The Lighthouse Villas Tortola

... overall experience. First, since her full time job is to look after the place, the Villa is meticulously maintained and spotless. Second, unlike most rentals, which offer maid service one or two days during the week, Mariel is there everyday, making the beds, helping with the dishes and generally cleaning up. That said, she is not underfoot. She is unobtrusive and generally looks after the house while you are out. Third, if ...

... lives with a local family (all 3 generations of them) in Costa Rica on an immersion spanish course. July will be taken up with Francine's wedding and meeting up with friends in Columbia before we hit Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia on our way back to London. What a wonderful, memorable journey this year has been!! And the best thing about it has been meeting and seeing friends and family along the way. People make the place, that's for sure.

... certain time that evening and to only keep with us our carry-ons. It is always hard to do your packing because you know by then, that you have arrived at the end of your journey. <br><br>As the ship continued its due course into darkness, under watchful eyes of the moon and the stars shinning over us, I had fallen into a much needed sleep dreaming of wonderful beaches, exotic islands and fantastic sunsets.<br><br>Thankful for dreams.<br><br>Mo<br><br>

... everything looked like a picture right out of a book! Who can't ask for anything better! We had a wonderful time. <br><br>With regret, after one hour of being here and having the time of our lives, we started heading back to the gate where we enjoyed a complimentary drink at the guests house. We then proceeded to make our way back to the ferry boat. The ride back was totally restful, everyone simply relaxing after an afterfoon full of ...

... disappearing behind the white clouds. Its bright yellow and pink rays were illuminating the entire island. It was nature's way of saying goodbye.<br><br>This evening, in The Palm Dining Room, it was a special celebration for those leaving tomorrow. All of the waiters walked around the room with a Flambé Baked Alaska cake. What a wonderful way to end the evening. <br><br>Thankful for sunsets.<br><br>Mo

... to Fort Recovery resort, remembering to keep left and made our 15 minute drive West. We arrived at Fort Recovery around 5pm, Diana the receptionist, immediately came over to us while we were parking and offered to assist us with luggage and directed us to the check in area. We weren't hassled or standing at the check in counter for 30mins like many other hotels, instead, noticing we were very tired and a bit scrubby from our trip, Diana told us we could take care of all of the ...

... and thought there had been a mass breakout from the Retirement Village - except they were all in leisure wear drinking (magic) mushroom tea. Surreal. All sorts of silly things going on about getting a drink - you need tickets - just another thing to lose. We felt the pain when tucking into our first rum punch of the nite - well named, like a punch to the head with a rum aftertaste. From then on we started hoarding tickets. Hooked up ...

... sand fleas. Barefooted Foxy wanders the tin-roofed, open-air walled building chatting with guests and posing for cameras. Foxy's age is estimated at somewhere between 39 and 80 - I'd guess closer to 65. His wife runs the restaurant and he fishes and dances or chats with the customers with his ever present glass of red wine. This fellow spent much of the evening dancing with a building support. Every once in a while, he would do a deep ...

... get this bad. I was putting sunscreen on everyday and reapplying. What I realized had happened was when I was in St. Thomas at Magen's Bay, I had gone swimming, THEN I got in the kayak for half an hour, and THEN I reapplied. So all that time in the kayak I was just baking under the sun. It was so sore to have any pressure or clothes on or to sleep on it. I was planning on keeping a thin t-shirt on for this day for protection. So in the morning I tried a different ...

... toward Jost van Dyle just far enough to pick up a cellphone signal from St. Thomas and touch base with Al's folks. All over the BVI moorings have been added in areas in which we used to anchor. I guess this is good for charterers who are not accustomed to anchoring in BVI conditions and it brings more revenue BUT for the cruiser it gets expensive at $25 a pop. Cane Garden Bay is now a mass of moorings with only one viable anchoring spot in northerly swells and that was already taken ...