The British Virgin Islands

Quote: Face

but as soon as we hit land at about 10a, I wanted a beer. So I got one.

There wasn't a ton for me to do there. So I found a bar with a lawn chair, a sun umbrella, and had myself a seat.

I sat in that chair and drank from 10a until dark. Ash would stop by every now and then to try to coax me into the ocean, but I wasn't having it. I'd get up and dance to the Marley that was blaring, but I didn't want much else than that chair and my cold beer. I was comfortable.

That's all we did all day. We sat on that beach and drank for 12 hours straight.
I stood there, and I gave thanks. I reflected on life, how a guy like me got to a place like this. For 45 minutes, I just stood on that bow and opened my heart to existence. I had my alone time, and it was good.

It all boils down to warm sun and cold beers interspersed with friends checking up on you from time to time. Tourist spot or sole bar in town, it sometimes makes no difference, you just accept what is there and drink the beer. One US citizen liked things so much he moved to Tonga, owns a few businesses there and lives the lawn chair, umbrella and beer life 365 days a year

If you want to know how expensive someplace is, start with State Department official travel rates.

The STATE DEPARTMENT calculates it's per diem rates monthly. So if you are traveling to British Virgin Islands on official business you are entitled to the following:
15-Apr:14-Dec $138 max hotel without taxes +$100 food and incidental expenses =$238 per day
15-Dec:14-Apr $192 max hotel without taxes +$105 food and incidental expenses =$297 per day

If your hotel costs less, you are paid actual amounts. If it costs more you can petition for up to 50% more, but you have to show "just cause". Otherwise you pay the overage out of your pocket.

I used to go to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands for work. It's where explosives and sono-buoys are tested. Per diem rates were

15-Apr:14-Dec $135 max hotel without taxes +$92 food and incidental expenses =$227 per day
15-Dec:14-Apr $187 max hotel without taxes +$97 food and incidental expenses =$284 per day

The most expensive state department per diem rates in the world are:
Paris, Holy See, Rome, Venice, Monaco, Cannes

Quote: Fleastiff

It all boils down to warm sun and cold beers interspersed with friends checking up on you from time to time. Tourist spot or sole bar in town, it sometimes makes no difference, you just accept what is there and drink the beer.

There's a lot to that. I can imagine some of the new people thinking I'm downright alcoholic lol. About every trip and story involves college-frat-house levels of booze. But I don't really drink that much. I can't just sit and drink watching the game or playing vids. I have to be doing something like fishing or working on my car. I can't go out just to go out, there has to be a reason behind it, like hockey.

Even Ash didn't believe my hockey stories because I'm downright mellow at home. Total lightweight. And even after the trip, she said "I never see you get crazy". I just don't. Get me in the right mood, and I'll drink a case to myself. But even then, I'm still always the voice of reason. In this Lord of the Flies, I'm always Ralph.

Quote: Pacomartin

If you want to know how expensive someplace is, start with State Department official travel rates.

Perhaps you'll remember SOOPOO's comments on our region, and I know you're familiar with the Lake Erie area. Stuff here is downright cheap. We're not Detroit, but we're not far off. I could go right now and get a decent house in my town for mid $60k, and put a serviceable car in the drive for less than $5k. I compare stuff against what I know, so most things seem catastrophically expensive from my viewpoint.

But against the real world, yeah... that vacation was cheap as hell. I paid per day what you'd pay to stay in a hotel. A hotel with maybe a pool and a beach. Your hotel didn't give you 10 different places to dive, 10 different places to fish, 10 different places to see for the first time. The view never changed, the people rarely changed. It stayed in its one little area, not 10 separate ports on 3 different islands. There is not action in a hotel, no adventure. It's... just a hotel.

Put in perspective, my sail was dirt cheap. Something I could, on my own meager salary, afford to go out and do again. And I will =)

Quote: Face

Stuff here is downright cheap. We're not Detroit, but we're not far off. I could go right now and get a decent house in my town for mid $60k, and put a serviceable car in the drive for less than $5k. I compare stuff against what I know, so most things seem catastrophically expensive from my viewpoint.

But against the real world, yeah... that vacation was cheap as hell. I paid per day what you'd pay to stay in a hotel. A hotel with maybe a pool and a beach. Your hotel didn't give you 10 different places to dive, 10 different places to fish, 10 different places to see for the first time. The view never changed, the people rarely changed. It stayed in its one little area, not 10 separate ports on 3 different islands. There is not action in a hotel, no adventure. It's... just a hotel.

Amoray is a relatively inexpensive dive vacation, if you just want to get back in the water.

Live aboards are the best way to maximize your dive time. They are very popular in the Pacific.

I thought you did well for West Indies.

"Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me,
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it's been." - Grateful Dead.

The Final Day.

It was our last day, and after the absolute Gladiator-level drinking the night before, I was the first one up. Again, I felt good. Sure, the vacay was coming to an end, but all the sickness left, my endurance pump unclogged and seemed to overflow, I was ready to go.

