Tortola, British Virgin Islands – January 3

Weather…mostly sunny with clouds, showers some torrential, 23 degrees, not so humid 

Our ship ported on Tortola, BVI, but our tour was to the Baths National Park on Virgin Gorda, an island near Tortola. It takes us a 30-minute high speed ferry ride to get to Virgin Gorda. Then we took a 15-minute truck ride to the park. We were basically on our own to visit the
baths and boulder-strewn beaches. This place was WILD! We are told to

Virgin Gorda coast

prepare for a ‘strenuous’, 3 manner tour, but WOW. There are times we wade through knee high water, crouch under very low head room cervices between boulders and hoist ourselves up slippery, steep, narrow stairs while hanging onto rope railings. This was pretty awesome, but definitely challenging. I barely got any pictures because I was busy not falling.

cacti all over the place

Although called caves, they’re more like grottoes with tidal pools beneath the stacks of massive boulders. Once through these boulders we emerged on a secluded beach with a beach bar for a

mind blowing

beer ($5USD). After relaxing with the beer for half an hour or so, we made out way back up to the area where we took the truck back to the ferry.

one of a few swimming areas

We still had a bit of time, so we had conch fritters and a couple of cocktails. BVI is famous for the

did some climbing

‘painkiller’ cocktail…we have one of these and a rum punch…all of this was delicious. This was the first time I had tried conch – very tasty.

The rain started on our way back on the ferry…it was torrential. Luckily it was

beach beer

mostly over when we landed. We walked around the town, had a bite, then another cocktail and made it back to the ship.

crab

BVI is definitely drier and more arid than anything we’ve experience for the last 3 weeks. There are tons of cacti.

a tad rainy