Hi

This is an honest effort to keep our trip log as brief and compact as possible, i.e. the usual geezer activities - reading, Yahtzee, etc - are omitted. Because we were unable to reserve our favorite cottage (#10) at Cinnamon Bay - and we tried to do it on our last day at the campground last year! - St. John was not part of the trip this May. This covers just the Virgin Gorda portion of the trip

We got our Mahogany rental outside the harbor gate and drove to Guavaberry and got a hearty greeting from Tina and her daughter, and later said hello to Valerie. We got a few items in the commissary (including a bottle of Cruzan at a decent price). Tina didn’t go with us, figuring (rightly) that we knew where Bougainvillea was by this time! We drove up the road to have lunch at Top of the Baths, which was quite full compared to our last stop there. I had jerk chicken and Chris had a jerk chicken sandwich (Hot! Hot! Hot!). The bushwhackers were fine. There was a beautiful blue colored lizard in the rock pile near the Top of the Baths. We went to the Mine Shaft restaurant for an appetizer/supper, the only ones there as it was very early. I got nachos (again!) while Chris has calamari. She (and not me, for a change) was bothered by small flies that didn’t bite but really formed swarms around her head and getting into her ears. There was no sunset this time, with a very general two-layered overcast and some distant towering Cumulus to the south, brightly lit up by the sun. At dusk, the chickens made their usual mass exodus into the trees near where we were on the balcony, much to the delight of the couple next to us. An East Indian man set up his sound system near us and played his guitar, with the occasional help of a small boy, who was fascinated by the lights and the guitar. His mother came out for him, but not before he shared the guitar with the artist. He played a very eclectic mixture of tunes which gradually became more Caribbean - Gordon Lightfoot!!!

The next day we drove down toward Spanish Town and, following directions in the Guavaberry guide, took the first right past the rotary (the ‘well’) and another left into a large building complex. After asking a few questions, we finally got to the laundry in the Stevens Commercial Center. We can pick up our laundry after 1 PM (they’re open until 5). We drove back and then down to the Spanish Town Boat Harbor and strolled through some shops. There were wonderful smells at the bakery! We saw the owner of Chez Bamboo at the Bath and Turtle and confirmed a 6 PM reservation for dinner. We went out to the outdoor bar of the Bath and Turtle for a couple of bushwhackers. Clusters of people were using their laptops (because it is a WIFI hot spot).

We drove down to just past the Spanish Town Harbor complex and parked in an area in front of an apartment complex to get to Chez Bamboo - the only ones there this early - and had some bushwhackers. A group in a taxi came in later, followed by a trickle of patrons. I had shrimp on a skewer (U-11's, really big shrimp), while Chris had a seafood mixture (grouper, lobster, crab, scallops, etc. in a white sauce). An enormous (probably a double shot) of Galliano on the rocks followed, topping off the glass of Pinot Grigio we had with our dinner. We had a nice chat with a couple from New Orleans staying at Little Dix before leaving for Guavaberry. I had to return to retrieve my glasses, rescued from the table by our waitress. We got some reading in before going to bed. NOTE: Later we found out that a couple we said hi to at Chez Bamboo, and later at Leverick Bay, were Mike Doyle and his wife, the owners of Euphoria, a really beautiful villa. Sure wish we knew how to find it - as he welcomed us over for drinks on a later TTOL post. This might require GPS, considering the maze of roads at North Sound!

We got up for eggs with the leftover jerk chicken, bacon, etc. before spending the morning reading. Lunch consisted of oysters and crackers plus cold drinks. We went to Spring Bay beach. Chris lounged under the tree in a beach chair while I took several swims. Chris did manage to get her knees wet (but not her bathing suit). Just another crazy, lazy day of summer.
Chris rhapsodized about the bird calls, and later the insect sounds and the distant coquis, faintly heard from the second deck, where there was a nice breeze.

Another lazy morning until Tina told me about a shuttle (free) to Leverick, so I changed the time for the reservation from 6 to 6:30 PM, with us meeting the taxi shuttle in front of the office. I passed Tina, who was showing a couple the unopened bud of night-blooming Cereus that were ready to pop. We came down to the office to wait for the shuttle, who took us over the Gorda Peak Road with great views of Savanna Bay and Maho Bay. At Leverick, there was no sign of the beach where the half-drums were located for cooking for the Jumbie BBQs on previous trips. We think they have expanded the stone terrace quite a bit - there is even a little bar? extending out from the terrace near the area where we sat last year. A pair of very tipsy girls waved at us, giving each other support on their way back to their boat. A couple of very large power boats were in slips on the opposite side of the harbor. (Possibly participants in the Poker Run?) When we went up the steps to the restaurant, we said hi to a couple that we had seen at Chez Bamboo previously (Mike Doyle and wife).

