Day 1 - We made it! – Only 48 hours later!

Ben’s off to bed and he’s snoring, but he has every right to be tired. We have just arrived on the east end of the island, to some place that claims itself a Hotel.

Our journey started back in Canada, when we were the happiest couple to be leaving the place that was known to be the coldest inhabited place on earth, next to Siberia – yes, Edmonton!

I remember us getting on the Westjet redeye to, what felt like a minute later, Toronto. Onwards, we went to St. Maarten – a half Dutch & half French colony. We arrived just at sunset, which gave us an opportunity to look over the beautiful yachts sailing in the Caribbean harbour from the airport. Everything was perfect and the Caribbean lifestyle started to sink in. We couldn’t take all our 12 pieces of luggage, so we had to ship them cargo. Because of our flight choices, we just missed the early flight to Tortola, but it didn’t matter, the next one was in 4 hours and we were by no means in a rush!

Four hours later at 8:30 PM, Liat airlines kindly asked all passengers to report to the front desk. Our fight has been cancelled! Okay – don’t panic – they are putting us up in a hotel, with taxi transfers and food. I wasn’t able to sleep much that night. Both happiness and nervousness got the best of me. The next morning we arrived at the St. Maarten airport full and somewhat refreshed to be greeted by a Liat agent. She informs us that the Liat pilots have gone on strike! They have to be kidding right? There was no certainty if we were getting on another fight at all that day! We began to realize that the Caribbean lifestyle was not what we thought it was suppose to be - not laid back, but just unpredictable.

We met an older couple from London, who suggested we take a Charter with them. The views were incredible. $1,300 (ouch!) later we were finally in Tortola! We packed a total of 12 cases, which we only have 4! I don’t know where the other pieces are, and I don’t expect the locals here know where they are either.

Ryan, an O.C. Surfer working at KPMG for the last year picked us up from the airport.
We picked up a Suzuki Grand Vitaro from the rental place, got taken to our Lambert’s “Hotel”, picked up milk, bananas and bread for $60, and met the gang at the KPMG office.

We are in for a culture shock! Yes, the chickens and goats rule the streets, I am the only curly blonde girl (who gets all the looks) on the east end of the island, the scariest looking locals are actually the nice ones, the brand new Suzuki rental barely makes it up the handful of 120 degree hills, we had to drive 20 minutes to town for the nearest telephone cause there isn’t one in our room, we have to store the chips in the fridge for fear of ant infestation, the room didnt provide us with shower soap so we had to use the dish soap, beer costs less than bottled water, and I am having to write this blog in Word for worries that the internet will cut out and not save my post when I press “post”.

THE BEACH IS SPECTACULAR! Nuff said :o)

Tomorrow – mission impossible – find our bags!

Charter Flight from St. Maarten to Tortola

Unlike the other wildlife on this island, this little guy was once not wild.

Story is that one of the locals purchased two pony's for his children when they were young. The Children grew up and moved away to another island, and the ponies stayed. Now the little guys roam the island :o)