You can sure tell we're in peak season. Here's our trip report.


March 1 Thursday

Greg & I left Cincinnati bound for Tortola - since we had multiple airline connections and questionable amounts of time between flights, we decided to do only carry-on. The new restriction on carry-on liquids/gels/etc., necessitating putting everything from mascara and lip gloss to shampoo, lotion, perfume, etc. in a small Ziploc bag was the only challenge - let's see, do I bring along the hairspray I like or sunscreen?; it seemed like a daunting task, but I'm here to tell you, I'm the cosmetics & hair product queen, and I was able to pack more than everything I felt like I needed in that little bag. Our first flight was delayed which made us miss our first connection & we had some tense moments trying to connect with Elroy Henley Jr., with whom we had made prior arrangements to pick us up at Beef Island Airport, because we didn't want him waiting for us an extra two hours. We were so grateful that he was coming to collect us, and we were anxious to not inconvenience him. We could not get through with our cell service, but we were able to call home, so we got Greg’s sister & mother to email & phone, and they connected with him. Since we were actually running from one gate to another (I thank God we decided to totally carry-on; there’s no way in the world that checked luggage would have made it from plane to plane with us) at the airports, we had a bit of a hard time getting that done, but we did. We are still trying to decide whether it's a better experience overall to fly in to Beef, or to take the ferry over from St. Thomas, and there isn't a clear winner in our mind, both modes have pros and cons. Of course when you get to the final step of a long voyage & you are at a much-anticipated destination, any delay is of huge annoyance; it takes a protracted amount of time to get through the customs area mainly due to people who have not filled out their forms - I don't understand why people can't handle doing that before the ferry or plane lands - it is NOT difficult.

It was well into the evening when we finally arrived at Mongoose Apartments, which has totally become our comfortable home away from home in Tortola. It's just perfect for us - the Henleys are a lovely family and they make it especially delightful to stay there; the apartments are roomy and comfortable; clean and tidy; beautifully appointed and a pleasant brief walk to the lovely beach of Cane Garden Bay. We settled in quickly and went down to Myett's for the conch fritters that I had been waiting for all year (and some Reggae Sun Splashes; two thumbs way up for those!)- we had a wonderful dinner there; a darling waitress named Judy took great care of us; it's one of the things that we have always noticed and liked a lot about Myett's; they must treat their staff decently, because we see most of the same people working there from year to year, they always introduce themselves and they recognize you for your entire vacation. Greg was hoping to meet up with “Manpot”, but he did meet another of the TTOL regulars; obxjim, unfortunately, I think we missed some of the TTOL folks not being at Myett’s on Saturday. We saw Glenn; as a matter of fact, Greg gave him a light for his pipe at Quito’s, but Greg didn’t figure out who he was until we got home; now we feel sorry to have not introduced ourselves. We finished the evening listening to Quito, but we were so exhausted, and since there was no place to sit down, we had to abandon Quito fairly early and retire to our comfy bed.