The bushwhackers were really good, and the bouillabaisse was fabulous. The service, however, left a lot to be desired (and was not the fault of our waitress). The male head waiter spent most of his time being the sommelier, opening and pouring wine for the more favored customers. Chris enjoyed watching a woman who reminded her of “Momma” on the Carol Burnett show (Vicki Lawrence). We gave a $10 tip directly to our waitress (as her boss is taken care of by the ‘service charge’). We assume that Nick and Monica are recovering from the Poker Run. We went downstairs so that Chris could smoke - and I got a couple of bushwhackers at the bar just past where the Jumbie Bar had been located last year. A young lady, dancing to a different drummer, who fitted beautifully into her swim suit, finally walked of with a guy after a brief conversation in machine gun Puerto Rican Spanish. (This was after dancing and talking with an Anglo in English and Spanish previously.) Verrrrrry interesting!

Our driver had appeared, so we went to the parking lot for our drive home. (There was abundant exhaust fumes and plenty of complaints from Chris.) When we got to Guavaberry we drove up the drive from Bougainvillea and shone the low and high beams on the night-blooming Cereus growing on the boulder beyond our ‘house’.

The next day also involved a quiet morning. I walked up all of the drives to draw a primitive map of the cottages at Guavaberry on this side of the road. Checked out the last of the cottages on the other side of the road and had a lot of trouble turning around to get back out. Chris decided to stay at Bougainvillea, while I drove up to the Baths in order to go down the trail to Devils Bay. Even though it was clouded over, it was a fair hike, the last part quite stiff. It would have been a 3 bottles of water day in the full sun. Devils Bay already has two loads of people in the water, with a third catamaran from St. Thomas coming in to anchor, its passengers swimming to the beach. (No dinghies on board?) I chatted with the two young guys that were shepherding the two groups, and followed one group back up the trail before going down the trail to Stony Bay. Before going, I took pictures of the back entrance to the baths from Devils Bay (and being used by one group of people). So much for the entrance fee.

I met three people was there when they got to Stony Bay and, indeed, the bay was totally empty, with a beautiful surf among the rocks and a handkerchief beach on the right. There was an abundance of rock cairns on the boulders, but I really didn’t trust my luck on rock hopping. The same three people returned and explored up the bay as I turned to go back to the parking lot. Even with the overcast, I really had a water deficit and got water at the bar at the Top of the Baths. The cabby that we had used last night was there waiting to take people back to Leverick.

I went back to Bougainvillea, and Chris suggested that we go over to the office to look at the restaurant (Giorgio’s) that had been buried by a landslide. We picked up a worker going to Nail Bay, and got a brief peek at the resort (which is well out of our price range and not part of our life style). We saw the owner’s digs at the Sugar Mill House ( a typical sugar plantation tower converted into living quarters). We went back to Maho Bay, and finally, with a little help from a young guy with limited English language skills, found a barrier gate made mostly from double 2 x 4's. Chris climbed over these, but I didn’t trust either the strength of the 2 x 2's or my ability to climb over them.. She said that there was barely a footprint left of the restaurant and that the house above looked to be teetering and in danger of future slides. We drove to the Top of the Baths for a couple of bushwhackers, and returned home to snack on chips and guacamole before starting to pack. Chris went from the second landing of our deck to the top of the rock all by herself, and even managed (with help) to get to the top of the boulder itself. (Equilibrium problems.)

We arrived at an absurdly early time to sign in for our flight on Air Sunshine. As referred to on another post, “there’s always the Flying Iguana - great views and love the parrots and the three iguanas (didn’t there used to be two - are they multiplying?). The big problem is ungluing anyone for service as it’s generally nap time or watching a cricket game on the tube. Island time, you know!” The flight to Charlotte Amalie was uneventful (but not affording many opportunities for pictures because of cloud cover). Got our usual allotment of duty-free liquor and had another uneventful flight to Buffalo.

Peace
Dugg & Chris
The 2009 pics are now up at http://picasaweb.google.com/papadugg/