Jost Van Dyke, part 312

This installment of vacation pictures is all underwater!

There were a nice variety of fishies and other critters to see when snorkeling in White Bay - the coral itself is not in great shape - it's pretty beat up, really, but there is still a good amount of wildlife there to see.

First up - snapper:
They are a pretty standard reef fish.

Next, a very cute puffer fish:

This is pretty cool since they can be fairly skittish!

One of my most favoritest of all things to see when snorkeling - cuttle fish!

Do you know of these? They're related to squid - which you can easily see...They change color with their "mood" - when they're curious (which is almost all the time!) they are brown like this...When they get scared, they turn white!

Here is some video of them:
They live in small groups like you see here - there were 4 on some days together, and some days just two of them.

Cuttle fish are endlessly fascinating to me - watching them as they flutter their way around! We've seen them in a few different places where we've vacationed - the first time in Cayman Brac, a small island in the Caymans. In fact, Cayman Brac had the clearest water, the most vibrant coral and the widest variety of sea life we've ever seen anywhere! Amazing!

More to come...

Ciao!

Jost Van Dyke installment 3

Last I left you with some video from White Bay. We spent each day down on White Bay beach right near this tiny little restaurant/bar/campground/cabins. The first time we went to Jost Van Dyke, Ivan's Stress-Free Bar was literally a tiny, itty-bitty little shack sort of thing that was just a bar. The stress-free part of this bar was that there was no bartender! There was all this booze and all the mixers and you made the drink yourself and then there was a notebook where you wrote down what you drank for the entire week. You paid at the end of your stay!

Is that not the coolest thing ever? It has grown CONSIDERABLY since the first time we were there. There were a few people camping on the beach before and just the little bar part, but now it's got guest cabins, they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and the bar part is much bigger. Oh, and now they have a bartender...

Some douchebag (pardon my French, but that word applies here) had to go and steal everything and trash the place and be an idiot a few years ago, so now they have a bartender there full time. It's still pretty stress-free - they still just write down whatever you drink for the week and you pay at the end of your stay, but the whole concept of the making-of-one's-own-drinks honor system was really amazingly special. I guess all things must pass, as they say.

Anywho, it's still paradise and here I am sitting on the beach in front of Ivan's:
This was day 2 on the beach and I was already a crispy critter. By day 3 my lips were so sunburned they blistered...Yuck. They are just now healed up. Sun is STRONG down there, my friends!

Here was a neat thing we saw while we were just sitting in our beach chairs:
Can you tell what it was?

I happened to be looking out over the water, and saw this dark shape moving along the water's edge - when I got up to see what it was, it was a big STINGRAY that decided to come in and check out the entire beach! He stayed right there for the longest time! His wingspan was easily 3.5-4 feet!! My husband just stuck the camera underwater and got this photo!! Neato!

Next up, goats:
There are goats peppered here and there over the island, as well as mongoose. We saw a few mongoose, but they are HARD to photograph!

Pretty view on the opposite side of the island:
That's Tortola in the background. Gorgeous, isn't it?

Back underwater with maybe my favorite picture from the entire trip:
The parrot fish was getting his teeth cleaned by that smaller fish and he had a big grin!! Isn't that wonderful?

I think this is a jack with these little fishies:


And last for today, a trumpet fish:These will also come very close into shore at times, I saw a few while I was just standing in the water close to shore!

In other word news, it got up to almost 60 degrees here and I was one HAPPY camper! There is nothing like the feeling of 60 degrees in February in Massachusetts! Everyone had their windows open, I saw people in SHORTS and despite the mounds of gross, dirty snow, the feeling of spring was in the air...I even did some cleanup in the front of our house - swept the sidewalk (well, the part that isn't still snow covered!) and took down the holiday garland. It's official! Spring is COMING!

Back to reality, of course, on Saturday when it's in the 30s again, but these little respites from the cold really do the trick in improving the mood here!

Ok. I'm off...I made a roasted chicken tonight and am roasting veggies, as well...We're going to have mashed potatoes to go with it and I have to go make them. Back to eating in a more South-Beach-Diety way again next week, so I'll be enjoying my high-glycemic-index potatoes immensely tonight!

Hope you're having a good, springy day wherever you are!

Later!

Snorkeling in White Bay, Jost Van Dyke

This was taken by my husband while he was out swimming and snorkeling in White Bay. It's pretty neat - starts above water and ends below water! Gives you a sense of really feeling like you're there!



Enjoy!

More to come!

Rain squall Jost Van Dyke

Yaay! I figured it out!

Here is the first short video that we took from the balcony of our room. It rained each day for maybe 3 or 4 minutes. Even in the rain, the view from our room was gorgeous. We were overlooking White Bay in beautiful Jost Van Dyke.

