I forgot to mention in Part 6 that one of our excursions off the Cuan Law was a dingy ride to Willie T's. I gave up a night dive for it (which I was happy to do since they terrify me), but it is a dive with greasy tables and floors and drunk kids everywhere. The seven of us had a drink and talked and laughed with some of the drunk kids (or dudes as they called themselves) but were happy to see the dingy arrive back to take us home. We decided old farts like us had no business there.
For our final 3 days on Tortola we decided to spend some time on Cane Garden Bay. This area is beautiful over all, with dramatic vistas around every harrowing corner as we drove over. We were disappointed, however, when we actually arrived because of all the trash, sewage and disrepair that had not been present on any of our other stops. A great example of this is the place we stayed, Elm Beach Suites.
Elm Beach Suites Review
Wow, what a disappointment and terrible way to end our perfectly wonderful trip to Tortola and the BVIs. Our "suite", the Tamarind, had interesting "views" out every window. A concrete block building about 3 feet away on one side, a sewer and junk yard out the bedroom window, and just a peak of the ocean between run down buildings with junk and trash piled everywhere out the front. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the Four Seasons kind of gal. My very favorite accommodations when we travel is a little, cheap, oceanfront condo. This was that, but dirty, run down and disgusting. When people recommended Elm Beach Suites to me they referred to it as funky. It's funky alright. So much so, we spent as little time there as possible. We tried to sit and read one night on the sheet covered couch, but realized it was broken. The bed was comfortable, but the threadbare sheets made me queasy. The filthy bathroom was so gross I put paper on the seat before sitting down. The shower head was broken but the drizzle that did come out was at least warm. I think you get my drift so enough said.
On the positive side, we enjoyed the beach chairs and umbrella so we spent our final days lounging on the beach reading and sipping rum. We ate fish and chips at Big Banana which were awful so we walked to the little store and got snacks for dinner. Quintos was closed for a wedding so, unfortunately, we didn't get to go there. The next day we drove over to the Jolly Roger for lunch. Service was slow but we just relaxed and watched the sailboats and views. The food was just OK. We drove into Roadtown for a little shopping and more sightseeing but two cruise ships were in port so we drove back to CGB. Spent the rest of the evening in the lounge chairs then on our little porch.
Our final day we decided to drive over to Sage Mountain National Park and hike. It was fun. We bought a few souvenirs at the store next to the parking lot. We decided to drive to Josiah's Bay next. Wow, that turned out to be an experience first finding the place then when we got there...as I mentioned before my dear hubby loves to pick up coconuts, open them up and share the contents with perfect strangers. He has done this on every island we've ever been to that has coconuts. So we are walking along the beautiful beach and voila, there's a coconut. Funny though, it's already out of it's husk and a little cracked. DH picks it up and shakes it because that's the sign a coconut is still good...if it still has milk inside. This one does, but DH notices it is a little heavier than normal. He takes it over to a rock and cracks it open and MERCURY comes shooting out and splashes all around. We're astounded!!! Somebody had to have done this on purpose as a terrible joke. It just so happens that a group of people are there to take surf lessons and are gathered around waiting on their promised bit of coconut and one of them is an environmental specialist. He goes to the little restaurant and asks the owner to call the authorities because we now have a hazardous sight that needs to be cleaned up. He insists that my DH shows him exactly where the coconut was when he found it and follows his exact footsteps back to the scene, takes his statement, then lets us leave. What a nightmare and great way to spend our final day on Tortola!!! No more coconut hunting for my DH!
We went to the Elm and began packing, read on the beach again and turned in early because we wanted to leave as early as possible the next morning. We were soooo over this place! The next morning we drove back to Beef Island Guest House for our final night before our early flight back home the next morning. After dropping off our stuff, we took the free ferry over to Marina Cay for breakfast. The restaurant and bar didn't open until noon (because of some contractural obligation...weird) so we went into the gift shop and bought snacks, sat under a little shady area and ate "breakfast", and watched the sailboats. This is a very well kept property and pretty. I think it would be fun to stay here. We took the ferry back, read in the lounge chairs out on the beach for a while, went back to the Trellis Bay arts and crafts fair, had a very nice lunch at D' Best Cup, and made dinner reservations at the Last Resort because De Loose Mongoose (next door to Beef Island Guest House) is closed on Mondays. The Last Resort is on a little islet and sends a boat over to pick up guests at the docks. This is what I would call a funky place, but in a good way. My red snapper dinner was delicious and hubby's salmon was just OK, but the ceasar salads were divine. No room for dessert. A great place for a casually elegant last meal.
The next morning we drove our car over to the airport and left it in the taxi lot as per instructions from Dede's car rental. Leaving Tortola, you have to pay $20 each after you check in for your flight, but nobody tells you that. Also, you have to fill out a customs paper which they are supposed to give you but they didn't so when we got on the plane, we remembered it and asked our flight attendant for one but he didn't have any. So there we are again in line at Customs and Immigration without our paperwork...remember Tortola for Dummies.
We went to the duty free shops in search for Sebastians Rum, but none was available so we bought one of every brand they had. We had one of the most delicious meals of the last few days at the airport. I don't know the name, but they serve an absolute original Cuban sandwich that was awesome. We bought snacks for the plane and readied ourselves for the fun flight home. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say that, but since we discovered watching '24' that's exactly what it has become. It was fun even when we were delayed for 5 hours in the Chicago airport because we just propped our DVD player up on a suitcase, put on our earphones and watched '24'. Flight home was punctuated by a lively discussion on religion between two passengers behind us! I could have used the sleep because I was driving the 2 hours home after we landed at midnight, but since I had been on island time for 2 weeks it slid right off my back...no problem mon.
