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It turns out it was a slow day in Tortola. No cruise ships were due to dock. We hired the taxi driver for the duration of
our stay and piled into his van. On the way to Road Town we picked up a friendly lady who flagged us down and passed many,
many evangelical churches. Downtown Road Town was surprisingly busy and I think we were all excited to explore a "foreign"
city even for just a few hours.
Two of us made a point of visiting the post office to buy some BVI stamps. Their stamps are world famous and seem to
focus heavily on very colorful, flattering images of the British royal family. While we were in the post office a group of
school kids came in on a field trip. Michael and I were briefly the subject of a pop quiz when the teacher asked the students
"ok what are these men doin' here at the counter..." The kids all screamed "buyin' stamps" and "mailin
'der letters" almost in unison (and is adorable West Indian accents).
After procuring our stamps, bottles of Tortola-made rum, and various knick knacks, we met our taxi driver again and headed
for Cane Garden Bay. Since there were no cruise ships on the island, Cane Garden Bay was almost totally empty. There's a
nice string of restaurants along the back of the beach and here, my friends, is where Clinton discovered Trinidad-style Roti.
Life has never been the same. By accident, Clinton also discovered a roti place here in Boston months later.
The beach at Cane Garden Bay would theoretically be a mob scene if a couple of cruise ships had come into port and shuttled
all their passengers over for a day of surf and sand. However, we were sooo lucky. There were very few people around, and
the water was perfect. In fact, this was probably the best swimming beach I've found in the Virgin Islands. It's not too
deep, it's warm, the water is clean and clear with no coral or rocks underfoot.
After a few more hours we met our taxi driver for the trip back to West End and our ferry "home." We made an
obligatory stop at a waterside bar shack that appeared to be constructed primarily of cardboard and dirty women's knickers
in various states of decay. It made for some fun photos but we were all a bit skeeved out by the place. We all laughed about
it as soon as we were back on the boat and it was polite to do so!
The ferry schedule is available via a link in the St John Travelogue here on our website. This was most definitely a
worthwhile day trip. Tortola is a lot grittier and more lived-in than St John but I'm glad we went and satisfied our curiosity.
The beach at Cane Garden Bay is probably a must, at least once, for some seriously good food and laid back Caribbean livin'
if you don't mind a few goats in the road and chickens on the beach. Obviously, we didn't mind.
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