March 23rd-Tortola, British Virgin Islands

In 1648 a settlement was built by Dutch buccaneers on Tortola. In 1666, English planters seized Tortola and annexed the islands in 1672. For almost 150 years after the British took over, Tortola was the home to many pirates. In the 1700’s, planters and Quakers took over and made the island prosper with sugar, cotton, indigo and rum. The British Virgin Islands became a separate colony in 1956, and then in 1967, a new constitution gave the islands a ministerial system of government.
The island is only 36 square miles with a population of 21,000. They speak English and use the US dollar.

We woke up this morning before the ship docked even though we had time to sleep in. I guess I should say I woke up and decided Mike should get up too! We watched the ship pull into the dock and then we headed up to the gym. Our excursion isn’t until 1pm and I’m excited about it. It is the morning now but I will fill you in later today………

We had a quick bite to eat for breakfast and walked into town to shop a bit. I bought a cute sundress that I’m planning on wearing to dinner tonight. We rushed back to the ship to change into our swimsuits and lather up the suntan lotion then we got ready for our excursion.

Ok, were back from our amazing excursion…..we went to the “Baths at Virgin Gorda”. Virgin Gorda is a separate island near Tortola. We got onto a large boat and took a 45 minute ride to Virgin Gorda and then hopped onto an open air taxi truck that took us to the baths. When we got there they told us we could hike 20 minutes to this beach called “Devils Bay” and then go through the “caves” arriving at the “baths” or just walk to the “baths”. Well since we didn’t want to miss a thing we did it all! It was awesome. We walked along this wooded trail that ended up at “Devils Bay” and when you came around the corner it opened up to this unbelievably gorgeous beach (I can’t even explain it). Then we walked through caves where the water came in and out of. At the end of the caves you came upon what they call the “Baths”. Ok, so I fell and cut up my knee and toe………such a dork……..who knew moss was slippery! The whole area is a bunch of huge (and I mean huge) boulders that surrounds bodies of water that you can swim in. The water is so clean and pure. You’ll just have to see the pictures……….paradise! Unfortunately after I fell I couldn’t swim because the salt water burned my cuts. Mike had a great time swimming in the baths and I took pictures. We sat on the beach for about an hour and then hiked up to where we started. They have a restaurant/pool area where we had Rum Punch.
We took the taxis and boat back to the ship and got back around 5:00pm.

We rested a bit and watched the ship sail away at 6:00pm then headed down for dinner. We met some people from Canada again and another couple who had met in China where she was teaching English and he was teaching Russian. They are an odd couple! She writes text books and is now writing one in Farsi. Interesting! The girls from Canada were sisters and one of them has been living in Ireland for 18 years now and has an Irish/Canadian accent! We always have such a great time meeting all these new people.

So, Mike is winning millions in the Casino now and I am up in the room relaxing and writing my blog.
We have more fun excursions tomorrow so I think I’ll get some rest.

Enjoy,
Cathy & Mike