The plan this day was to putt around Jost and check out the Bubbling Pool before meandering back to Road Town to the dock. So after a late morning and late breakfast, we loosed our lines and headed out.

The Bubbling Pool is a little area between Jost and Little Jost, on the open sea side of the island. The bay we came into was pretty wild. Mostly, it was like every other. But instead of it being a true bay sheltered by land, it was more of a channel sheltered by a reef. We could look right between the islands to the open sea, and the sea raged over this reef in waves you couldn't pass no matter the size of your boat. We watched as the sea angrily beat itself over and over in a vain attempt to gain the bay, and the bay just continued to remain ripple calm.





Upon docking, we couldn't help but notice the thousands and thousands of small fish huddled in the shade under the wooden dock. They were so numerous and so thick, we didn't realized we were staring right at a tarpon huddled right along with them. This thing was 6 feet easy, just a huge dinosaur hovering right in front of us. It was with everything I had that I continued with the group instead of bailing back to the boat for my gear =p

To get to the Bubbling Pool, you had to hike. It wasn't bad, in fact, it was quite a nice trip. It was hot as balls, that's for sure, but there was plenty to look at along the way. The protected bay held a bunch of mangrove trees, something I always like looking at. Seeing their odd roots structure is just something I like. I suppose the tangled chaos of it all reminds me of my swamps back home. Along the way I noticed the beach teeming with tiny little crabs. I of course spent 5 minutes chasing them down so I could catch one =)





We carried on down the path through the mangroves when I heard a goat. Closer and closer, but I couldn't see it through the scrub. We finally got right on top of it, and I still couldn't see it. It was thick, but not that thick. Problem was, I was looking down. Look up, and found him!



I dunno how it got up in a tree, but it was content to sort of hop branch to branch and get at the leaves up high. Ain't never seen a goat climb a tree before =)

We continued on, eventually climbing up some volcanic rock to walk a ridge between the sea and a deep, muddy, brackish swamp. Here, handdrawn signs warned "Danger! Poisonous Tree!". I dunno how poisonous or what poisonous. Poisonous like poison oak, where I just can't touch it? Poison like asparagus and rhubarb, where I just can't eat certain parts of it? Poison like oleander, where I could die just by being near it? I didn't know, and it didn't say. But the trail went through a whole grove of it, I brushed against some of it, and nothing happened. I dunno what the hell was up with the poison patch, but it was odd and apparently harmless.

After a relatively easy but scorching 30 minute walk, we came to the Bubbling Pool. It was little more than a cut in the cliff face of the island that faced the open sea. The wave frequency was such that it was just a gentle wash for most of the time. But every now and then, the frequency was just right and it came rushing through, up and over the rocks. It crashed into a little pool and fizzed and bubbled there. It was like sitting in a giant vat of alka-seltzer. If you didn't get pounded into the sand, it was a very relaxing and pleasurable experience.







There, of course, were signs a plenty to stay of the rocks. And we, of course, ignored them all to go have a look. I'm glad we did.

It was like being at the end of the world. This was no longer the sheltered sea, this was the open Atlantic. Had I walked straight forward and started swimming, it'd be a 2,500 mile journey until I hit Newfoundland. The end of the line, and we were here.

I stood there a long time, probably 20 minutes, and just took everything in. The sea beat at the island with power I couldn't comprehend. It was clear that if I stepped down to the water, I'd be killed instantly. I wouldn't even drown, I'd be pureed on the rocks by the waves in a minute. There'd be no way out; not out into the ocean or back onto the rocks. Right in front of me was swift and certain death.

To the right and left, I got to see up close the structure of the islands. Unlike the pillow rock of The Baths, this is more what I'd expect. Just huge plates of rock thrust up from where it sat for half a billion years. I could've stayed there for hours, just sitting, watching, thinking.







It was a nice send off, a perfect finale. This was it. This was the end. OK, maybe it wasn't as dramatic as Lewis and Clark reaching the Pacific, but it had the same sort of feel to it. It was The End.

Quote: Face

. We watched as the sea angrily beat itself over and over in a vain attempt to gain the bay, and the bay just continued to remain ripple calm.

You have a little Hemmingway in you.
"You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves."

Quote: Evenbob

Hemingway was a fishing nut. Both fly fishing
on streams and ocean fishing. In the 30's he
made the 90 mile trip from Key West to Havana
many many times, and ended up moving to
Cuba in the early 40's..

I'm buying books about Hemingway
again. It's been awhile, I don't really
remember what I have already. So
I finally took the time to sort out
all my books by him and about him.

I have 57 books total, 7 are by
Hemingway, 50 are about him and
his life and exploits. There are so
many new ones in the last 10 years,
I just ordered another one.

The 2nd shelf, all the way to the end
is Hemingway. It's a sickness..