The Cruise - Day 5: Tortola Sounds Like Dessert. Yum.

This morning the ship arrived on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, also known as BVI. Is it just me, or does BVI sound like some sort of new STD? (As in, “I’m sorry to tell you, but you’ve got BVI. You’ll have flare-ups for the rest of your life, or until they find a cure. In the meantime, here’s a topical ointment for now.”) Regardless, the small amount of BVI we saw today is fabulous.

Husband and I spent 5 hours wandering around Road Town on the island of Tortola. We went to two poorly curated but charming museums and a botanic garden. We also visited the post office, which is known to philaleists (or however you spell the technical word for “stamp collector”) world-wide for its excellent stamp designs. I don’t want to give too much away, but we did get a special sheet of stamps for Steph for her birthday. (Not to imply that she is a nerdy stamp collector, but she will definitely appreciate these babies.)

We ate lunch at Pussar’s, which is some hilarious rum company that claims to have supplied the British Navy with rum. (I don’t know why they would make that up, but I don’t have enough internet time to do advance research to verify whether or not they were the official Naval rum before I post this). Pussar’s also runs a company store selling strange items like tin mugs ($1 extra for ones with Admiral Nelson’s portrait on them) as well as clothes and touristy junk. We had lunch in the pub. I ordered a flying fish sandwich (Husband had jerk chicken) and find it scary that I ate half of what they brought me without noticing that it was not, in fact, fish. Right after I commented to Husband that my sandwich was quite tasty, the waitress came up to me with another staff member, pointed to what I was eating, and yelled at her for giving me chicken. If she this incident had not occurred, I would not have realized I was not eating fish, but chicken. Scary!!! I’ll just blame it on the severe cold from which I am recovering.

Tonight the family will be participating in some sort of mystery dinner theater, which I partially dread as all the entertainment the ship has offered thus far has been of scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel quality (other than the Hairy Chest Contest, obviously). On the other hand, these types of dorky things generally appeal to me, so hopefully it will be fun.

Tomorrow we arrive in St. Martin and will be taking a small road trip in the morning. In the afternoon, Husband and I are signed up to go on some tour that involves two-person inflatable motorboats, while in-Law Family continues on to a clothing-optional beach that Father-in-Law suggested. With some luck, we will all make it back in one piece.