Back to reality

Sunday morning we got up super early to pack and catch the 9:15 ferry from Tortola to St. Thomas where we would then fly to New York. Getting from St. John to Tortola a week ago was cake – very few people, very easy process. But getting from Tortola to St. Thomas today? Unbelievable. The ferry station in Tortola was overflowing with people who were also trying to get back to the USVI airport that morning, and it was chaos. There was a 9:15 and a 9:30 ferry, and we managed to get on the 9:15 ferry even though we didn't have tickets in our hands until 9:20. We worked our way through the crowd who was starting to board the 9:30 ferry and made our way onto ours.

When we got to St. Thomas over an hour later, the line for U.S. Customs was so long that we had to stay on our stiflingly hot ferry for a good 20 minutes before we could get off. Many of us had a noon flight to catch, so we were starting to get nervous about missing it. And man, it's a good thing we got on the earlier ferry! The 9:30 ferry got to customs about 5 minutes behind us, but since there was such a back up, they actually turned around and didn't come back to customs for a good half hour. We finally got off our ferry and made it through customs in about 15 minutes. Getting into the U.S. from other countries is so freaking difficult! It took us 5 minutes to get into the BVI, but over an hour to get into the USVI.

On the other side, we found a taxi driver to take us to the airport. We told him we were in a big hurry (it was almost 11 and our flight was starting boarding at 11:30), but he of course had to wait until his taxi was full before he'd leave. So, we sat for another 10 minutes while he waited for more travelers to make their way through customs. The drive to the airport wasn't bad, but we were still late enough that we had missed the cutoff time for checking into our flight. My heart skipped a beat at first, but apparently all that means is that we can't check our luggage right at the check-in counter. We still had to hurry through the airport and fill out yet another customs declaration form and go through another form of customs (God knows why since St. Thomas is a U.S. territory). We got to our gate a few minutes before boarding began, so everything turned out alright in the end.

We're flew home to New York after a fabulous two-week honeymoon in the Virgin Islands. We loved both places, but we've already decided that we're definitely going back to St. John in the future (and hopefully staying at The Retreat again!). We couldn't have had such a fun-filled, adventurous trip without the help of all our wonderful friends and family – it truly was a fantastic and memorable trip – the best honeymoon we could have asked for!

Sailing Again & Sunset on Tortola

Saturday morning, we showed up for our second trip on The White Squall II – this time to Norman Island and Peter Island. Both trips we went on were pretty empty which was nice. We didn't want it to be just us and the captain (awkward!), but we wanted a small group to make the snorkeling tours more worth it. Plus, we could comfortably spread around the boat with only 6-8 people on board. Apparently the Thursday before our trips, there were 31 people aboard! I don't know how they all fit...

Anyway, we headed out to Norman Island first, and our captain told us that today's sail was his absolute favorite because you actually get to sail most of the way (unlike the Virgin Gorda trip where the engine does most of the work). Sailing was so relaxing – Tom and I both really loved it and have decided to look into sailing classes once we're back in New York. We did some incredible snorkeling at Norman Island – beautiful corals, a myriad of fish in all colors, shapes, and sizes, and a gigantic lobster! Tom also saw a nurse shark (thank goodness I knew those were harmless or I would have freaked out when I heard it was right near us). Norman Island was the best snorkeling we did on our honeymoon, and we didn't even get to go as far as Kate planned on this tour because there were schools of jelly fish in front of us.

From Norman Island, we headed over to Peter Island, but made stop at a floating bar/restaurant called Willy T's – an old sailboat named William Thornton that now serves drinks, lunch, and dinner literally on the water. We all piled in the dinghy and motored over to it – it was a really neat place – and apparently very popular! Chris and Kate paid for our lunch and one drink – the food was good, and we all left full & happy.

We were sailing to a place called the Indians next – three giant rocks that jut out of the ocean and have walls of coral under the surface. Chris & Kate said they were a must-see, so we decided to go check it out. The coral was huge and plentiful – and I'd never seen anything like those walls & caverns under the surface! We had an hour to explore here, but I think we only stayed in the water for 20-30 minutes. Even though it was really cool, I was done with snorkeling for the day. We headed back to the boat, and the others followed shortly after.