March 2 Friday
We hadn’t taken time to stock the pantry the first night in, so we went to Myett’s for breakfast (and to watch the beginning of the Parade of Cruise Ship Zombies). I have forgotten our waitress’ name, but she was another sweetheart. We picked up provisions at Bobby’s and scurried back to the apartment & out to the beach; it wasn’t crowded at all that morning, and the ocean was as peaceful as a lake. Greg & I both thought the water looked particularly crystal clear. We had a splendid day with friends from Mongoose (when you visit Tortola around the same time of year every year and stay in the same place, it is likely that you might find yourself in the same position as we have - making new friends whom you will see again and again in Tortola. It’s an extra comfort factor if you have settled on a dwelling you like; it’s really like coming “home”). One of the couples was staying a week in Tortola, a week on Jost & a week on Virgin Gorda. We went to Happy Hour at Myett’s and although it’s always a pleasant place to sit and drink and watch the sunset, it wasn’t as much fun as usual because there were very few people there and no music at all; not even a radio on. We moved on to Stanley’s, and had “cheeseburgers in paradise“. We had been wanting to try cheeseburgers at Stanley’s and it seemed that every time in the past that we had tried to do so, Stanley’s was closed, so we were happy; it was a pleasant experience. We love the way you can eat at any of the places at Cane Garden Bay and have an awesome ocean vista; it elevates even a humble cheeseburger meal to a fine dining experience. By the time we wandered down to Quito’s, Quito’s was jam-packed, and judging by the sweating people coming outside fanning themselves, it must have been hot and hopping inside. We found seats at a table on the porch, and got drinks from the bar on the porch, where we were comfortable in the ocean breeze and could listen to Quito & the Edge, even though we couldn’t see them, and people-watch. They are fantastic. We enjoy Quito with and without The Edge; they are completely different experiences. Greg got up to get us drinks, leaving a chair open next to me (mind you, he was only like 15 feet away from me at the bar) but that was enough of an opening for a local fellow with an amazing load of dreadlocks in a bag on his head to sit down by me, scoot the chair almost into my lap, grab my hand and ask me something about some weed. I couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying, just that he was asking a question, containing the words; “some weed”… I replied “no!” emphatically - figuring whatever the question, that was the correct response; I didn’t want any, I didn’t have any, and I didn’t care if he smoked it. I didn’t know how to communicate to him however that I really didn’t need him sitting on top of me holding my hand, but when Greg came back, he quickly found somewhere else to go. It was actually pretty funny; I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I’m describing any sort of a threatening situation - I’ve noticed that at Quito’s, the local men can’t suffer ladies to be sitting there lonely or dancing by themselves; they are very polite and I wouldn’t want someone unfamiliar with this behavior to find it worrisome. We had a grand time and sauntered off down the beach listening to Quito all the way down to Mongoose, thoroughly & delightfully exhausted from a long day of enjoying ourselves. By the end of our first full day, we noticed that there were far fewer cats and goats in the CGB area, far more dogs, and either less rooster action, or the roosters had become less vociferous. We like dogs and cats, and have nothing against chickens, but it was kind of nice having less [censored]-a-doodle-doing in the wee hours of the morning! LOL

