The more I use the word 'snorkel' the weirder it sounds.

Most waking hours of the past two weeks have been spent waiting in lines. We've easily spent the amount of time accumulated in queues during a day trip to Hershey Park at EACH of the offices of immigration, labour, medical and social security. I refuse to count our entire wasted day at the offices of traffic licensing (think DMV) in this total, due to it being on an entirely different level of wasted time. Without getting into too much detail, we alternately stood around\slept on tile floors using sandwiches we packed for lunch as pillows between the hours of 5:30am and 4:15pm on Thursday of this week, waiting our turn to take a 60 question test in order to get a BVI driver's license. We both passed, but if we didn't I surely would have thrown myself off of the ferry and into the shark-infested waters of the caribbean rather than spend another day doing that.
Any daylight hours remaining have been spent preparing for the rapidly approaching school year or snorkeling. Thankfully, our friend Wayne came to our rescue with an underwater digital camera since mine died last week. Here are a few pics from our beach and one other we visited today.

The walk from our porch to the beach.

Looking east at our beach; Lambert Bay. The one dude in the chair was surprising, usually the beach is completely empty.

Looking north towards Guana Island.

Looking south. Tiny, unnamed beaches are beyond the rocky outcrops to the north and south.

Geared up and headed in.

SNORKEL.

Made the short drive to Brewer's Bay. Stunningly beautiful and deserted.

Brewer's from the water.

It's amazing to have these beaches to ourselves!

A sea monster is sighted.

Sign language for 'lakka,' which is South African for 'awesome.'

More of Brewer's from the water.

Some fan coral. No pics of creatures yet, but they're everywhere and so colorful.

Brewer's Bay.

Straight flowin' on a boat on the deep blue sea...

Today was awesome.

In overcast skies and angry seas, we took a boat from Village Cay in Road Town to a tiny island called Marina Cay. On board were Stacy and I, Michelle (English Teacher), her husband Clint, Andy (Secondary Principal), Vanessa (secretary), Bess (Spanish teacher), Jaeda (school fundraiser), her husband and the ship's captain Richard and their son, Ryan.

Destination 1: Marina Cay. We docked at the small yellow dock on the far left and snorkeled from the dock in the center of the bottom of the picture.

There, we snorkeled from a crumbling concrete dock out into a channel. We saw a school of bonefish in the 8lb range and a huge jellyfish. Beyond the channel the bottom rose towards a shallow flat of acres of dead coral. A few years ago there was a bleaching episode throughout the entire Caribbean. No one knows exactly what killed the coral but it was extremely widespread. There were, however, patches of living coral which served as an oasis for any nearby marine life. We saw some amazingly colorful fish.

Stace and Michelle

Stace and Lollipop

Ryan the 5th grade first mate preparing to tie us off at Marina Cay.

Not wasting any time...

I found a conch. It was much larger than I imagined them to be and was extremely colorful.

Ryan with the conch. They are quite tasty but we let her go.

We snorkeled east toward the dock where our boat, named 'Ro Boat' was waiting. Stacy, myself and two of our new friends from South Africa; Clint and Michelle, dove under the dock and were confronted with a literal wall of fish. I have no idea how to estimate the amount of fish that were schooling around us, but think of the show Blue Planet, when a diver is engulfed in a swarm of tiny fish and disappears within them. That's what happened. The fish all seemed to move as one, millions of them, and you could swim through the shoal for as long as you could hold your breath and not emerge from within until you surfaced for a breath. It was incredible.

Near the dock the water dropped off to about 20ft. We dove to the bottom and found a flounder attempting to hide in the sand. The only way we found it was by startling it, otherwise its camouflage would have kept it completely invisible.

One of the many islands we boated past today.

Clint, with a giant house in the background

Lollipop the water dog.