When we were sailing back to Road Town, Chris unfurled all of the sails so that we could see The White Squall in all her glory. She's a beautiful ship, and Chris & Kate's boyfriend road out on the dinghy to take photos of her with our cameras since it's impossible to capture the whole picture from the ship. We had fun on the way back and spent some time just relaxing on deck and listening to the waves. There is definitely more sailing in our future.

When we got back to the villa, we jumped in the pool for a bit and then got ready to go watch the sunset at a place called Bananakeet's. We'd heard/read that it was the perfect spot for sunset-watching, so we decided to have a drink there and watch the sunset before heading back down the mountain to a fancy restaurant called The Sugar Mill for our last dinner out on our honeymoon. Bananakeet's was the perfect spot to watch the sunset! It set right over the mountains of Jost Van Dyke, and everything just looked beautiful. Our drinks were great, too – I had the Bananakeet – their signature must-have drink, and Tom had a berry Pina Colada that tasted like the strawberry ice cream from the night before. After the sun dropped behind the mountains, we sat and soaked in what was left of the sights while there was still light in the sky.

The Sugar Mill is probably the fanciest restaurant on Tortola, and apparently it's a good idea to make reservations here even though you don't have to anywhere else. We walked in at about 7:30 and they asked us if we had reservations... we of course said no, and it seemed like we weren't going to be able to eat there. After how empty everywhere else has been since it's the low season in Tortola, we couldn't believe it. However, they found one extra table beyond what had been reserved and let us stay. At first we thought they just didn't want to serve us because we were dressed casually, but the restaurant did end up totally filling up, and when we saw an older man in a white sleeveless undershirt and shorts, we knew our clothes had nothing to do with it!

This restaurant got its name because it literally used to be a mill for cane sugar. It was built in the 1700s from stone that was brought over from the countries with which Tortola was trading its goods. While pretty much everywhere else we ate was on the water, here we ate inside a room that had walls made from cobblestones and a ceiling with high wooden beams. It was a beautiful atmosphere, but it was also stiflingly hot without the ocean breeze blowing through. We got wine, salads, and filet (Tom) and snapper (me), and it was delicious. This was one of the places that observes all the old-school etiquette and gives you about 10 pieces of silverware that you don't know what to do with, but we still thought it was a perfect choice for the last night of our honeymoon.

After a great dinner, we headed back for our last night at Casa Luna.

Sunset on Smuggler's Cove

I had to throw in a few more pictures from Friday... before Dian cooked us dinner, we went down to Smuggler's Cove to look at the sunset. And since Tom made me promise to bake him a cake for taking a kissing picture, I'm sharing it with all the world. :-)

Let's Go Sailing...

Friday we had to get a very early start because we had to be at a dock in Road Town by 8:45am for our first sailing trip. We booked two day trips on The White Squall II, an 80-foot schooner built in 1929 that was owned by a Greek princess, has sailed around the world multiple times, and contributed to WWII efforts. It was a beautiful boat with a lot of character, and the Captain (Chris) and first mate (Kate) were awesome.

Our Friday trip was to Virgin Gorda and Cooper Island – Virgin Gorda is where the infamous baths are – the giant rocks and pools of water that collect around/between them. It's definitely a major tourist spot (and our captain HATES going there), but it's SO beautiful. We went there two years ago on our cruise, but we were both excited about going again. We explored the baths and made our way through to Devil's Beach on the other side. We only had an hour here (our captain dropped us off and picked us up in the ships's dinghy), and then we were off to Cooper Island.

When we got back on the ship, lunch was waiting for us. Chris had grilled hot dogs and chicken for us with salad and rice for sides (they also served unlimited sodas, beer, and rum punch for the duration of the trip). Since I'd already broken the vegetarian seal, and since they were so delicious, I ate TWO hot dogs (but Tom ate THREE)!

