Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Tortola, British Virgin Island

NCL Pearl

January  19, 2010

Our second stop was to Tortola, British Virgin Island. For our shore excursion we did the Virgin Gorda Baths & Snorkel. When we docked in Tortola we were able to get off the ship whenever we wanted. You just had to be at the meeting place on your ticket by a certain time. We were again one of the first groups of people off the ship and onto the dock. Once we were there we just walked down the dock and found the boat we needed to get on. Once on the boat the crew walked around and asked our shoe size to give us snorkeling equipment. When everyone was on the boat and ready to do we set off for Virgin Gorda which was about a 15 minute ride.

 

Me on the boat before we left Tortola, BVI

It was quite a nice boat ride out to Virgin Gorda as we passed the other BVI islands and tons of other boats. Once we got to Virgin Gorda the crew gave us some instructions then let us jump into the water to start snorkeling to shore or around the baths!

  

  

The snorkel to the shore is said to be about 50-100 yards and for all I know that is correct but it was quite a difficult snorkel for me to shore. Once to shore we took off our snorkel gear and headed to the entrance of The Baths to talk a guided tour by one of the crew members from the boat through the giant rock formations. I will say this: you MUST be physically fit for this tour through The Baths because some areas require you to basically crawl and climb rocks barefoot. You also have to climb up a very old and wooden ladder in between 2 boulders. This "short" tour that took about 15-20 minutes to get through was very difficult (for me at least). John didn't have any problems with it or the snorkel at all.

The tour of The Baths was nice but I was definitely unimpressed with it. The pictures make it look a lot more beautiful then it actually is. It was still something interesting to see and take part of. John loved this whole tour, he said it was definitely his favorite of the trip. Once you get out of The Baths you come around to another beach area and the crew member left to go back and bring more people through. At that point we had about 2 hours of the tour left so we were free to relax on the beach, explore more of The Baths or snorkel around.

I spent some time relaxing on the beach while John snorkel around some. After I relaxed some we both got back into the water and snorkeled around the rocks seeing some fish and other sea life. After that we snorkel back to the boat which I thought was a lot easier the snorkeling to shore. Once back on the boat we waited for everyone to return.

 Other boats of snorkelers and scuba divers

 

  

  

Me & John after we got back from snorkeling.

One cool thing that happened on the way back to Tortola was that the captain of the boat stopped at about the half way point of the trip and told us some information about the other islands. We learned the names, what was happening on some of them and some other information that we wouldn't have otherwise known. I thought it was great of them to do that and it really made the trip more enjoyable for me. I'll have more pictures of that and information as well.