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This is our combined trip report, BVI and SXM, from June 15, 2002 to June 23, 2002. We booked open jaw frequent flyer tickets on AA, flying Washington Dulles to Beef Island, separate Liat ticket EIS to SXM, then AA from SXM home again to Dulles. Flight down on AA was uneventful except for the fact that, since the sign at the gate said that the 3 ½ hour flight to SJU was “drink service only”, we got breakfast at the airport. Of course, they served breakfast on the plane. Sigh. We ate lunch in SJU at a semi-decent place–new I think–called Waves, I think. The service was prompt and the food was edible. It was pretty close to the American Eagle gates. The only other excitement was on the American Eagle flight from SJU to EIS, somehow they misplaced our pilots. All the passengers and luggage were on the plane, 1 P.M., sweltering in the heat for at least 15 minutes before either one of the pilots showed up. There was a little old lady sitting in the seat in front of mine. I kept waiting to see her head tip to the side and her slump down in the seat, but everyone made it fine. We arrived virtually on time at Beef Island, and retrieved our checked bags without any problem. Lines for immigration and customs moved slow, considering how few people were actually in line. The lady in front of us had to open her bag and the customs fellow pawed through the whole thing, but for ours, he asked us a couple of questions and waived us through. Such questions and inspections only work when one has only small planes arriving, as come into Tortola.<br><br> Once outside, we said we needed to go to Cane Garden Bay, to Elm Beach Suites, and they called for taxi driver Godfrey, who appeared in about 10 minutes. Nice fellow, personable, we enjoyed the trip with him. He asked whether we wanted to go the scenic route or the route through Road Town, so we chose the scenic route. Based on that trip, we decided not to rent a car later on in the week. The trip to Cane Garden took 45 minutes and the fare was $40, including tip. Since we didn’t get a car, we ate all our meals in Cane Garden Bay, which was fine for the short trip of four days. Longer, and we would have definitely rented a car and gone to some other restaurants. <br><br> We arrived at Elm around 3 P.M. We discovered eventually that all three top floor rooms at Elm were currently taken by TTOL folks, with JakeBear next to us, and Periwinkle on the opposite end of the building. Since we had had about 2 hours sleep the night before, both of us were dead once we finally arrived and we laid down in the a/c to recover a little bit. Eventually, we trundled down to Myett’s for a drink around 6. The place was packed and the drink service was s-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-w....<br><br> We had planned on going to Quito’s to hear him sing Saturday night, so went to the Gazebo for dinner. Signs there say they start serving dinner at 6:30, but when we showed up around 6:45, they looked at us funny. I told the fellow I really DID want to eat now, considering I was totally running out of gas and figured to be in bed soon. We had some really excellent conch fritters with a nice spicy sauce, I had the chicken roti (HUGE, but decent). Eric had an absolutely excellent jerk pork special. Jerk done just right–seemingly mild, then sneaky hot, then HOT!!!!! Bottle of wine and a mixed drink each, total of $91. They told us Quito wouldn’t be singing till probably 9:30, so we were out of there, in bed by 9:15. BTW, for the uninitiated, for some reason the pronunciation is KEY-TOE. <br><br> Sunday morning we had breakfast at Rhymer’s, which ended up being the only place in CGB open for breakfast during our trip. I would assume that there are other places there in Cane Garden open for breakfast during the season, as it did get somewhat old going there each morning. We ended up not getting a car for our stay and though there was a kitchenette at Elm, we didn’t buy any supplies except some booze and cokes for the room, which we bought there at Rhymer’s. There were coffee and filters provided in the room. Again on Sunday it was HOT, HOT, HOT in CGB, with no air stirring. We spent some time on the beach, but also quite a bit of time in the room.