We had a great lunch and then made our way to Cooper Island for a snorkeling tour. I was a little nervous about snorkeling – Tom loves it, and I do enjoy it, but my fear of getting stung/bitten/killed/salt water up my nose & in my mouth tend to take away from the fun significantly. There were some cool fish along Cooper Island, but there were also a few barracuda and jelly fish that made me uneasy. Tom knows how afraid I get, so he stayed right with me and stayed on the side that opened up to the depths of the ocean while I was in the more shallow water. I feel bad that it makes me so nervous, especially because Tom loves it so much and wants me to come with him. The more I do it, though, the easier it is. Kate, the first mate, led our snorkeling tour, and she dove down to the bottom to grab a conch to show us – it was actually kind of cute! It had little beady eyes and was peering out at us from the back of its shell. After snorkeling here, we got back on the ship and headed back to Road Town. We had so much fun, and we were really glad we'd be coming back the next day to sail to some other islands on the White Squall.

Friday night is when we asked Dian to come cook for us, and when we got home from sailing (after a quick stop at Smuggler's Cove), she was already there with rum punch and snacks ready for us. She had Bob Marley playing over the sound system and a smile on her face – what a great way to be greeted after a long day at sea! We chatted with her for a while as we drank some (very strong) rum punch, and then we took showers while she cooked dinner.

Everything smelled delicious, and we were really looking forward to the meal after reading all the accolades from other visitors to Casa Luna. She baked us snapper with some sort of tomato-based sauce, fried rice, fried plantains, and a delicious salad. It was delicious, but she served us such heaping servings that we couldn't finish it all. Her meal was one of the best we had on the island, and it was so nice to have her come cook it at our villa! She served us strawberry ice cream from St. Thomas' creamery – even though it was just straight out of the carton, it was SO good. I don't think I've ever had strawberry ice cream, but Tom and I both ate as much as we could physically fit into our stomachs, and we both felt uncomfortably full and happy at the end of the meal.

Dian is one of the nicest people I think either of us has ever met, and when her ride couldn't come get her after dinner, we were happy to drive her home to show our appreciation of such a great meal and friendly company. She asked us to send her the photos we took, and when we dropped her off at home, she declared that she needed a “ug” from both of us, so we hugged, said our goodbyes, and promised to email her the photos. After a long day and a big meal, we were done for the day (especially since we had to be at the Road Town dock again the next morning at the same time).

Jost Van Dyke, Foxy's and Quito's

(PHOTOS FOR THIS ENTRY IN THE POST BELOW)

Thursday, we caught the 10am ferry to Jost Van Dyke, a sister island of Tortola. We had wanted to go here to explore its beaches and eat at the renowned Foxy's – an infamous oceanfront place in its harbor. When we got there, we made the 10-minute walk from the ferry dock to the harbor and took in the sights of the island. It's pretty quiet – we were on one of the main oceanfront roads, and there weren't many people to be seen.

On one side of the road, there are restaurants, gift shops, a police station, and a few houses. On the other side, there are big palm trees, hammocks that anyone can walk up to and use, and a multitude of little boats that have been beached or brought up to little docks. It's quaint, but we realized pretty quickly that we probably could've taken the afternoon ferry and had plenty of time to see everything. Foxy's is at the end of the harbor, so we took our time walking down and took some pictures of the scenery (which we may have lost... more on that later).

Foxy's is a cool place – it's all an open-air restaurant with a bigger drink list than food menu. We ordered a drink called a “Vanilla Killa” with vanilla rum and three more ingredients that we sadly can't remember. It was delicious! I got a grouper sandwich and Tom got a burger, and as soon as our food came out, the bartender had a second round of Vanilla Killa's ready for us and brought them to our table. Talk about service! Everyone was very nice here, and we enjoyed taking in the scenery. There are shirts, license plates, business cards & photo IDs, bras, and more hung from the ceiling all over the place. We found a few UNC things and an FDNY shirt amongst all the paraphernalia. As we were getting up to leave, one of the local guys came up to me and said, “You have a body that would melt a grilled cheese sandwich from 10 feet across the bar.” After everything I've been consuming the past two weeks, that compliment was well-received, not to mention hilarious. :-)

