May 25 – June 1, 2006
Tortola: Land Based Vacation
Flight out of Orlando we were upgraded to first class. They said they sold our seats twice. We were definitely not complaining. Flight to Beef Island was canceled due to electrical problem. American Eagle took us back to the waiting area and a few minutes later cancelled the next flight and then they called us back and off we went, everyone was happy. Our luggage arrived safety. We tried to get everything into our carry on luggage, but that was impossible with the snorkel gear.
We stayed at Fort Recovery and our package included a jeep for the week. When we arrived on the island we went to the Hertz counter and they explained that all the two door jeeps were rented out due to the music festival so we got an upgrade to a four door hard top. The only trouble we had driving was the natives driving down the center of the road and a few goats and cows. If the roads are wet then you will need FWD.
The first night we had dinner at the resort. The package included three meals. The food was very good. The only meal I was not happy with was the Chicken Roti. It reminded me of a pot pie. The staff consisted of one server and one chef. We sat outside on the small deck with the wind blowing. We used 100% deet and that seemed to work. It’s no fun to take a bath and then spray bug spray all over ourselves, so that is when we got the most bites, because we didn’t put it on.
For our day sail we chose Aristocat. It was a blast, first time for us on a sail boat. We went to the Indians and the Caves. The Indians was the closest thing to diving without having to put on all the gear. There were several divers there. The visibility was great I could see the divers below us. There were a lot of fish and coral at the Indians. The soft and hard coral was beautiful. We then went to a bay, not sure of the name and snorkel again, once again lots of fish, no turtles like we hoped to see. Aristocat fix a nice lunch and prepared rum punch. After lunch we went to the caves. That was pretty impressive, neat swimming into the caves. I highly recommend Aristocat.
We didn’t go to all our planed sites and didn’t make it to too many bars. We finally made it to Bananakeet for a sunset, but Mt. Montserrat had another idea. So we ended up having appetizer and a couple of drinks. The view was still pretty. I had hoped to go the Music Festival, but we figured out that we would have to taxi in and out. The getting in would have been the easy part and the getting out not.
Our one memorable occasion as far as a party was when we ate at Jolly Roger where we had an excellent pizza and cold beer. We had a group there that had partied quite a bit that day. They were our entertainment for the evening and the most fun people we saw the entire time. We enjoyed chatting with them.
We hiked Sage Mountain, and had a great time. It was only the two of us on the mountain. Tim and I took several pictures. The trails were not marked as good as they should be but we were able to find the lookout and our way back. The highest point on Tortola is just a marker. You can not see anything but trees. It took us about two hours at the most. I wore sandals and had no problem.
Drove to Brewers Bay and had a hamburger and fries. Rented a chair and snorkeled. We ended up going to Brewers Bay twice. The soft and hard coral was not as alive as it was at the Indians, but we still saw lots of fish and a large green moray eel and a mother squid with her three babies. That was neat.
We also went to Josiahs Bay and on the way ate at the Tamiran Club. The food there was excellent and once again everyone was very friendly. After lunch we drove to the bay. There is a small bar near the beach so we had a rum drink. Meet another couple and chatting a while. While on the beach we could see the tracks of a very large turtle. When we came back we told the ladies working the bar and they called the people that tract the turtles beds. We hope that is who they called. ;-) . This beach to me was by far the prettiest beach on Tortola. The sand is white and you can walk out into the surf where there are no rocks. They did have a sign regarding undertow, etc. We figured that is mainly for the winter months we the surf is up.
Went to the Baths, took Speedy’s Ferry. It was speedy; it took us approximately 35 minutes to get there. Once there we were shocked at how many people were on the beach. There wasn’t that many people on the ferry. After about an hour the people vanished.  It was very relaxing then. The boulders are huge and when snorkeling its kind of eerie. Even with a crowd this is something everyone should see.
Snorkeled at Smuglers Cove the water there was so much cooler than anywhere else. Not sure why that was. This was a very relaxing beach. We weren’t sure if we were heading in the right direction but we finally found it. We found this to be the case on the entire island the maps just give you an idea and the rest was guessing.
Tim and I had a great time on our vacation. The only down side to the trip was the cost of food it was more than what we had expected. If you could find a place that has a kitchen it would be well worth it.
Ida & Tim
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