<br><br> Sometime on Sunday, we checked out Lighthouse Villas, which I had heard were absolutely beautiful. Well, folks were correct!! The bottom floor has only a partial view, but the upper floors have a wonderful sunset view from the lovely balconies. Absolutely beautiful, first rate, new accommodations. I wasn’t exactly sure how far it was from there to the beach, or the restaurants, so we hadn’t decided to stay there this time, but next time if we stay in CGB, it will definitely be at Lighthouse. It is right across the street from Quito’s Gazebo. It’s up the hill, maybe about 20 fairly deep steps up to the reception, then another flight up to the nicest rooms, but the trip is worth it!! Twice the price of what we paid at Elm Beach, though. <br><br> All right, so we stayed at Elm Beach Suites. Elm has five rooms altogether. Elvet has plans–one of these years–to add two more rooms, but is holding off for the time being due to the slowdown in tourism. The current “suites” have a small living room with TV, kitchenette and separate bedroom. The bedroom only is air conditioned, although the last couple of days, we left the door to the bedroom open and the a/c on, and it cooled down the rest of the place reasonably well. We had the passionfruit room, one of three on the top floor. We were somewhat disappointed in the view, as the view of the ocean and CGB is fairly well blocked by the sea grapes, which are pretty tall. Elvet could trim the tops off and ensure at least a partial view from the rooms on the top floor, which would be my recommendation. The furniture looks pretty new and the bed (queen size) was imminently comfortable. The kitchen could have used a real spruce up, as the frig, etc., was very old, and the supplies of glasses, etc., were somewhat lacking. The toaster and coffee pot and ceiling fans looked pretty new also, so I guess Elvet is replacing stuff in stages. What really needed replacing though, were the chairs on the front porches, as they were in pretty bad repair. The TV, surprisingly, had about 30 channels, with all the US networks. We didn’t watch any TV–except for about 15 minutes of a local graduation, which we thought pretty interesting–but were impressed with the selection of channels available for those who can’t leave the idiot box at home. <br><br> We spent most of Sunday on chairs in front of Paradise Café–$9 for the two chairs and umbrella. Strangely, the chairs were chained down, so one couldn’t move them around much. The beach was pretty full in the afternoon with lots of families.<br><br> Lunch on Sunday was at Paradise Café–which definitely passed the “Sword” test, for you St. Martin fans reading this. (Translation—PRIMO comfortable chairs!!!!) We shared a club sandwich and some fries with a couple of drinks, for a very enjoyable luncheon. The Paradise Café was the ONLY restaurant in CGB that flunked the “tax line fraud” test. Their checks put the service charge on a line that was marked “tax”. All the other restaurants in CGB clearly showed the service charge as such.<br><br> Dinner Sunday was at Elvet’s BBQ, and was the site of a TTOL party. Attending were Periwinkle, Manpot and friends, Marylou, Artie Gilligan and Cheryl Sebastian, from Purple Pineapple. Dinner was $10, $11 or $12, depending on how many meats you got, with the choices being chicken, fish and ribs. These are served with rice, beans and corn on the cob. The food was excellent!! Great steel drum music, drinks and conversation made for a very enjoyable evening.<br><br> Monday morning we again had breakfast at Rhymer’s; meanwhile, it rained VERY hard. Our waitress actually was quite happy to see it raining, as it apparently had been very dry in BVI for the past few months. We kind of hung out in the room for a while Monday morning, relaxing and reading and liming, which was very nice, considering how hard we had been working before we left home. We had lunch at Stanley’s, burgers and fries, accompanied by some type of soap opera in Spanish on the TV. We were one of about 3 couples there, so the waitress had to have something to do! <br><br> Monday afternoon, even though the weather was still very drippy and rainy, we decided to do a taxi tour. The tour took us by Bomba’s, Apple Bay, Carrot Bay, Long Bay (with a stop at Long Bay Beach Resort to look around–nice!!), Smuggler’s Cove, West End and Soper’s Hole, Road Town (obligatory trip to Sunny Cariabe–does anybody but me think their stuff is expensive???), and ending up at Sky World. Sky World has a great view, although it was a little iffy with the bad weather. We did enjoy a nice drink at the bar there. The tour was 2 ½ hours, $50 with tip. Our driver was Jock, who was a nice fellow, although his accent was a little thick.