by 8:45. We drove to the west end (the name for the west side of the island) to see an archeological dig that my sister, Kate, wanted to see.







It was not a very big site, but impressive for Tortola. It has been going on for about two years. They found various pottery pieces, spindle wheel (used for spinning cotton), and a whole pot, which is very unusual. The site has been shifted in the general area two or three times. The current site we saw was about 30 by 30 feet and about one foot deep. It was dated at 900-1400 AD The diggers were from Virginia, US and London, England. Then we went over to Smugglers Cove to do snorkeling. It was OK trip, but there were not many sightings. I saw white bellied orange fish, bright light blue (circular oval shaped) fish, black fish, black sea urchins, fire coral and brain coral. Ryan says Josiah bay was much better, even though Smugglers Cove is said to be superb for snorkeling. It started to rain as we head for town. We grab something to eat from our cooler and did some shopping in the rain. We all ended up at a store called Little Denmark again. I almost forgot to get my traditional mug. See I get a mug every place I visit. So I was lucky to be able to pick one up there. We also had some fun trying to find a bakery in the rain. Since it was rainy and cloudy the family opted not to go to the beach that afternoon. Later we saw lighting in the middle of the ocean, so we were glad we did not go. So we played hearts (a card game) instead. We watched my dad’s favorite move, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”.

6/24/97
Today we hit the beach by 8 in the morning. It rained a little at first. We did some snorkeling in our bay. The water was cool today. Probably from the rain yesterday. I saw some new fish white with orange backs, pure white fish with black eyes (hard to see against the white beach sand, if you were not looking for them), anchovies, and other slightly larger fish that look like them. Ryan and Judy saw a sting ray. Ryan said the sightings were not as good as before. I started to wonder why I was always missing the interesting fish sightings. After the snorkeling, the Photographers of the family did some picture taking. On our way back to our villa we stopped at a small museum. They had some cute wood carvings and other artistic stuff. As we started to play some cards, the sun came out. Go figure. Judy and Geoff went into town to get some drinks and to return the snorkeling gear since we planned to leave the next day. I decided to try to get some last minute sun, but the clouds keep blocking it out. I attempted to get some good sunset pictures, but the low rain cloudy prevented any good shots. I tried to get some good sunrise pictures the next morning, but I did not have a good view, plus the rain clouds were back again. I could not win.

The one thing that I will always remember of this trip are the roads. They were very bump. Speed bumps were all over the place and if you did not see one, any one in the back seat would go flying. It was tough to get use to the fact that you had to drive on the left side of the road for the first we days. The roads, were not always paved and were barely two lanes wide at times. The courtesy of passing became confusing too. Many drivers would beep their horns to let you know they were passing you, but then we learned it was also for saying hi and bye, and watch out - you are ready to hit me. So you heard a horn and you look all around to see what was happening. Many of the residents would go zooming by us. The other memorable event besides the heat of 90-95 and humidity daily was we were also up pretty early every day. 7 in the morning was not unusual for the trip, but from most of us it was unusual normally.