We boarded the boat and took it to Cooper's Island. Upon docking, we hopped onto the beach and took some seats at the only restaurant on the island. An hour later and after some delicious island cuisine and a few beers we were back in the water headed along the shore of Cooper's Island towards Cistern Point; a small, rocky island a hundreds yards off shore. Our captain, Richard, wife of Jaeda who works at Cedar School, said it was some of the best snorkeling in the BVI.

The restaurant at Cooper's Island.

On the way to Cistern Point we saw thousands of reef fish, two octopus and a group of squid. There was another gigantic school of small fish which we swam through. As you swam through them, they would leap out of the water over your back. If you stood up among them, hundreds of them would swim straight into your legs as they frantically tried to escape the dozens of larger, predatory fish constantly hounding them.

Reaching Cistern Point, we were rewarded with amazing coral formations and some fish we had never seen before. Most of the fish were ridiculously colored with neon blues and greens and electric, almost glowing patterns of colors that you would not think even exist in nature. The current carried us away from the rocky island and into about 30ft of water. Clint and I made the dive to the bottom a few times and got close to the huge coral gardens which stretched beyond as far as we could see. We also saw a cruising Tarpon pass beneath us.

Cistern Point.

Soon afterward, we made the long swim back to the Ro Boat which was moored offshore. We climbed aboard and made the short trip back to Tortola, sunburned, tired and content after such a great day.

"ISLAND INSPIRATION" (was the original name of this blog until Matt deemed it too hokey... my bad.)

I've gotta tell you, I absolutely love the grape leaves that line some of the beaches, which reminds me of the rowdy bunch of men who sell these grapes in the middle of Road town. Along with the grapes, they sell coconuts that they meticulously hack from the tree that they sit beneath with a machete. They will make you a fresh coconut rum drink right from their truck. This whole week has been full of instances such as this that make us think... "is this really happening?"

This past couple days we've been under lock and key waiting for our parents to come through and overnight our Criminal Record Checks for Labor or Labour (as the British would write) and immigration purposes. When I say we've been under lock and key, what I mean is we've been trapped on this Island, biding our time by engaging in snorkeling, fishing and cruisin' around the island looking for apartments.

Looking for a place is a full time job as you all know, so for now we're still in the Lambert Beach Resort. Our first room was actually pretty dingy so we've since moved two doors down to a non infested quarters. This resort is on the market for 35 million dollars. So the upkeep has gone by the wayside, complete with complimentary mold, ants and other unsightly things.... unsightly to me, non existent, somehow, to Matt.

In spite of our hotel's unwanted amenities, the place grows on us a little more every day. We've been totally wiped out from immigration and settling-in procedures. We've been learning bits and pieces from each person we come across. The history of the "belongers" on Tortola is really interesting. Currently, you have to be a resident of the island for at least 20 years before you can purchase land. Very protective. Although we will probably not end up belongers... we feel as though they will at least give us a chance after these 6 days.

Peering out over the Ocean at a secret beach known on the island as "Lava Flow" that our new friend Mervin the real estate agent showed us on one of our house hunting excursions.

Wandering around Main Street in the Capital of the BVI, Roadtown. I bought some gummy dinosaurs while our friend Bess raved loudly about hand-sewn mermaids in the gallery nearby.

Every house we look at seems to have it's own outrageous and unique view of the surrounding landscape.

Found this thing on our walk, asked Matt E. the science guy what it was 3 times. He doesn't know.

You'll find a couple of these guys roaming around, they have the right of way. All of them are 'free range,' I guess.

Matt eating a chicken wing at a road side stand while Bess and chicken look on...

Get ready for the BOMBA SHACK. The owner has been building/adding to this place using scraps that he finds after a hurricane.
Matt says "the foundation is made of drift wood and surf boards" He can't wait to attend the FULL MOON PARTY.

Matt spotted a barracuda the size of his leg while fishing near the airport bridge on BEEF ISLAND. I wandered away to take some pictures after being bitten by bugs 479 times and casting like a little girl.

The drive from our hotel to the school (on the left side of the road) check out the view!

