Empanadas, big watches, little watches, back home to BVI.

When you land in Puerto Rico, applause often erupts. Puerto Ricans love their home Island, and for good reason. The food, the rum, the people, the weather, history, music, beaches, jungles, waterfalls. We only spent a few hours in the airport here this time, but it was enough to devour some empanadas, practice some spanish, and check out the display of massive watches that are “buy 2 get 4 free”.  Incidentally, I’m wearing a ladies watch, which is typical for me on these trips. My wrists are too skinny for anything bigger, certainly not these Puerto Rican behemoths.  Our travel group is chef Ali, deckhand/master of many things Zack, me, and my partner/photog/swim guide Heather.  Next flight: 72 miles from San Juan to Tortola, BVI. 

So many bags. Such a tiny watch.

Heather and Iris.

You can feel the step-down in intensity as you travel from Boston to Puerto Rico to BVI, and by the time you land on Beef Island, you’re loose as a goose and ready to take in the island vibes. We have a lot of heavy bags that, until this point, we’ve had porters help us with. Heather was standing at the customs desk in the airport, surrounded by these bags, when they fell and knocked her to the floor, a bit of a slow tiiimmmbeeerrr that left her unharmed but with the customs officer confused, as the woman in the window had just vanished. Our drivers and Island helpers Albert and Iris met us and whisked us off to our temporary digs, the HummingBird House, in Road Town. Captain Richie was already there waiting for us. He flew in from Portugal, where he owns a farm with his Lisa. 

We hit the town for dinner, choosing the Chicken Van as our base. It’s part of a collection of food trucks and shacks in a parking lot that serves as a gathering place for locals. Here you’ll see dominoes being played and people dancing to loud island music, it’s all rather untame and informal and a little shabby and dirty and I love it. We had a Caribbean picnic of sorts with a few pounds of pork and chicken, potato salad, and corn on the cob, all washed down with cold Red Stripe beer.

The scene at the chicken van.

Walking off our full bellies along the marina, we stopped by to see old friends Kerry, Bazza, and Felix. They ran the Promenade, our first charter boat from many years ago. I’m not exactly surprised to see Kerry and Baz back down here after a hiatus in Australia, California, Canada, and Florida. They are pros when it comes to all things yacht management, skills desperately needed for the growing fleet here. 

Provisioning tomorrow!

Hopper

Good old SwimVacation friends like family: Bazza, Hopper, Kerry, Richie, Felix and Heather.