March 3 Saturday
We went to the beach & spent the morning having fun in the gentle surf & watching the floorshow of cruise ship people invading Cane Garden Bay. Anyone familiar with CGB is also familiar with this increasingly unfortunate influx. I have nothing against people enjoying themselves on cruises, but as the years have gone on, more and more huge cruise ships come to Tortola and disgorge thousands of people who practically all end up in CGB or on tour buses blocking traffic. We were told that the tour bus drivers are mostly non-islanders and the people who come mostly come armed with free drink tickets and don’t spend money; it just seems like the island and the people on it do not benefit, but the cruise ships and whoever gets the money for the bus service benefit, while the environmental impact of the pollution, both from the ships and from the rude garbage flinging people, is horrible. The people come and trespass on private property and leave heaps of all manner of trash lying around. I was going to take a few pictures of the beach one evening after a 6,000 cruise-ship visitor day, but I didn’t have the heart to - it looked like someone dragged a dumpster all the way down the beach upside down. One couple came up and almost followed me into the Henley’s yard when I was getting our beach chairs out. They actually turned out to be very friendly and were curious about returning to stay on the island (at least I think that’s what they were interested in - I was speaking French with them, and I don’t speak French very fluently). Del had delivered a car to us that morning, and we drove to Trellis in the afternoon for lunch at Marina Cay. For anyone who hasn’t made the effort to take the brief, free ferry ride to MC; I highly recommend it; a very comfortable and pretty little place with lovely gardens. People who want a more isolated and peaceful vacation stay on the little island, but I think it’s a little too quiet for me to enjoy staying there for a week or so. It’s also hooked up to WIFI all over the island, so if, God help you, you HAVE to do some computer work - this would be a delightful place to do so. There is an interruption in ferry service between noon and 3, and we weren’t sure what that meant as far as serving food - we went over ~3:15, and they were not serving lunch or dinner; that is an in-between time, but they were serving appetizers, so we ordered a few and shared them for lunch (along with the obligatory Painkiller). As evening approached, we took the ferry back to Trellis for the Full Moon Party. We had a total Lunar Eclipse that night, so it was a very special Full Moon. We had gone to the Bomba Full Moon Party a few years ago, and this sounded like a completely different experience and more interesting to us than the Bomba Shack gathering, which is pretty much like a big college drinking party; it was o.k., but if we are lucky enough to have our vacation coincide with a full moon again, we will definitely be at the Trellis party. We enjoyed ourselves SO much! First of all, the little artist community there is just a really wonderful atmosphere to begin with, and they had pulled out lots of comfy chairs and tables etc. to accommodate the Full Moon revelers. We ended up sharing a soft sofa with a lady from Maui, whom we now consider a new friend. The whole crowd (and it was a crowd - I would venture to guess 4 or 5 hundred) was kind of energized with anticipation; everyone was happy & well behaved (there were a decent amount of children there, happily playing together on an old boat and running around in the sand - it was cool to watch kids being kids; where we live, children are practically coated in bubble wrap to protect them from everything). We watched some young people load up some of Aragorn’s metal art creations with scrap wood - one ball was in front of the main music stage and the others were out in the water. They have a big barbeque there as well; Greg got us a plate to share, since it was a lot of food. There were people laying in hammocks and using surfboards for tables; it seemed that everyone had a comfortable station where they could sit and eat. I’m not as varied in my tastes as Greg is, so I only ate some of the fish and all of the potato salad, but between us, everything we ate tasted very good. Then it was time to jockey for position to see the lighting of the artwork in the water. How excited people were about this relatively simple event was absolutely fun. Then, just as the lighting had begun, the Mocko Jumbies appeared, dancing and clowning on their stilts - cheers erupted from the crowd! They were awesome - they were so good and so funny and they played with the audience and with the fireballs - everyone was sort of moving around hurrying between the fireballs and the Mocko Jumbies and the fire-jugglers, not wanting to miss any of the fun. We knew we had a long drive home & decided to leave before the party ended to avoid what was certainly going to be a traffic jam. This turned out to be an excellent decision, because we not only avoided all the traffic, but we also arrived back at the apartment just before it started to rain. We had planned to go down and listen to Quito, but since it was raining, we decided to relax on our balcony. About 20 minutes later, I became violently ill; I mean VIOLENTLY; like I had swallowed a grenade or something. Since Greg and I had literally shared everything we ate all day, except for the potato salad, it is most likely that this was the culprit. I should know better than to eat mayonnaise-based food items at public barbeques & picnics; we do a lot of traveling, and since nothing like this has happened before, I had become cavalier about food choices. I was eruptive-ly sick all night and by the next morning I had started to suffer some of the ill effects of dehydration.

March 4th Sunday

I had made a feeble attempt to creep down to the beach in the morning, but as soon as the sun hit me, I realized the folly of that idea and staggered back to Mongoose. Luckily, Michelle, the housekeeper found me as I had collapsed on the patio, and she ran down to the beach to get Greg, and they hauled me up to the couch in our front room. Michelle & Sandra, our landlady, put cold washcloths on me and stabilized me. I am so thankful that I was in a place with lovely people who we’ve been friends with for years; I felt safe and cared for and not alone. Since I felt like a truck ran over me several times, I stayed in the apartment all day, trying my best to force down sips of Gatorade and keep it down and to not pass out. Greg spent much of the next few days with the other folks from Mongoose out at the beach, and I spent that time on my back in the apartment. I have to say that I have always been of the opinion that if, during travel, we had chosen poorly with regards to accommodation, it’s no big deal, because we don’t spend that much time in the hotel or whatever. We have always said how fortunate it was that we happened upon Mongoose, because it is so lovely, it wouldn’t matter if we had a bad weather day and had to stay apartment-bound; well, yes, indeed, this turned out to be good fortune for me - I was so sick, I had no choice but to stay put, and that would have been miserable if I had not been in such a nice apartment. Poor Greg had to settle for cooking a frozen pizza for dinner since I couldn’t stand up long enough to cook anything and the mere smell of food was torture to me. In retrospect, I should have gone to the hospital or to a doctor immediately and gotten an I.V., but I thought by hanging around licking popsicles and sipping Gatorade, I could bounce back.

