Travelogue -Virgin Gorda

Beaches: (Photo #4) The beaches may be on private property, but legally they may be accessed by anyone. I'm not sure how far inland that access is granted to the public, but anyone so-inclined could walk all the way around the island's perimeter, or land anywhere by boat. On the other hand, there is a general understanding that the owners of the property should not be inconvenienced by interlopers. I don't know what would happen if a cruise ship decided to disembark its 4,000 guests on Guavaberry Spring Bay's beach, but that's not likely to happen.

Boulders: (Photo #5) The landscape, particularly towards the southern end of the island where we were staying, is strewn with enormous rounded boulders. Boulders the size of whales. The size of steam engines. The size of houses. Guavaberry Spring Bay's bungalows are built among them, sometimes incorporating sun decks atop them. At "The Baths", a national park a half mile from our bungalow, they are all tumbled one atop the other as if Paul Bunyan got tired of playing with his marbles, and just left them in a heap.(Photo #6) On Saturday, we went to The Baths, and you'll see a number of them in the photos I took there. It's beyond me how they could have gotten there. I've seen similar heaps of smaller rocks left by glaciers (glacial erratics), but I don't think there were any glaciers in this latitude.

Currency: The official currency of the British Virgin Islands is the US dollar. Also, everything seems a bit pricey there, but that's understandable, since almost everything manufactured needs to be imported.

Time Zone: Virgin Gorda is in the Atlantic Time Zone, one hour later than US Eastern Time. (Or is it one hour earlier? I always get confused.)

Roads:The roads are narrow, and have just enough pavement to have potholes. And as if that were not enough of an impediment to motoring, they are strewn with speed bumps. Now my usual attitude towards speed bumps is to consider them more like launching ramps. Not these babies. They are steep, high, and placed at irregular intervals without any logical reason to be where they are placed.

Friendly folk: Everybody you encounter on the road says "Hello". Everyone is helpful. That's certainly not unique to Virgin Gorda. Probably more of a village phenomenon. But I'm not used to it, and it makes me a little uneasy. I do understand that's my problem, and I try to accommodate and reciprocate.

Weather: It was not as hot as I had expected. Temperature hovered between 70° and 80° Fahrenheit for our whole stay. Of course this was January. But in this latitude of only 18° north of the Equator, the temperature difference between summer and winter would be much smaller than that in my home of New Jersey. Our bungalow did not have air conditioning, and didn't need it. The trade winds and plentiful windows kept us quite comfortable, and even prompted me to don the one long-sleeved shirt I brought with me on some evenings. One does, however, need to be mindful of the sun. Its rays strike the Earth closer to the perpendicular than they do at home, and consequently their UV content is filtered through considerably less atmosphere before hitting the skin. We kept ourselves well dosed with SPF 55 sunscreen. It only rained twice during our stay, and both times in brief but heavy bursts at night.

No mosquitos: Much to our surprise we encountered no mosquitos on this tropical island, where British soldiers stationed there in the 18th Century were known to drop like flies from mosquito-borne yellow fever. However, after our visit to Savannah Bay on Tuesday, we learned there were plenty of noseeums there that left us both scratching ourselves for the rest of the week.

Signage: Signage can be very spotty. Road signs and the names of stores and business establishments are often absent, unobvious, or misleading.

Driving: It's no fun driving through much of Virgin Gorda, particularly in town. You have to keep your eyes open for potholes, speed bumps, double-parked cars blocking 2/3 of the road, enormous trucks taking up 3/4 of the road, maniacs on motorcycles, bicycles, oblivious pedestrians, and feral chickens. It's hard to tell the roads from the driveways. In the mountainous areas they are frighteningly steep with abrupt switchbacks. Sometimes, approaching the crest of a hill, you can't see beyond that crest until your front wheels surmount it. Only blind faith assures you that you're not driving off a cliff. And to cap it off, they drive on the left. In left-hand drive cars, so you can't see around a left turn until you are actually in the intersection. Asking directions from locals is a waste of time. "You go down a ways until you come to a wall, and then make a left where Eugene's house burnt down in '08. Bear left after the big palm tree, and then follow the creek until you go over the culvert, and then ask.." They're trying o be helpful, but with the scarcity of road signs, they can only specify the route by the landmarks with which they're familiar. Even Google Maps gets lost sometimes. (Photo # 7)

Chickens: There are wild chickens wandering all over the island. (Photo # 8) They look well-fed and healthy, and you can hear the roosters crowing all hours of the day and night.

Lizards: Them too. (Photo #9) All over the place. Obviously nothing rare or unusual about them in the Tropics. But something I don't get to see every day. At least they don't crow.

Public Transport: Most public transport on the Island comes in the form of converted pickup trucks with seats and a roof for shade installed in the bed. (Photo #10) These can be taxis, transport for tour guides and their group, and public buses built on trucks with extended beds.

Haphazard business establishments: There were stores that seemed to have morphed from their apparent original purpose. A place called "Game Over", seemingly established as a gaming and computer store now sells more clothing than electronics. The "LSL Bakery" no longer sells bread. Expected business practices, like normal business hours and a knowledgable staff can't always be relied upon.

Amazon does not deliver to Virgin Gorda.

Water conservation: Fresh water is of limited supply in VG. We were requested to keep our showers short, and not flush the toilet after every use. As a side note, one of my vivid memories from our first visit in the 90s was that our cottage then had an outdoor shower. It did have hot water, and was surrounded by a high wall for modesty, but you could look straight up at the sky. I forget if it had a light for use when showering at night

Flowers: The whole island is ablaze with flowering plants, some cultivated and some wild. (Photo #11)

Endless reggae: It was rare to find a restaurant that did not regale us with recorded reggae, dub, and ska. Neither Jenny nor I like background music of any sort while we're eating. I'm particularly sensitive to it, because I have some hearing loss, and Jenny has a very soft voice. Any background noise interferes with my comprehension of her speech. And in particular, I find reggae repetitive and boring. We both generally tend to make nuisances of ourselves in restaurants asking them to turn the music down. In Virgin Gorda, they mostly complied with that request.

4. Beach at Guavaberry Spring Bay	5. Typical medium-sized boulder	6. Pile of boulders at The Baths	7. Where is Mahogany Car Rentals?.
8. Chicken	9, Lizard	10. Pickup Truck Taxi	11. Flowers in profusion