We left Foxy's and planned to head to White Bay, the big beach area on Jost Van Dyke, but there wasn't a taxi in sight anywhere. We walked around for a good 15 minutes looking for one and then just stopped into the police department to ask if they could call a taxi for us. A man and his son who were there from Puerto Rico offered us a ride on their boat instead, and we gladly accepted. As I've mentioned before, Puerto Ricans flood the Virgin Islands this time of year – it's only about 60 miles away, and they've got some holidays around this time, so they flock in droves. Their boat was super nice, and it was a quick ride around the bay. We had to jump into the water when we got to White Bay, though – there wasn't a dock – so it's a good thing we were in our swimsuits and had a ziploc bag for the things that weren't waterproof! We jumped in, and Luis (the dad) handed us two beers as a congratulations for getting married. We swam in holding our hands above our heads and praying we didn't get everything wet.

Unfortunately, it seems that this jump into the ocean allowed water to breach our camera's waterproof seal... a drop got inside, and it shut down totally. We couldn't get it to do anything, so we aired it out and waited about 24 hours. We thought it was totally dead after reading about other people's experiences with the same camera, but it eventually turned back on. However, we think there's some corrosion on the memory card reader, and it won't read our card or recognize that there is available memory. We were ble to save the pics that were on our memory card when we got back... at least the camera has some internal memory, so we were still able to use it for our last few days (but with limited memory space).

Thursday night we went to Quito's for dinner – this is a local place owned by a pretty famous local musician who performs live a few nights a week. We stopped by earlier this week for lunch, but they were closed, and Quito told us to come back tonight for live music (and we're so glad we did!). The atmosphere here is very unique, our table was oceanfront, the food was fantastic, and we both really enjoyed Quito's music. This was probably the best meal we had while in Tortola. We both got some delicious mahi mahi and split an appetizer called “monster bread.” It was all so delicious.

Quito was playing acoustic versions of the songs on his latest CD tonight, and I wish he had a CD for sale with the acoustic versions! We bought his latest CD (and we really like it), but I personally like his acoustic versions better. The funniest thing about this music is that it's what the bartender played all day every day at Smuggler's Cove – the beach right by our villa! We already knew a lot of the songs Quito was playing because we'd been hearing them over and over at the beach. That was such a neat coincidence – not only will this CD remind us of our night at Quito's, it will forever take us back to those days at Smuggler's Cove... this CD is definitely the soundtrack to our week in Tortola. We played it and sang all the way home that night.

Jost Van Dyke, Foxy's, and Quito's: Photos & Videos

This last one is audio/video from Quito's - it's worth the listen!

Exploring the East End

Wednesday we woke up early because the mid-week maid service came at 9am – she's a super-nice Jamaican woman named Dian. We learned from talking to her that she is also an expert chef, and something our greeter neglected to tell us was that she is available to make private dinners at the villa. She was SO nice, and we could tell that she really enjoyed meeting new people and entertaining them. She chatted with us for a while Wednesday morning while she was cleaning up the villa, and we booked her to come back on Friday night and cook dinner for us.

We had hoped to go to Jost Van Dyke today, but we missed the morning ferry and felt like we wouldn't have enough time there if we only went for a few hours in the afternoon. Instead, we took it easy for most of the morning and then headed out to explore some beaches even farther away from our villa. Brewer's Bay, the farthest one we'd seen so far, is about a 20 minute drive away.

We stopped at Smuggler's Cove, the one right near our villa, first. Then went past Brewer's to some places on the east of the island: Josiah's Bay (very remote and natural looking with big waves for surfing), and Long Bay (farthest one – out by the airport – but beautiful!).
Not only did we get to see some other great beaches, we also got to see other parts of the island – we drove for a good hour each way and saw tons of houses, overlooks, and people, and a beautiful mural along one road depicting the history of Tortola and its people. Tom and I may like St. John better overall, but Tortola's beaches might win (might).

