Day 3 (Nov 18) Road Town, Tortola in West Indies Travel Log

I woke up early this morning at 6:30am to get some breakfast before our 7:30am excursion to Virgin Gorda. The first thing I noticed about Road Town is the group of Frigate bird and pelicans around the dock, and the fact that we were the only ship docked there. In fact we didn’t see passengers from another ship the whole time.

The ferry ride to Virgin Gorda itself was fun. The water was choppy, but not as much as Antarctic ice cruising level. I did take seasickness medication beforehand, so I managed. Once we were there, we were driven to the Top of the Baths, and from there hiked down to Devi’s bay, which was not too strenuous. It was butterfly mating season, so they were flying everywhere and it looked magical. We also had a local guide pointing out geological and biological features on the hike. There were snakes, butterflies, cacti, and iguanas to see. We stayed at Devil’s Bay for a few moments, then headed to the Bath via a “trail” that involves wading through water and through crevices of boulders. It was fun, and we had some nice pictures from it. Unfortunately the waves were too choppy for swimming, so we spent 45 minutes just hanging around at the Baths instead.

We rode back in time for lunch. I had just enough time for a Norwegian-style waffle, which was surprisingly tasty, and dense enough for a quick lunch. I had read about how dense the waffle can be, so was prepared to eat it as lunch rather than a snack.

I barely had time to clean out the sand from my water shoes before we went onto the second excursion, which took up the afternoon. It was the included tour that goes from Road Town to Cane Garden Beach for some beach time. The beach wasn’t impressive - it’s like any other resort beach, this one with white sand. La Professeure stayed on a beach chair while I hiked the length of the beach. But the road to get there involved going up a hill and then down the other side, and our driver was great at pausing at strategic moments for us to take panoramic photos of the island, to the beach we were going to, and to point out the layout of islands in the British Virgin Island. So that part was quite educational.

By the time we got back, it was almost 4:30pm. We got dinner at the main restaurant and I went to the onboard show at the theatre, which was a tribute show of show tunes by the ship’s close harmony quartet. It was bad - they have a pianist for accompaniment but used pre-recorded tracks in addition to accompany themselves. So they sang the whole thing as if to a metronome. I was not impressed.