Ok, this is probably going to be very long, but I want to get everything down while it is all still relatively fresh in my mind. Mark and I spent June 2 -- June 10 honeymooning in Tortola and I can honestly say I think it was the best week of my life. Here goes...
Friday, June 2, after a long day of travel, we finally arrived at the West End ferry dock around 5:30ish. Although Carol had invited us to all the TTOL events, we were still undecided. I had only recently joined and never met anyone, so we felt a little out of place. Well, in the taxi to Cane Garden Bay, I started chatting with a couple who have a boat and are in the BVIs for the next 3 months. They knew a lot about the islands and I mentioned that I found a great website with info. The man turned to me and says, "Oh, what website?" and I told him "TTOL." He looked at his wife and started laughing and said that they are on their way to the TTOL happy hour at Myetts. It turned out that it was Gene and Cindy. I mentioned that we had been contemplating going but hadn't decided. They convinced us to go. I said, ok maybe we'll shower and then come later. They asked why we needed to shower. We arrive at Mongoose Apartments and Mark and I threw our bags down and walked down the beach to Myett's (sans shower). So, thanks Gene and Cindy -- if it wasn't for you guys, we probably wouldn't have met all the great people and had such a great trip! We met a lot of great people at Myett's and then the Elm Beach BBQ. We were invited to Malcolm's party the next day. Lance and Connie were sitting at our table and were staying at Mongoose, also. They asked if we had a car and we say no so they offered to give us a ride to Malcolm's. Again, another example of how nice and generous TTOLers are! Later that night we had our first experience at Quito's. So much fun!
Saturday morning we woke up and went for a short walk. We then spent the morning at the Mongoose section of Cane Garden Bay beach and had it all to ourselves. We could't get over how blue the water was. So beautiful... Sandra, the owner, had floats, beach chairs and kayaks for the guests to use. Around 2 we headed over to Malcolm's for the party with Lance and Connie. We met so many nice people, ate a lot of great food, and drank a lot of Caribs! The steel drum band that was playing at Eric and Carol's was awesome. Thanks Malcolm, Carol and Eric for throwing such a great party. Carol asked us if we are going to Jost the next day. We said we'd love to but don't have a boat. Before we left, Carol informed us that she found us a ride and to be at the dinghy dock on CGB at 9:30 the next morning. Later that night we headed down to Quito's once again. We bought one of his CDs and Malcolm took us over to meet Quito. What a nice guy! Another great day.
Sunday morning we woke up, ate a quick breakfast at our apartment and then headed over to the dinghy dock. We met Carol, Eric and Eric's brother Gerald and all get in the dinghy with Jeff. He took us over to Jeannius and we climbed aboard. Neither Mark nor I had much boating experience at all, and we can easily say that Jeannius was the nicest boat we have ever been on. We met Bill, Di, Jeff, Chrissie and Maryann on aboard. Right away, everyone is so welcoming and friendly. We were offered painkillers within minutes and we began the trip over to Jost. I cannot even begin to explain how much fun Mark and I had. Never once did we feel out of place, even though we hadn't known anyone and everyone else knew each other. We kept looking at each other and shaking our heads, in disbelief of how lucky we were to have met these kind, generous people. Yet another example of the great people of TTOL. We eventually made it over to White Bay and the Soggy Dollar Bar. It was a lot of fun, but very croweded. It was our first time there, so we didn't know what to expect, but everyone kept saying it usually was a lot less touristy. It was still a lot of fun, though. Of course, Malcolm continously made fun of Mark's Crocs (hence the picture of Mark and Gary both wearing their Crocs). Gary, Beth, their kids Tyler, Connor and Casey, and Malcolm show up. We meet Laura and Rex, too. After awhile we got aboard Jeannius and Carol, Eric, Gerald, Mark and I were taken to the ferry dock by our new friends. We said goodbye to Gary, Beth and the kids (thinking we won't see them again this trip). On the ferry back, Rex and Laura asked us what we were doing for dinner. We had no plans, so they told us to meet them at Myett's around 7 and we'd grab something to eat. After showering, we wandered down CGB to Myett's to meet them. We decided to go to Coco Plums for dinner. It was so delicious!! Who would've thought mushrooms could be that good? We sat and ate and talked and drank and talked. Mark and I still laugh about one of Rex's comments. Laura and I had both ordered our drinks already and Rex looked at Mark and said, "Mark, I don't mean to sound gay, but would you like to share a bottle of wine with me?" Jessica, Uschi's daughter and the singer for Quito's band, was our waitress. So nice and cute! We had such a great dinner -- thanks Laura and Rex. After dinner we headed back to Quito's for karaoke. We met Mattie (the drummer for Quito's band) for the first time. It turns out he went to Eastern Illinois University, which is only an hour or two from us. Laura and Rex karaoked to "Baby Got Back" and Mark crooned to a little Sinatra. It was a really fun night and we really feel like we have new friends in Laura and Rex. It was the first day that we had met them and they had already invited us up to Buffalo to visit them! Another example...
