Spend three weeks in the BVI and you feel as if you live there! Flight down was wretched, Richmond, VA, to Miami to San Juan to EIS, with long layovers that AA added at the last minute. Arrived at Maria's by the Sea just before nine pm. Nice hotel, room overlooking the harbor, almost full moon reflecting on the water, breeze making the AC unnecessary, and...they kept the restaurant open for us. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" /> Kudos to Maria. We rented a car from Itgo (beat up, no hub caps, but it go) and finally visited the North Shore Shell Museum. Mr. Egberth Donovan himself gave us a guided tour of this unique to say the least place. A nice man, he organizes childrens programs to introduce the kids to their heritage, which is in danger of being lost to TV, video games and computers. He has one of the few remaining stone bread baking ovens in his front yard, and talks readily about the old days, showing off the oil lamps and other "artifacts" common in homes before electricity, running water, gas and electric stoves. Children build "log boats" from found materials. These primitive sail boats were used to teach kids to swim. The only way to get your boat back was to swim after it. In telling this story to some older BVI'ers they allowed as that they had indeed learned to swim by this method. If you haven't visited the museum before, please add it to your list. I don't think you will be dissapointed. Mention that you play a musical instrument and out come the Fungi band instruments and he will get you to play wash tub bass and gourd while he strums a uke and sings island songs. We planned on staying thirty minutes and stayed two hours. Next, we went snorkling at Brewers Bay and hung out at Nicoles for lunch. Helen left her sandwich on the table to go get some condiments and the Peal Eyed Thrasher's (Treshies) attacked in force, making off with a chunk of her lunch, much to everyone's amusement. Dinner this night, Thursday May 6, was finally at Spaghetti Junction, and it was great. John and April are my two new most favorite people. We spent Friday shopping, with lunch at the Roti Palace. Thanks to someone for the tip on Santo Domingo coffee from Bobby's. It was great!!! Looked all over for it at other stores and could not find it. Next time I will get some and bring it back. Then it was off to Sunsail for our charter. This was our first time with a big charter company, and although we did not like the charter times (on board at 6pm and turn it in at 11am, that counting as one day) I do have to give them credit for efficiency. I would guess that there were in excess of 30 charter groups that arrived at the same time, and yet everyone was quickly accommodated. The bottle of rum and the painkiller mix on the boat didn't hurt. It was difficult sleeping in the marina, though, hot and noisy from all of the partying. Saturday was at Cooper, and we found out that we don't like inflatable dinghies. Ours had no flat false floor and we had to be extra careful getting in and out so as not to sprain an ankle. Plus Helen could not pull herself into the dinghy from the water, so snorkling Cistern Point was out. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Mad.gif" alt="" /> Also, it handled like a pig with a motor. At Marina Cay we left the dinghy on the mooring and motored to Monkey Point for some great snorkling. Two huge tarpon checked us out, and we saw a hawksbill turtle. Next we went to Diamond Bay on JVD. A note on the Bubbly Pool: WOW!!! Bubbles the little brown dog at Foxy's Taboo will lead you to it. While wading across the flats from JVD to Little JVD in ankle deep shallow water, two black tipped reef sharks swam by right in front of me not six feet away. They were half in and half out of the water. I was to fascinated to be afraid. Helen was afraid. It took her two or maybe three seconds to cover the 150 yards to shore. Her feet did not touch the water. We rented a car and drove over to White Bay and Great Harbor and Little Harbor. Locals were telling of cruise ships anchoring off White Bay and putting hundreds of people ashore. "Dey spend no money, they trow trash on
de beach, and use the bathrooms!" That was the litany I heard everywhere. The weather could have been better, as high winds and high seas and overcast skies prevailed the entire week we had the boat. Motoring from Peter Island to Maya Cove/Hodges Creek to turn the boat in was an adventure of its own, as it was raining so hard I could not see Tortola. It cleared off later and we took North Sound Express to VG and checked in at Guavaberry for nine fantastic days. We closed Mad Dog's every night and met a whole bunch of new best friends (hi Jeff and Amy, hi Chiffon, hi Stefan and Sabina, hi Dave). The night blooming Sirius cactus was blooming like mad, fifteen to twenty blooms a night on some of them for a week, the smell of vanilla heavy in the air. Does anyone know what pollenates them? The Baths is now charging admission, but the collection hours are 9 to 5, hint hint. It is not my fault if we needed to be there before 9, is it? Besides, they did not have the two week passes ready yet, so it was $3. a person on a daily basis. Now I have a question for anyone just returning from VG, or any locals reading my rambling: have you seen the small rock sculptures that someone is assembling from local rock and coral at sites around VG? We first saw a few at Devils Bay, and then some on a flat rock on the road to Mahoe Bay, and then later we hiked down to Stony Bay and saw about a hundred of them. We wonder who is making these, as we think it is pretty cool. All too soon the nine days on VG was up and we were off for three days on Marina Cay before heading home. The North Sound Express gave us a great tour of North Sound before leaving us in Trellis Bay, home of Aragorn the Artist. If you haven't been to his shop, do it next trip! Marina Cay: lovely landscaping, beautiful views, great people, really nice, the room was number 1 and is one of the end rooms and was nice with killer views from the balconey and...no screens on the windows! The mosquitos had a luau, and Helen and I were the main course. The OFF and Cutters insect repellent acted as perfumed landing fields for these immune to everything but a sharp blow vampires. We got no sleep. In the morning the bed was flecked red with spots of our blood where we rolled over on feeding mosquitos and popped them. I was hosing down with OFF until it was dripping off me, to no avail. Poor Helen sustained about twenty bites to her face. Looked like she had measles. We checked out the next morning after advising them to put screens on the windows! I mean, how much can it cost? We called Valerie at Guavaberry and got back on the ferry and finished up two days back on VG. The folks at Guavaberry are terrific and make the visit worthwhile. We re-visited Devils Bay and the Baths early Tuesday morning, not knowing it was cruise ship day. When we started snorkling Devils Bay there were three people off of a charter boat there. When we got out of the water there were fifty. When we got dried off and our sandal on, there were a hundred. There was standing room only in the Baths, and it took over twice as long to hike through as we were waiting in lines. Helen, generous as always, felt sorry for the cruise ship passengers because wherever they go there is always a crowd. That afternoon was spent sunning and snorkling Spring Bay. Wednesday the 26th was the flight home, and a new countdown begins.
Oh, a quick note on the ATM in VG/Spanishtown: it did not work for me or anyone else trying to use it. I had to get a cash advance on my Visa in the bank.

Charlie