Transition to Tortola

Sunday we had an 11:30 ferry to Tortola to catch, and we wanted to try breakfast at this place called The Donkey Diner, so our goal was to be packed up and on the road by 9am. We sadly said our goodbyes to The Retreat and were on our way. The Donkey Diner is yet another local staple of Coral Bay, specializing in breakfast, pizza, and Internet. :-) There are literally donkeys walking around in front of the restaurant from time to time (but that's no big surprise since there are donkeys everywhere in St. John). We stopped in for some French toast and pancakes, and this place definitely lived up to its reputation! We left full and happy and made our way to Cruz Bay for the last time...

After turning in our Jeep (which they didn't even inspect... guess we're not paying for that dented license plate or any other fender bender damage!), we booked it over to the Tortola ferry with all our luggage in tow... or at least we thought we did. Thank goodness St. John is small - we got to the wrong ferry 15 minutes before sail time, and we lugged everything over to the right ferry in only five minutes (and where was the right ferry? right across from the Jeep rental place. how did we miss it?). It wasn't far, but it was very hot and incredibly humid, so we were both drenched in sweat by the time we sat down. We paid, boarded, and were on our way to Tortola!

Upon arrival in the British Virgin Islands, I noticed that customs was the most lax thing I'd ever seen... we walked in through the "residents" line because only one person was checking passports for everyone who came off the ferry. Our stuff didn't even go through a metal detector, and even though we went through one, it was SO lax... The customs guy was super nice and congratulated us on our marriage/honeymoon. When we got outside, there was a greeter again to take us to our villa.

So, in St. John, everything had gone seamlessly with our acclamation to the island. In Tortola, the car rental company didn't have a reservation for us, and we didn't get our food delivered like we were expecting. The car thing was remedied by our greeter who quickly found us a car at another rental place. The grocery delivery thing was our fault - we emailed our order a few weeks ago and then saw on Sunday that they only accept orders via fax. We'd have to go grocery shopping that night (shouldn't be a big deal), but at least the car rental was sorted out! We got a Suzuki Jimmy here - it's newer and nicer than the Jeep Wrangler from last week (and has better AC), but it doesn't handle the steep hills or sharp turns as well. Maybe because the tires are balding??

Our guide took us up to Casa Luna above Smuggler's Cove. The road almost immediately turned to gravel (and not smooth gravel - extremely uneven gravel with giant rocks and pits every few feet), and we were bouncing around like crazy going about 5 miles per hour. I started thinking that if this is what all the roads are like in Tortola, then I want to go back to St. John! Apparently it's only like this for the 10 minutes of driving on either side of our villa though. The rest is paved and not as curvy and steep as St. John.

We got here and did a quick exploration of the villa - it's super cool with an open, Italian feel to it, but the openness means that mosquitoes run rampant throughout the house - there are no doors at most entrances, and no screens to shield out the bugs. If mosquitoes didn't exist, it would be the coolest place ever. Luckily, there's one bedroom with real doors that we can seal off - and it has air conditioning! It's not as cool or big as the master bedroom, but the mosquito-free AC wins, hands down. The architecture here is amazing, and there is a giant outside area with stone floors, columns, and a beautiful view of Smuggler's Cove. We have our own pool and hot tub again, and the pool looks out right over the bay - it's so beautiful!

We explored the villa and swam in our sweet pool a little bit (and got caught in a big storm while doing so). The rain and clouds were so thick that we couldn't see the past our villa, so we took shelter and waited it out inside.

By then, we had realized our groceries weren't coming, so we headed into Road Town, Tortola's main town, to get dinner & go grocery shopping. Road Town is pretty terrible.

We stopped at a waterfront restaurant/bar called The Pub for dinner. The view was nice, but the food wasn't the greatest. Most of it was alright, but the key lime pie I'd been craving? Total disappointment.

It was getting dark very quickly, so we got our check and ventured deeper into Road Town to find Bobby's Supermarket. All of the maps, street signs, and store signs are terrible here, so we literally drove right past Bobby's and had no idea. We were going in circles, so we stopped at a smoothie stand to ask for directions. His directions led us back on the exact same path we just took, so we tried again and just looked harder. At least from him, we learned that Bobby's was on the right and has a big parking lot in front. We found it this time, but the only indication that it is what it is is an extremely faded, small sign on the wall facing away from the street that says: obby's upermarket. It was pitch black by now, and apparently Bobby's is where all the local crazies like to hang out after dark. We were definitely the only tourists there, and there was a group of guys in front of the store who reminded me of the NYC homeless guys who are mentally ill and carry on about God knows what. We got our groceries as quickly as we could find everything and were on our way.

We were driving back toward Casa Luna and there was a crazy person driving in front of us – he would go super slow for a while, veer left to right on the road, accelerate rapidly, and turn on his blinkers randomly. Anytime another car came from the other direction, he would flash his brights, honk, and turn his hazard lights on. We were really freaked out, but probably more so than if we had been in a familiar location. After getting up our steep, rocky road in the dark, we were done for the night. What a stressful first night in Tortola! We unpacked our groceries and went to bed at 9:30.