March 5th Monday

Greg spent the morning at the beach and I had another morning of spoons full of Gatorade and watching “American Justice” on TV. Two of our friends who were not able to come with us this year (they will be with us next year!) had given us a rock that they had picked up on Brewer’s Bay Beach - they had a terrible run of luck this past year and had decided it could be because they had removed this rock from its happy home. (I now believe that they may have been right - this rock was definitely pure evil and needed to be returned . . . ) I thought I might be able to ride in the jeep, so I went with Greg and we returned the rock - I kept tumbling over onto the mossy rock wall because I was too weak to stay upright, so we went home quickly. Greg wanted real food and didn’t want to eat alone for dinner, so I went with him to Big Banana and sipped some ginger ale while he ate - he was going nuts that we had been there 4 days and he hadn’t had any of his beloved chicken roti yet.

March 6th Tuesday

As had become our somewhat unfortunate schedule, Greg went to CGB beach in the morning & I settled in with my Green Friend (Gatorade) in front of the television. Sandra set up an appointment for me with her doctor - we had all realized that by now, since I still couldn’t even sit up for more that 20 minutes and had had no liquid output since Saturday, I needed medical attention. So Greg loaded my sorry self into the jeep and drove me to Road Town to the doctor. I was very apprehensive about the whole thing, and I was rather frightened about what was wrong with me. We went to the doctor, and she was fantastic. I was very lucky that her schedule was such that I was able to get an appointment in the early afternoon. She is a lovely, gentle woman, who was very thorough and patient with me and after my exam and some lab tests, she gave me several medications. I was dehydrated, and she diagnosed me as having had food poisoning. She said the rapidity of the onset of symptoms indicated that I had ingested the toxin itself and not the microorganism, the latter being what usually happens with people. This means that is could have been in the potato salad, or on something that someone touched and then I ate off of, like the top of my can of Coke, but it was definitely the type of toxin which is considered “food poisoning”. She said I was lucky to have had my body violently purge the toxin; what I was suffering from in the days following the poisoning was dehydration, and then secondary bladder & bowel infection, and some sort of other opportunist parasite. She was on the fence about whether or not to administer an IV, but she decided to give me 24 hours with 2 anti-emetics (in addition to other medication) to see if I could force down some decent quantities of fluids on my own. I started to feel better within an hour of taking my arsenal of meds, had a nice nap and felt well enough to go with Greg to Myett’s for Happy Hour. It was a Kapeye night, so there was a great merry crowd. I was forcing down ginger ales and concentrating on staying upright on my barstool, so I wasn’t really able to enjoy the Happy Hour much, or able to be sociable, but I was glad to be out and listening to music. We had dinner at Stanley’s - I was actually able to eat two chicken nuggets. It’s nice and comfortable there and the service is good and one of the quicker places, and since we were on borrowed time for keeping me up, this was a good dinner choice.

March 7th Wednesday

I woke up feeling wimpy but much, much better, so we decided to do as much as we could - there are so many things we love to do in the BVI’s but because of my illness many of our plans went by the wayside, and we had two days to try to salvage the vacation. We drove to Jolly Roger briefly, and then over to Soper’s Hole to Pusser’s and a little bit of shopping. That wore me out, so we went back to the apartment for lunch & I took a nap while Greg went to the beach. We went to Bananakeet for Happy Hour & appetizers - it’s a fantastic place to enjoy the sunset, and food there is excellent. They had great drinks too, but since I had been off all alcohol since Saturday night, I had to be satisfied with ginger ale. A man whom I believe may have been the manager was waiting on us, and he was very nice. Our timing for the sunset & appetizers delightfully coincided with the beginning of Reuben’s performance; we hadn’t heard him before - he is marvelous! Greg had not gotten his fill of chicken roti, so we went to Big Banana for dinner & I was able to eat a few pieces of cheese pizza with the tomato sauce scraped off. I felt like I had rejoined the human race.