Monday morning Mark and I were feeling a tiny bit hung over, but we still managed to get up early. One thing that really surprised me about the trip was how much we drank and how great we always felt the next day. I don't know if it was just our mindset because we were on vacation, but we always got up early and felt great. We decided to attempt to walk to the Shell Museum in Carrot Bay for breakfast. What a dumb idea! We got all the way over there, and NOTHING was open (I guess it was a holiday). So, we walked all the way back to CGB. Let me tell you, those hills are a workout. By this time it was lunchtime so we went down to Stanley's. We were the only people there. Another surprising thing is that we came to the BVIs expecting service to be slow everywhere. For the most part, that was never the case. After lunch we headed back down to our end of CGB and again had the beach all to ourselves. We kayaked a little and read on the beach. What a nice, relaxing afternoon in such a beautiful place. We headed down to Myett's for happy hour and see Rex, Laura, Malcolm and Candace. We have a drink with them and say our goodbyes to our new friends Laura and Rex, who are leaving the next morning. Mark and I decided to stay at Myett's for dinner. I was not very impressed. We weren't too hungry, so we each got the conch chowder (which was pretty good) and then split the conch fritters. Our waitress was a little rude and seemed very unhappy that we weren't ordering the expensive entrees. I must say, though, that this was the only time on our entire trip that someone was even the least bit rude to us. After dinner we went back to Mongoose and were asleep by 8:30.
Tuesday we woke up very well-rested. Sandra at Mongoose called Jerry for us and he picked us up to go get our rental car. We visited Soper's Hole and then we decided to venture over to Road Town and the Botanical Gardens. It was unbelievably hot with no breeze, so our visit was relatively short. We took a lot of pictures of cool plants, but in all honesty were probably only there for 20 minutes. We then headed over to the Jolly Roger for lunch. The portions were huge and the food was delicious. We had our first roti here, and I think it was the best one our whole trip. We went back to CGB and spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing on our beach. That evening we went to the Big Banana for dinner. I must say we weren't very impressed with their food. We split some kind of fish dish and the fish seemed like it was a frozen patty. It wouldn't have been that bad except the prices at Jolly Roger were pretty comparable and the food was MUCH better and you got a lot more for your money. After dinner, we went to Quito's to see Quito perform solo. It was great -- very different from with the band, but still nice and relaxing. We saw Malcolm, Candace and Robin there. We were home by 11:30.