School in-service starts next week. The classrooms are all open air, no hallways. All of the teachers are exceptionally helpful and interesting and I must say we're pretty excited to be one stamp away from citizenship.

Toes in the Sand.

We have arrived!

A long, long day of shuffling through airport queues and lugging bags bigger than Stacy through crowds and we have arrived in Tortola.

On the approach to the island in a prop plane we were blown away at the steep volcanic mountains that comprise the virgin islands.  The water was so blue and the hills so green that it was hard to process.

Once we landed, we hit a speed-bump as we proceeded through customs.  It seems that the immigration officers will not accept either an FBI or a PA State Criminal Record check if it is not signed by an actual person.  So...we've got 7 days to come up with one....or else!

The streets we traveled on the way to our lodging for the next month were narrow and shockingly steep.  We wound down a twisty road to our little residence and promptly walked down to the beach.  Our plan is to get in as much snorkeling as possible incase we are sent home by immigration....haha.

Cheesin' hard.

The water is so clear that peering off into the depths is slightly unnerving.  As we lounged in the warm water it finally began to sink in that we will be living in a Corona commercial for at least the next two years.

We ran into a rather large jack and several huge schools of small fish while snorkeling along the boulders that cascade into the ocean.  As I entered a crevasse between two of the huge rocks the jack swam straight for me as it tried to escape from where I had just incidentally cornered it, frightening me more than a little.  We also ran into several small Permit, a sign of good things to come with the fly rods, hopefully.

Permit and a school of baitfish.

Permit or Pompano? I dunno.

We stayed in the water to watch the sun set behind an outcropping of rocks to the west.  It was b-e-a-utiful.

Our home until we find a suitable place to rent is a cozy little resort 100ft from the water.  Its full of wicker furniture and voracious ants, much to the dismay of Stacy.

Our school director took us to dinner at a place called Pusser's.  As we sat on the dock overlooking some spotlights on the shallow reef a 5ft shark cruised past.  The food was delicious.

After dinner, we cruised down the beech with our headlamps on, looking for animals.  The stars rivaled those that my brother and I had seen while camping high in the rockies in Colorado.  Light pollution is almost non-existent and the Milky Way is clearly visible in the night sky.  We stopped at a bar on the beech as we returned but they had just closed.  Maybe tomorrow night...

The Bucket List

Once the school year ended, Stacy and I had about 2 months to fit in as many adventures as we could before we moved.  Here's a smattering of what we tried to accomplish.

May\June:

A roof-top surprise party...

A tour of NYC museums...

OCMD (weekend at Bernie's)

Via Ferrata with some friends and family.

This insanity...

and lots of fishing...

July:

Some special people got married....on a boat, mellon-farmer!

Ms. G and Ms. Grauke at the Wet Paint Fest on Long Island.

Summit of Old Rag with bro and friends...

Remember Junior Clark?  This is Bo Clark, his son.  We met him and Daisy Clark on this trip.  Junior was nowhere to be found...

Some old friends at a going-away gathering....

Skydiving with my dad and brother...

and little sister.

Stace and Kels sporting their sky-diving faces.

Played some Ultimate with the Bro and Sis in the Allen Township league.

Our sweet kayaking skills...

and lots more fishing...

August:

The lake house surprise party...

Such a great time...

Playing ROCK...

and even more fishing...

We also tried to hit as many of our favorite restaurants and bars as we could, both while still in Baltimore and in our respective hometowns.  We went to some museums, visited some landmarks, moved out of our apartments and took tons of stuff to Goodwill.  Throughout all of this, we sorted, packed and shipped our belongings to the British Virgin Islands, organized our lesson plans and teaching materials and generally stressed out about medical forms and other assorted paper work that we had to compile.

It has been an amazing summer.  The best parts by far, throughout all of these adventures, have been spending time with friends and family who we won't see for a little while.  When we get back there will be lots of stories to be told, beers to be consumed, fish to be caught and rocks at the bottoms of lakes to be found.  Don't let it be too long though, so come and visit!