Tortola

We arrived in Tortola early in the morning and we had such a short amount of time there that we got up so we could enjoy the island. We figured we had 2 days at sea to make up for lost sleep! We got off the boat and I really wanted to take a tour of the island, so we gave in to one of the locals and got on his bus for an island tour and then he was going to take us to the beach. We had to be back at the boat by noon to go on our snorkel trip. He was trying to get as many people as necessary but it was taking so long that he kept losing people. We had 2 fun couples sitting in front us and Jason kept them laughing the whole time. The island was gorgeous, the drive was fun but a little scary as we were going up steep roads and many times blind curves. They sure use horns different than we do here. We stopped and saw many beautiful views, and we got a history of the island. After we were done we headed back to the beach where we got in the water it was so nice and warm, and I love the color of the water in the Caribbean.

We headed back and we stopped at a rum distillery. It smelled so nasty but it was one of the oldest on the island and it sure looked it too! We got back to the boat and joined our group as we went on the snorkel trip to the Caves at Norman Island. It was supposed to be one of the best snorkel spots, plus there is supposed to be treasure that was never picked up by pirates there. Unfortunately we didn't find any. It was fun snorkeling, I was so worried about sharks and jelly fish (not a good idea to watch shark week, or any nature channel before you go on a trip!) though and I have a hard time not gagging from the breathing tube, but we saw some pretty colorful fish and lots of sea urchins, and we missed the sea turtle. Jason loves to dive down and he saw some better life down about 15 feet or so. I'm not as adventurous as he is I just stayed on top and looked down. He is a hard one to keep up with...but it was lots of fun. By the time our boat got back we needed to head back to the ship. Tortola was one of our favorite stops!