Tortola: Part 1

We got back from our wonderful vacation in Tortola, BVIs late Friday night and we've since been soaking up as much QT with Danny boy as possible. It was beyond traumatic (esp. for me) to leave him and we both missed him like crazy, so we've really enjoyed this past weekend. Without further adieu, a recap of our adventures...

Sunday, Feb. 3rd
As we went through security at ILM, we realized that my passport still says my maiden name (we don't travel much) and Jimmy booked my ticket into Beef Island, Tortola (a foreign country) with my married name. Neither one of us ever thought to look for any discrepancies. Jimmy had already checked us in online for all our flights. Upon talking to the US Airways attendants at our terminal, without a marriage certificate (do I even still have that somewhere?), we would not be able to get past customs in Puerto Rico (connecting flight to Tortola). ILM doesn't have American Airlines, so we had to call them to see if there was anything they could do to help us. After multiple calls and the threat of just "tossing" my current ticket and buying a whole new one outright, Jimmy finally convinced a nice lady to just illegally change my name on my current ticket...with literally seconds to spare before the door to our gate was closed. Phew!

ILM to Charlotte was a short flight and then it was Charlotte to San Juan, Puerto Rico and finally San Juan to Beef Island, Tortola. Luckily, our San Juan American Airlines attendant didn't really ask any questions about the recent name change on my ticket and the Queen admitted me to her beautiful island without any trouble.

The last leg of our trip was a 50 min cab ride to Long Bay Beach Resort. Unfortunately, we got to Tortola at night, so we couldn't really see our surroundings, but boy did we get acquainted with the topography rather quickly. Tortola roads are extremely STEEP. Between that and the whole driving on the left, with no lanes or road signs, that first ride was pretty scary for this mother hen. Complimentary rum punch upon our arrival definitely helped though...

Monday, Feb. 4th
Monday morning we woke up to these views from our balcony. Not too shabby!

We then took care of some business and rented "big red" and went to Soper's Hole Marina to scoop up a surfboard rental from a local shaper.

With board in hand, we headed down the dirt road to beautiful Josiah's Bay where Jimmy got his first surf session of the trip. That night we decided to stay a little closer to "home" and have dinner and drinks just one bay over in the Apple Bay area. First up was drinks at the famous Bomba Shack, where we did NOT sample their wacky mushroom tea or mushroom gravy, and then it was dinner at The Sugarmill.

Long Bay in the background - on our way to Apple Bay

Looking at random people's knickers at Bomba Shack

Tuesday, Feb. 5th
Tuesday we headed back to Soper's Hole Marina for breakfast at a great little coffee shop called D' Best Cup. From there we seemingly got lost on a private, extremely steep dirt road on our way to Smuggler's Cove beach, but Jimmy was on point! Too bad we were almost immediately shut out by a freak, heavy rainstorm!

We then headed back to Josiah's Bay for another session, this time with cash in hand, so this lady could get a rum drink and some island eats from Natalie's Little Secret restaurant/bar shack on the beach.

We then decided to take a less hilly route home, which snaked us along the coastline and through Road Town, the biggest city in all the BVIs. Highways, intersections and roundabouts on the left - so glad Jimmy was driving and not me!

Dinner that night was Quitos where we were serenaded by none other than Quito Rhymer, the island's most famous recording artist.