Once again, the usual suspects and I made our annual trek to the blue waters of the Caribbean. We went to the beautiful British Virgin Islands for the first time and stayed on the island of Virgin Gorda. We also stayed in a private villa for the first time and were gratefully spoiled by having a beautiful house to ourselves with a private pool. I didn't take as many photos as usual for some reason, but did have a new underwater digital camera and took plenty of underwater shots.
Our BVI adventure began in Philadelphia where we spent the night before catching a 7:10 a.m. flight to Puerto Rico. From Puerto Rico we flew to the island of Tortola in BVI, and from there we caught a ferry to the smaller island of Virgin Gorda. All went well until we got to Virgin Gorda where we promptly got off the ferry as others filed off. Unfortunately, it was a stop on the southern part of the island, and we were staying in the north. Fortunately, the people who run the ferry on Tortola had given us ample rum punch, and we weren't too bothered by our blunder. Perhaps even more fortunately we encountered a chap named James at the ferry stop we accidentally got off at who had converted a pick-up truck into a taxi, so he loaded up all our gear, and off we went to Leverick Bay on the north side of the island.
If you're using Internet Explorer, you can put your cursor over the thumbnail and read the caption. Firefox doesn't support this feature. Double click on the thumbnail to enlarge the photo.
Below are some shots taken at our villa. The pool was wonderful as was the view.
Below are a few shots taken around the island at various spots.
One day, we rented a boat and cruised around. When we weren't trying to run the boat aground, we were exploring islands inhabited only by discarded sombreros and visiting Saba Rock which we could see from our villa. The boat pics were taken by Bess.
Overall, the diving was very nice. Some sites were much better than others, and were simply spectacular. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary, although on a couple of the dives we saw amazing fish life and coral.
All in all, it was a great trip! Having a villa with a private pool was the ultimate. I'd love to go back someday.
Goodbye Villa, Goodbye Virgin Gorda
.JPG "Looking back towards our villa on Virgin Gorda")