<br><br> We had dinner at Myett’s, splitting one of their 28 oz t-bones. Who the heck eats a 28 oz steak by themselves??? Anyway, we split the steak and ordered an extra potato and order of vegetables. That, plus a nice Chilean merlot ($35 for the merlot was still a little much, though!!) and a bottle of water was $87 with service charge. BTW, we did notice that the menu at Myett’s said that the service charge is added automatically. The meal was OK, but the food wasn’t particularly warm when we received it, so that kind of put a damper on our enthusiasm for the meal. Lover Boys played from about 8 to 10 P.M. Frankly, we weren’t that impressed with them and left before they finished. <br><br> Tuesday morning the weather was again pretty drippy. I sent Eric down to Rhymer’s for carry-out egg sandwiches, which we had with coffee on the porch. Thereafter we hung around the room most of the morning, or stayed close on the beach at Elm, using chairs right there for free. Elvet’s bar was closed Monday and Tuesday morning, so no one was there to collect money anyway. I was taking a nap in the room at one point, while Eric was sitting in one of the chairs there in front of Stanley’s drinking a beer, when he observed a most curious ritual. The fellow was sailing around the mooring ball in circles, all the while still tied up. JeffC, BillH, Mike Kneafsy--somebody want to explain that one to us??? Must be some kind of an initiation rite for bare boaters or something???? The beach on Monday and Tuesday was pretty deserted, but as the day wore on on Tuesday, boats started appearing by the dozens. By sunset, there were close to 40 boats in the Bay. Goodness knows how many come in season..... They opened up the bar at Elm around 3 P.M., and we had planned on eating there for dinner that night. However, they were serving only the lunch menu and we wanted something other than a sandwich, so we went down to Paradise Café for dinner. That dinner ended up being our best meal by far in BVI this time. I had the fettuccine alfredo and Eric had fish, and we shared a bottle of wine. Sorry, I forgot to make notes that night, so not sure what the total was on the bill. The food was hot, fresh, good, and service was excellent. (And we can’t forget the most excellent chairs!!) Paradise Café is our definite choice for best restaurant in Cane Garden Bay.<br><br> After dinner it was time to head down to Quito’s to watch him sing. We got there right around 8:30, and had a couple of drinks at the bar, and it was time for him to start. I bought the 3 remaining CD’s of his that I didn’t have previously ($50 for 3). We talked to Nikki, and she very graciously got us an actual table to sit at, instead of sitting at the bar and also got Quito to autograph one of the CD’s for us. We stayed into Quito’s second set and ran up a pretty substantial bar bill. It was a great night. I was very happy that we were not driving anywhere that night, as I’m not quite sure how Eric made it back down the beach without falling flat on his face. Quito is really much better in person than on the CD’s, I think. That night alone was worth the price of the trip.<br><br> Ah well, all good things must end, I suppose. Wednesday morning it was off to the airport for our flight over to St. Martin. Our flight was at 10:00 A.M. on Liat, so we had made arrangements for the taxi to pick us up at 8:00. We arrived at the airport around 8:45 and checked in at Liat, second people in line. For some inexplicable reason, they want you through the departure tax line and in the departure lounge by something like 45 minutes before the flight, which we were, of course, since there wasn’t much else to do. Again, somewhat inexplicably, around 9:55, the lady from Liat rounded us all up, and said “The plane is going to land in five minutes, therefore we need to go outside and wait now...” The logic of that escapes me. Anyway, the plane was late, which was something one would have thought she would have known, considering it was coming from St. Thomas, and that flight is only 10 minutes. Finally, about 15 minutes late, the plane arrived. Whatever.... Anyway, luggage onboard, and a drink of pink grapefruit drink (UGH!!) and we arrived in St. Martin about 30 minutes later. To be continued in St. Martin. Check out the St. Martin BB for the rest of the story................<br><br>