We went to dinner at a place called Sebastian's – it's right on the water, and many previous guests at Casa Luna wrote about how good it was. The food was definitely good, and the free rum shot at the end of the meal was nice. Of course it's a marketing gimmick – we ended up buying at $15 bottle of Sebastian's rum, distilled right there in Carrot Bay. But it was delicious, and the tourism business is definitely hurting here, so we were happy to buy some after tasting it.

After dinner, we were going to go check out a place called The Bomba Shack – they have live music on Sundays and Wednesdays (but their BIG events are their full moon parties, and we're missing the next one by about 10 days). Bomba Shack is right down the road from Sebastian's, so we just walked down to check it out. There was literally ONE customer in there. It was 9pm, and people don't go out super late here, so we knew that Bomba Shack would not be lively tonight. Apparently the full moon parties are awesome and always packed, but the rest of every month, it's pretty dead. I wasn't that bummed about not going – Bomba seems like a pervert. He has all these signs up about how pretty ladies need to give him their bras and panties, and the ones he's accumulated from drunk partygoers are hanging up all over his place. Maybe if I was partaking in his psychedelic mushroom tea I would feel differently. Sober, not so much. We headed home, had a few drinks at the villa, and watched Finding Nemo.

Massages and Shopping

Tuesday, we had a masseuse coming to give us massages at our villa. Talk about luxury. :-) She set up her table in the middle of our big open veranda facing the water, and there was a nice breeze coming in that morning. It was paradise – way better than getting a massage in a spa. Authentic ocean air and waves crashing take the cake. We wanted to do our massages at the same time, but that wasn't logistically possible. I went first, and when she was done, I was so relaxed that I could hardly get down from her table. It felt GREAT. Tom had never had a massage and wasn't as excited about it as I was. He said it was alright (I don't get it). If I were rich, I'd get a massage (and a spray tan) every week.

The weather wasn't great on Tuesday, so we decided to skip the beaches and go to Soper's Hole and Road Town for some shopping. The shopping also wasn't that great – the BVI are less tourist-centric than the USVI, so it makes sense that they wouldn't have as many shops. Soper's Hole was pretty depressing – all of the souvenir stores just had really cheap stuff that looked like you could buy it at a gas station – the tacky shot glasses and ash trays sort of stuff. In Road Town, we found a pretty neat store called Sunny Carribee. They had local spices & jellies, jewelry, and all kinds of art by local artists. Tom and I bought a painting for ourselves – our first piece of real art! We also got something for his parents. We looked around a little more and then headed back to the west end (with a quick stop at the SUPERETTE – Tom has been saying that word nonstop, so we stopped there just so he can say he's been to one... but we did also need some groceries). We picked up the final ingredients for spaghetti and went home.

Back at the villa, we decided to try our hands at mixing up some island drinks. We had various ingredients (alcoholic and not) with which to mix... Tom made the first drink and we named it “Tomtola.” It was pretty delicious. We called his second drink “Dirt Pond” after the brown pond of water we can see from our villa. It was pretty good, but not as good as the Tomtolas. My drink was named “Mella Luna,” and it was, like Tomtolas, pretty delicious. We sat out on our veranda drinking and talking, and we had had about four of these little mixed drinks when we figured we should probably get started on dinner. We cooked spaghetti and garlic bread (and I've got a nice new burn on my right wrist to show for it). It was a great dinner out on our veranda, and since we'd had so much to drink and had a full dinner, we were sleepy and went to bed early.

Roosters, Beaches, and Bushwackers, Oh My!

At 5:50am on our first morning in Tortola, we were awake because we have a rooster that is apparently going to crow incessantly at the crack of dawn. His name is Wallace, and this morning, he chose to crow incessantly right outside our bedroom window. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and got on the computer since we have Internet here – it's actually been nice to clean up our inboxes and take some time to look through all our wedding stuff that has shown up on Facebook.