March 8th Thursday

Finally. It was our last day on Tortola and aside from a bit weak, I’m feeling good. We went down to the beach and it was lovely; the water was the roughest it had been since our arrival, but it was still pretty calm - I can’t swim and I freak out if a wave goes over my head or water gets in my face, and I wasn’t worried; it was a beautiful day. We did see a stingray in the water, which we normally don’t see in CGB, and there were loads of fish; we were getting dive-bombed by gulls, pelicans and other seabirds. It was fun to watch. Not so fun to watch was the 6,000 cruise ship people wandering around trashing the beach. They dragged rented chairs all over the place and onto private property, they left empty six-packs of bottles, and all manner of refuse. Sandra had to confront one lady who was busily breaking off pieces of one of Sandra’s plants because she thought it was an aloe, and she also apparently thought it was fine to trespass on someone’s property and mess up the landscaping. We were fairly alarmed at one point when the four American girls who were on Spring Break and EACH drank a six pack of beer in the brief amount of time they were at the beach, started whipping empty glass bottles at each other out in the water, but they did retrieve all of their bottles and they did clean up their garbage and take it with them. They were so loud and obnoxious that an English chef from one of the ships who was out in the water with us said; “I hope you’re not from the same country as those creatures” - sad to say, yes we were.

We were sent on a second mission by our absent friends; mission #1; the return of the cursed rock had been successfully completed, now we had mission #2; our friends had given us Kapeye t-shirts for Christmas and instructed us to go have our picture taken with Kapeye, wearing our shirts. So down the beach we went to Myett’s with our BRIGHT yellow Kapeye shirts on… We had a great time and he dedicated his rendition of “Fins” to us, since we are had indeed “came down from Cincinnati”. Mission #2 completed! After sunset, we went back, got cleaned up and went on down to enjoy our last night listening to Quito. Quito’s voice is unparalleled in my opinion, so smooth, so gentle, yet so powerful; it’s like listening to the island and sea itself singing. Of course, hearing him sing “Tortola”, “Paradise” and “Caribbean Run” on the last night of our vacation about reduces us to tears every time, and we wouldn‘t miss it for the world. That evening, Greg wasn’t feeling quite right and by the time we reluctantly left Quito’s, Greg was feeling horrible and he spent the night sick to his stomach and miserable. Since he had a sudden onset stomach ailment that was pretty much gone 24 hrs. later, we believe he also had food poisoning. If we had not already booked our 2008 trip to Tortola, and we knew we had to wait more than a year to came back, we would have been beside ourselves depressed about having missed out on a lot of fun this visit. It was somehow more bearable knowing it’s not going to be so very long before we will be back, enjoying ourselves in the Caribbean sun!

March 9th Friday

We flew home. Phooey! We got to the airport a little over an hour before our flight and that was about exactly right - we had a little time to wait at the gate, but not much. We had thought, reading the American Airlines website that we were allowed to transport an unopened bottle of alcohol; we had bought a bottle of Bailey’s for me the previous Thursday not anticipating my being unable to drink alcohol all week; we thought mmmaybe we could bring it back home. Nope. The friendly security guard relieved us of it. Oh, well, it was worth a try! LOL While we were waiting at the gate in amongst a group of people who were mostly looking like people do when their vacation has ended and they are on the way home, we noticed two men who had fared worse than we had, since they were in airport wheelchairs; the one poor guy had a brand new cast on his leg. One of the ladies who was working the check-in desk and had then moved on to job #2 at the gate podium, asked for everyone’s attention and then called out two names of people whom she needed to come forward. They were both reluctant; and the lady seemed a little panicked; what could be wrong?! Why were they being singled out?!! After some insistent coaxing, they both came forward, and she put one arm around each of them and turned them to face all of the rest of us. She announced that both of them had birthdays that day, and we were all going to sing happy birthday to them, which we did. Too funny! We’ve become so used to the joyless, mechanical airport personnel in other places, this was a total and welcome surprise, and a charming memory that we will cherish.

Since Greg was still under the weather, the long day of air travel was rather unpleasant, but we didn’t have any mishaps with connections or anything. On the return trip we had less close calls between flights, but we had no time to spare between the arrival and departure in San Juan, so we are totally convinced it was the right decision to carry-on all luggage (seriously; how much do you really need to pack? It’s not like you have to make room for formal dinner clothing, or more substantial shoes than flip flops! LOL)

344 days and counting - we can’t wait to be comin’ back to the island, comin’ back to the sun… <sigh>