Wednesday Mark and I got up and went for a hike on Sage Mountain. We (this is mostly my fault) didn't get a map of the trails before our hike. There was a huge group of people on a guided tour in front of us and they were inching along and stopping every 30 seconds to take pictures (and many of them were wearing flip-flops -- obviously they didn't have the same concept of hiking that I did). The trail was too narrow to pass them so we decide to venture off on one of the side trails that had a closed gate. Of course, again this is my fault. After how much I had been eating and drinking on the trip, I had convinced Mark that we needed good exercise, not just a short stroll. So, we keep turning off onto different trails. It was very pretty and actually not too hot because of the shade and breezes. After about 45 minutes we realized we hadn't seen or heard any other people in a long time. I tell Mark, well we might as well stay on this trail and it will probably loop back around to the main trail. Well, it didn't. We got to a point where we literally couldn't tell where the trail was anymore. It was pretty scary. So, we turned around and eventually (after over an hour and a half of hiking) found our way back. The woman at the gift shop laughed when we told her we got lost and knew exactly where it happened (I guess a lot of people get lost on that trail). She said she didn't know why they even had that trail open anymore (again, my fault -- had we stopped and gotten a map beforehand, none of this wouldn've happened). But it all turned out alright and, as I tried to tell Mark, it was an adventure. After the hike we decided to go to Brewer's Bay for lunch. We got down the steep hills and pulled into the parking lot beside the bar there. A man started motioning to me and pointing underneath the car. We were REALLY leaking antifreeze. I was opening the car door to get out and guess who pulled up -- none other than Malcolm, Candace and Robin. They had come for lunch and told us not to worry, that they can squeeze us in their car if we need a ride. Malcolm talks to Nicole, the owner of the bar, and he lets Mark use his phone to call Jerry. Meanwhile, Malcolm has bought me a beer and I am sitting with him, Candace and Robin. All of a sudden we hear people cheering and chanting and blowing whistles. Two or three open-air taxis pull up with a lot of people. I am informed that these are the "cruise ship people." I have never seen such obnoxiousness in my life. Candace had gone up to the bar to get a beer and told the bartender that she wasn't with "them" and she swears her beer was cheaper than the cruise ship person next to her. Luckily, they only stayed for about 15 minutes, then the whistles were blown and they were back on their way to who-knows-where to create more obnoxiousness. Malcolm generously bought us lunch (the best burgers!). Jerry shows up and we had blown some kind of hose in the car. He actually got a stick from a tree, borrowed a knife from the bar, and wittled a piece of wood to put in the hole. He left us his car and somehow managed to get the broken one all the way back to his place. After all this, we decided to spend the afternoon back on our beach relaxing. Connie and Lance were there also. It thunderstormed for about 20 minutes, but we didn't care. We were in the water and it was pretty neat. Plus, it felt great! That evening we decided to go to Bananakeet for happy hour/dinner. We pulled into the empty parking lot around 6ish. As I opened the door to get out, guess who was pulling into the parking lot again? ha ha, it's Malcolm and Candace. We laughed about running into them again (they swear they're not stalking us)
and we had a couple of drinks with them. It is so neat listening to the two of them talk. They are both such great, interesting, funny people with great stories. We are really glad we got to spend time with them. They left after happy hour and Mark and I decided to stay for dinner. It was delicious. I had the shrimp and Mark had the rack of lamb. It's a little pricey and not a ton of food, but absolutely worth it. Plus, the view is spectacular and the service great. We left tipsy, full and ready for bed.
Thursday we woke up and (with advice from Sandra) decided to go to Marina Cay for the day. The drive over there was a little longer than it should've been -- we took a wrong turn and somehow ended up in Road Town. We got to drive along the southeast end of the island, though, which is neat because we'd never seen that area. We took the free ferry from Beef Island and arrived at Marina Cay just in time for lunch at Pusser's. It is such a cute beach bar. There were probably ten people there the whole time we were there. The afternoon was spent snorkeling (we saw some great, big fish) and enjoying the sun. Again, we couldn't get over how beautiful the water was. I would definitely recommend spending an afternoon on Marina Cay. On our way home we stopped at Aragorn's and bought a couple of his prints. There was so much neat artwork there! We showered and decided to go back to Coco Plums for dinner. We felt guilty about going to the same place twice, but our first meal there was so good that we couldn't resist. Again, Jessica was our waitress. She remembered us and laughed that we were back again. After dinner we decided to stop by Bomba Shack for a beer. Mark had been once before a long time ago for the full moon party and said we had to go for at least one beer. It is a very interesting place. I wish we had stayed a couple extra days for the full moon party. Then we headed to Quito's. Mattie was there again and we ended up talking to him for most of the night. He is such a great guy, and it was so interesting to get his perspective on things since he grew up on Tortola. Turns out he might be in Illinois at the end of the summer visiting some college buddies and said he'd give us a call if he was. Malcolm, Candace and Robin were also there. Connie was also there (she even came without Lance because it was their last night and she wanted to see Quito one last time!). We had a great time chatting and exchanged email addresses. We headed home around 11:30 and hit the hay.
