|
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS, North
East Caribbean |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 2007!!!!! It's Easter 2008 and a very timely reminder that we've been in the British Virgin Islands for almost a year now.....oh we have been very lazy at updating our website!! It's also a full year since Andy sailed from the BVIs down to Curacao with our good Danish friend Jesper after checking out our potential new jobs and a new place to live on the small island of Virgin Gorda situated on the eastern side of the BVIs. Here's the start of the story, picking up from when we gladly left Curacao.......
The last 10 days in Curacao were mental, running from pillar to post trying to get medical certificates and other papers required for our BVI work permits sorted, along with the obligatory farewell drinking sessions of course, (many thanks to Graham and Hes for putting us up on our last night and trying to get us ‘wankered’ one last time before personally escorting us off the island) we finally checked in at Curacao airport. Curacao airport, true to character, stung us big time for excess baggage (dive bags alone put us over the limit, never mind all the extra bits and pieces we have accumulated from our travels), then moving up to Immigration we then nervously awaited another hefty fine for, ahem ‘over staying our welcome’ somewhat! However much to our surprise and relief the immigration lady only asked a couple of standard questions and then wished us a nice journey – hurrah. We did assure her that we would not be returning to the Dutch Antilles in the foreseeable future. :-) Our journey to the BVIs required a small stop over in St Maarten, our layover point and another Dutch Antillean island, we had 6 hours to kill before our connecting flight – so what else to do than head for the nearest bar?! The aforementioned Graham and Hes had recently returned from a holiday in the BVI’s and had found a cool little bar called The Boat at the end of the runway which they highly recommended. With pictures of Tota’s in Dahab in our minds we were a little surprised to find out it was a tiny fisherman’s boat converted into a bar with a couple of tables and an old transit van parked next to it which served all you can eat ribs and pizzas. However the funniest and coolest attraction was the entertainment provided by the tourists every time a flight took off. As I mentioned the bar was literally at the end of the runaway and the beach was just behind the bar. When the first big airplane landed we nearly hit the floor as it came in so low we could practically touch it…this was nothing in comparison to when one took off though. We started wondering why all of a sudden tourists were running along the beach and standing waiting when a plane taxied down the runway, until we realised that the jet propulsion from the engines of the plane as it took off literally knocked you off your feet and into the sea – a scene directly out of Waynes World!
6 hours later, a little sunburnt and more than a little tipsy we boarded the tiny plane to the BVI’s. This was no bigger than the prop plane we had chartered with our Canadian friends in Belize and equally as scary – good job we had plenty of Dutch Courage inside us ('scuse the pun). This time we only paid minimal excess baggage (go figure) but we prayed it would take off Ok with all our bags inside. 40 minutes later we were cruising over Virgin Gorda our new home to be and the first sighting for Sadie. We landed safely on the tiny airstrip then held our breath again to see if we would clear immigration or be on the next plane out. Luckily for us it was already 7pm and getting dark by the time we got to immigration so although the official told us we hadn’t quite got all the papers necessary he allowed us into the country but kept our passports until we came back with the appropriate papers. BIG sigh of relief! Casey and Jeff our new employers were waiting outside for us equally nervously and after all the introductions we flung our hefty baggage onto the boat and they took us over the sea from Tortola (the main island) to Virgin Gorda our new home. After a brief stop in the local pub the Bath & Turtle to pick up essentials – pizza and beer – they took us to our new house. At this point they could have regretted their decision to employ us as we must have looked like a couple of Hillbillies arriving in Beverly Hills for the first time as we literally jumped with joy when we saw the house. Even in the dark we could tell that this was by far the nicest house we have stayed in since we left the UK, complete with veranda overlooking the sea and a swimming pool!!! The house was nicely decorated and stuffed full of everything we could ever need including satellite TV and the biggest bed we’ve ever seen. So much for bringing all our stuff from Curacao with us, this landlady obviously knew what the term fully furnished meant! As excited as we were, we were also shattered from the last couple of weeks so hit the bed and slept like babies…
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