By late morning, we decided to hit the beaches – Tortola has some of the most beautiful beaches we've ever seen. One of the best ones, Smuggler's Cove, is literally right down the road from our villa – we could walk to it in five minutes. The water is so clear and blue, and the sand is soft and white. Also, there's a guy down there with a drink/food stand selling all kinds of alcohol and lunch/snack foods – we had lunch there on Monday (I ate a hot dog!!). What a smart business plan – he's the only one selling stuff there, and he's got a monopoly on all the beachgoers and occasional little boats that pull up. Tom got a rum punch, and I got a drink called a Bushwacker – Kahlua, Bailey's, vodka, pineapple, coconut, and nutmeg all blended together with crushed ice. It was so good I had to get another one, and then I was tipsy at 1:00 in the afternoon. Amazing.

We left Smuggler's Cove and headed toward a few other north shore beaches – Tortola is really beautiful on the northern side – amazing beaches, incredible views of the ocean and green mountains. We drove through Long Bay, Carrot, Bay, and were going to stop at Cane Garden Bay, one of the most popular beaches. The bay was completely full of boats, though, and we didn't want that much congestion, so we just kept driving (according to the locals, Puerto Ricans descend and take over this time of year).

Next we came to Brewer's Bay – this one is big, beautiful, and almost totally deserted. It was so nice! Tom and I were just relaxing in the water here – it was a super hot afternoon, so we didn't want to sit on the beach at all. While we were in the water, we noticed that a bunch of little fish were hovering around my toes – we think they were attracted to my pink toenail polish. It was so funny to watch them come up and congregate – and if I moved, they moved, too. After a little while, some bigger fish came over and started swimming in-between my ankles, too! It caught me by surprise because I had stopped watching the little fish, and all of a sudden I felt something slippery and fidgety around my legs. There were two bigger fish swimming figure eights between my ankles and hitting me with their fins & tails as they went around. It was so neat! Tom wanted them to swim over to him, and I did, too, because he's the one that is so intrigued by fish. Eventually a few went over to Tom and did the same thing to him. We stood here for a good 10 minutes, mesmerized by these fish who had made a playground out of our legs. It was starting to get pretty late in the afternoon, so we decided to pack up and head back to our side of Tortola to take showers and go out for dinner.

We cleaned up and headed to a popular waterfront joint called The Jolly Roger for dinner. It's right down the road from our villa and has a reputation for good food, so we went and grabbed a few beers and a table right on the water. After my disappointing experience with conch fritters in Cinnamon Bay on St. John, I was reluctant to try them somewhere else. Our server assured me that theirs were good, so I took a chance. And they were fantastic. I could've eaten the whole basket, but I had fish & chips coming and wanted to save room. The fish was tilapia and was so delicious. Tom got some garlic bread for an appetizer and a very disappointing, pre-made/frozen hamburger for dinner. Hamburgers are always risky on the ocean in my opinion (unless it's a place that's known for having incredible burgers like Skinny Legs in St. John). He literally ate only one bite, and then we were both consumed with figuring out how to discard the rest of it without our server knowing. First, Tom just threw the bun and patty separately onto the deck that started right past our table... but that wasn't enough for me. When no one was looking, I got down and stuffed the burger and bun between the cracks of the deck so that it fell into the water below. I figured some fish might find it more appetizing than Tom did.

After we were done eating, we saw some gigantic fish swimming around at the edge of the dock. Tom thought they were sharks at first, but upon a closer look, he realized they were tarpon. Not so scary, but still BIG silver fish that look a bit like sharks from the back & side. There were five or six huge ones just floating around by the dock – it was fascinating! Tom was totally mesmerized, but I went back to our table to have a delicious slice of key lime pie. All of this dessert and fried food I'm eating has not been good for my bikini body. Tom, of course, is still slim & trim as usual. I love my metabolism. So The Jolly Roger was really good (minus the burger) with an atmosphere to match. If we have time, we'll come back. We headed home and had a pretty low key evening. Today was much better in Tortola than yesterday!