Friday we wake up and Mark runs downstairs to get the map out of the car. Guess what -- now we have a flat tire!! Sandra calls Jerry and he comes to fix it right away (he was such a nice guy and always came right when you called him -- I would definitely recommend renting a car from him). After the car is fixed, we decide to go to Smuggler's Cove. Our new neighbors at Mongoose, Maryann (Jerseygirl -- I am not sure if I am spelling that correctly) and Ada are on their way and tell us to follow them. We spend the morning hanging out at Smuggler's with them. It is such a beautiful, deserted beach. Mark and are upset we waited until our last day to come here. We also are upset we forgot our snorkeling stuff with all the car chaos. Thanks Maryann and Ada for showing us Smugglers and giving us such great info on the island! After Smuggler's we went to the Pub in Road Town for a very late lunch. The food was really good and our waitress was so nice. We had a flying fish sandwich and conch fritters. Afterwards, we went back and spend our last afternoon at Mongoose beach on CGB. Then we decided to go to Palms Delight for dinner. It was just as good as everyone had said. I had the chicken with gingerwine and Mark had the ribs. Since we had such a late lunch, we left with a lot of leftovers (which were scarfed down much later that night). We went back to Mongoose, had a couple of beers on the deck, and then headed over to Quito's. As soon as we walk in, we hear someone shouting our names. It was GaryT, Beth and the kids. We were so excited and surprised to see them again -- we had thought they were out sailing around still. It was their last night, too, and they had decided to come see Quito and his band. We hung out and danced with them, Malcolm, Candace, Robin, Walker, Nancy. What a fun night to end the trip. Before we left, Mattie came up to Mark to give him his business card so Mark could keep in touch with him. We stayed at Quito's until 1ish, then made the last walk home. I was crying because I was so sad.
Saturday -- our last day. We woke up early and went to Rhymer's for breakfast. We then spent our last hours on the beach at CGB. We had a long day of travel -- we got to the ferry dock at West End at 11 am and didn't arrive back in Bloomington until 2 am. It was in the 50s and rainy here -- what depressing weather to come home to. Now we are already trying to plan the next trip!
Things I learned:
It is perfectly normal to drink a beer or painkiller at any time of the day in the BVIs. I think there was only one day we didn't have a couple of beers with lunch. We drank so much, but I don't feel like I ever was really drunk. Kinda strange, huh?
I would definitely stay at Mongoose Apartments again. They are very clean, spacious and come with a fully equipped kitchen, bugspray, coolers, etc. -- anything you could ever need. And Sandra, the owner, is fabulous. She gives great advice and is willing to help in any way possible.
I will never, and I repeat NEVER, go on a cruise!
Nothing is truly worth getting that stressed out about. And a cold Carib can erase many of life's stresses!
I will let Mark drive when we are in the BVIs and I will keep my mouth shut. The only time we argued the entire trip was when we were in the car (usually it was me screaming, "watch out! stay on the left, you're drifting into the middle!")<sup></sup>
You can go to the most beautiful place in the world and have a good time, but it is the people you meet and the friends you make that truly make the trip spectacular.
Thank you, again, from the bottom of our hearts to everyone we met. You all really made our trip memorable and we hope to see everyone again. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />
Laura and Mark
Here is a link to our pics:
kodak gallery <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />
