Wanderung 24

Spring Fling

From March to May 2011

Tuesday, March 29: Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Bob:

After breakfast at the Botticelli buffet on Deck 9 we walked up to Deck 10 to watch the Atlantica work its way around the coast of Tortola to the South and then into the small harbor at Roadtown, the main town and port of the island. A ferry terminal and small-boat anchorage was on the western side of the harbor, a concrete wharf in the center that turned out to fit exactly two cruise ships, and a marina with a lot of sailboats and power boats on the eastern side.

Tortola was a rugged, volcanic-looking type of island with the slopes of the hills dropping fairly steeply into the sea, rather than the flat, coral atoll type of island such as Catalina island that where we had snorkeled on the beach the previous day. Quite a contrast.

Monika:

We did not book any excursion for Tortola because we had decided just to walk around the town. We sailed into the harbor around 9 a.m. There was only one other ship already at the dock and no room for more ships. It was obvious, that the cruise industry had not yet discovered Tortola.

After breakfast we decided to get ready. Since it looked like another hot day, Bob decided to carry two water bottles and bring a little carrying bag that stuffs into a small pouch that clips onto his belt. We had a map from the ship and received another one at the information desk right of the pier. Thus equipped we started wandering around town looking for a grocery store and an internet cafe. Both were hard to find, as a matter of fact. When we finally did find a bookstore that also mentioned internet, we went inside and were told the internet operations was no longer available. Oh well.

Bob:

Road Town supposedly had 16,000 residents, and it was in fact a fairly small town albeit strung out quite a bit on the waterfront alongside the bay. That gave me hopes of being able to get around quite satisfactorily by walking, which is our metier. Since the Atlantica had taken the slot on the concrete wharf opposite the "Enchantment of the Seas", an old Royal Caribbean ship, we didn't have to bother with tendering but could just walk down the gangway to the pier.

A small tourist information counter was located just onshore, so we stopped there for a map and to ask directions for two things: an internet cafe and a grocery store (we are a simple folk!). She described the location of each and we marched inland past the security perimeter to try our luck. We had two maps of Road Town, one provided by Costa that had all the street names carefully labeled, and one provided by the tourist information center itself that had all the attractions carefully labeled and listed, but completely omitted street names except for Waterfront Drive and Main Street. I should have been forewarned that this culture was different when the information specialist refused to use the map with all the street names, which was my first choice, and instead marked our destinations on the local map without street names.

As it turned out, street names are just not used in Road Town. Maybe it's because Road Town is quite small and the local folks know where everything is, but I could not find a single street name at an intersection, on the doors of shops, or on any information signs including official government construction billboards, during our three hour walk. Fortunately there aren't that many roads and it is hard to get permanently lost. But I did make a mistake after we finally found the grocery store and bought a bottle of Coke and a bottle of beer to take back to the ship ($1 each at the grocery store vs. $6 or more on the ship!). I found the street that should have been "Main Street" according to my map, but it looked like a narrow, twisting alleyway through a sketchy neighborhood of rather run-down looking buildings. Not being able to find any street sign anywhere, I was mightily confused and finally decided that the alleyway just couldn't be "Main Street" so we turned around and walked back around on Waterfront Drive, the one major two-way street that I had been able to find (no street signs there either, though).

Monika:

We had a little more luck with a grocery store. When we looked into what looked like a library, it turned out to be a grocery store and so we went in. We picked up a bottle of coke and of the local beer and looked at the rum but decided against it. No luck with pretzels, of course. When we were back outside, I looked at the sign on the building and with some imagination you could indeed guess at Rite Way Food Market if you are used to playing hangman!

We tried to orient ourselves according to the map and thought we were close to Main Street. But looking at the narrow street with dilapidated houses it sure did not look like any main street. So we decided to walk in a different direction, still looking for an internet cafe. We poked our noses into a few "department stores". One was mainly clothes, the other more like a sundries store. There also were a lot of small churches in almost strip mall, but no internet cafe.

Bob:

As it turned out, and as those of you who know me may by now expect, that alleyway was really Main Street, of course. We walked the long way around on Waterfront Drive to the ferry terminal on the West side of the harbor, where we were happy to find a place to take nice pictures of the Costa Atlantica sitting serenely at the wharf in the harbor with the lush green hills of Tortola rolling up beyond her in the background. So pretty.

Crossing over one short block to Main Street, we found one more of its peculiarities. From the ferry terminal area to the left Main Street is one-way heading West, but from the terminal area to the right Main Street is one-way heading East! If anyone reading these chronicles ever finds out why the Tortolians did that, could you send me an email and explain it?

Be that as it may, Main Street was by far the most interesting street we walked in Road Town. Whereas the shops on Waterfront Drive are serious stores, the shops on Main Street tend to be picturesque boutiques housed in old but brightly painted and decorated houses. We stopped to check the wares at a spice shop, "Sunny Caribbee", that had a really nice assortment of spices and sported a particularly nice painting on a window shutter, I think it was.

Monika:

When we came to the turnoff to the harbor, we decided to go the other way and here, indeed, we found Main Street. Back here closer to the harbor, it was more like an artist colony with little stores painted in all the colors of the rainbow. But the street was still narrow and we tried to stay on the sidewalk. This was a hit or miss situation with sudden drops and crevices. I at one point almost fell trying to pivot from one narrow sidewalk to another across a crevice. But it was picturesque and even included a little park with a nice bronze statue of Sir James Olva Georges.

Bob:

The final peculiarity of Main Street in particular and some other side streets of Road Town, was what I would call "anti-sidewalks". Now some places have sidewalks everywhere, and some places don't have sidewalks at all, but I have never before seen a place that installs sidewalks and then tries to prevent you from walking on them. What we found in Road Town was that buildings with sidewalks would install a big wall or leave a looming hole or ditch at the end of their section of sidewalk so that you had to detour out into the road. We found that trying to walk on the sidewalks that existed required so many detours back out onto the road that we finally gave up and, like the natives, just walked on the road. But why would they DO that?

The narrow streets and anti-sidewalks made Road Town a quite dangerous place to walk in my opinion. On the plus side, however, many folks had planted beautiful garden spots and floral plots that really added charm to the town. Circling back to our ship after several hours of walking, we stopped off at the flea market just outside the security perimeter that had about 15 pavilions offering a wide variety of arts, crafts, clothing, and the inevitable tourist knickknacks. Monika bought a pretty metal bracelet with a nice pattern in brown and yellow on it for $10 and a nice summer dress for $25. I did not come away from this shopping expedition empty-handed, however, as I purchased a refrigerator magnet with a Tortolian scene on it for $3!

Monika:

We kept walking along main street, stopping off at a herb store and guzzling our water. By the time we got back to where we had found the grocery store, the water bottles were empty and Bob had the great idea, that a little rum would go well with his afternoon coke, and that 1 liter rum could be easily poured into two 1/2 liter water bottles, and thus be easily smuggled on board. We followed Bob's plan and then headed back to the ship. Next to the entrance to the harbor was a tent market of local people. We wandered around and I found a really nice bracelet and a dress, for tonight's tropical night dress code. Bob found a refrigerator magnet. We both were well satisfied with our purchases.


 

Bob:

Returning back to the ship, we both felt hot, sticky, and tired, so we showered off the uncomfortable accumulation of sweat and sunscreen before changing into some fresh clothes for lunch. The rest of the afternoon we whiled away with updating our journal and reading books and, in my case, taking a nap. After a nice dinner with the gang, we returned to our cabin and turned in early because we had scheduled a jungle canopy treetops zipline adventure for the next day and we wanted to be fully rested for that.

Monika:

Once back on the ship, we had just enough energy left to head up to the Botticelli buffet and then read for the afternoon. Of course, I wore my new dress for the evening meal and thought I looked quite "tropical".


 

Copyright 2011 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Index
Prolog Map of Transatlantic Cruise Map of Drive in Ireland Epilog

March 2011
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
April 2011
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
May 2011
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31

Return to the Wanderungs Homepage.
Sign the Guestbook or Read the Guestbook.
Comments about this site? Email the Webmaster.
Contact Bob and Monika at bob_monika@hotmail.com.