Jost Van Dyke part deux

This next installment of photos are from the first evening and then the next day on the beach. There will be a recurrent theme: Sunsets, beach pictures, water pictures, and finally - underwater pictures! That's about the size of it. We did take one driving tour of the island, but since Jost is only 6 square miles and only really has two main roads, there is just not that much to report except for the gorgeousness that one experiences wherever you happen to look!

Ok. Here is the first sunset installment:

Very pretty, no? We tried to remember to take sunset pictures each evening. But we failed to take them EVERY night - it's a lot to remember when you're on vacation, you know?!! hee

We awoke the next morning to a small rain squall. I tried to upload a video of the rain squall but I have to convert the format from the one on our camera to something that blogger.com will accept. I don't know how to do it yet, but I'll figure it out.

It rained a tiny bit each day and night. Certainly not enough to thwart beach-going or swimming, however! In fact, one memorable afternoon there was a sizable rainstorm that went by and we - along with another very nice couple - rode out the storm IN the water! It was probably 78 or so in the water and it was the warmest place to be while the storm went by! It was really fun!

After the short storm in the morning on the second day (the 7th), we made our way down to the beach again:Here I am drinking one of my 7,000 waters. It was HOT, so there was much drinking of water to be done (among other liquids, of course!).

Some of the first fishies that we saw whilst snorkeling - lots of these little dudes:

And there were a fair number of parrot fish, as well:
Their colors are just incredible.

In other world news, I'm not feeling well...I've had a sore throat since we got back from our trip, and I have not had a decent night's sleep since the Thursday night before we left on our trip (not joking). So, between lack of sleep and then exposure to thousands of virus-y, coughing, sneezing humans on the airports, I think I have managed to get a little bug. I'm mostly really tired, stuffy, have a dry cough and some pretty nice chills. FUN!

Ok. Back to watching bad TV!

Later!

The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful!

The lyrics of this song crack me right up!

Anyway, we're back. Not at ALL thrilled to be back except that I'm glad to see the doggies. I do miss them when we're away. But my husband and I both agree that we could have used another 5 or 6 days at the glorious place we went...We flew from here to St. Thomas, then rode two ferries to get over to the island of Jost Van Dyke. It's one of the British Virgin Islands. And it is heaven on Earth. That link will take you directly to the place we stay. We've been there before, and it was every bit as nice this time around!

There is literally NOTHING there except tiny little restaurants and beach bars. There are tiny little hole-in-the-wall places that call themselves grocery stores - but basically, it's just a lush, green tropical foresty type place with a few roads, and the 186 residents eking out a living from the tourist business. But even the tourist business is not BIG business down there. It's not where you'll find big, luxury resorts or fancy places to eat or spas or anything of the sort. They bill it as the Caribbean as it was 75 years ago. And it is. Nothing fancy, nothing big, nothing complicated. And that's what makes it all the better. It's all about the beauty of the environment and enjoying the weather and the beautiful, unspoiled beach.

It was an incredible trip with wonderful weather, swimming, snorkeling, reading and getting VERY tan! We are both brown as berries right now! So gross to have to wear long pants and sweaters and socks! YUCK!

On the ferry ride from Tortola over to Jost Van Dyke, this is what greeted us:
That's just good luck right there!!

And this was the view from the balcony of our villa:





Now, mind you - these are completely un-retouched photos. I did nothing to enhance the color or brightness or anything. That is how completely mind-bogglingly beautiful the water and beach is. It's seriously a feast for the eyes and I don't think I would ever tire of looking at that gorgeousness. It takes your breath away EVERY. SINGLE. TIME you look out over that view.

I sort of like it there. Can you tell?

Here I am at the beach on the first day (which was last Sunday already):Certainly not the most flattering angle for me to be standing to pose, but oh, well...I looked pretty good in my new halter top tankini bathing suit!

Anywho, never in the history of the world has a week gone by more quickly. Before I knew it, we were talking about the fact that we only had two days left. It's too bad that it goes by so quickly...it'd be nice to have a slow-down button for time passage sometimes, wouldn't it?

We met many, many really nice people while we were there, too. Most of us had already been there before and it seems like Jost Van Dyke attracts a certain type of person. We are not the high-maintenance travelers that want to be wined and dined and stroked! We want great weather, lots of peace and quiet and an all-around pleasant atmosphere. That's all! It's really a special little island and we just love love love it!

So, over the course of the week I'll show you photos of where we went and what we did. Mostly it's the beach. Or in the water with the fishes! We took some video and I'll try to figure out how to do that on here, too!

Enjoy the prettiness! I know I'm missing the vibrancy of it already! Back to reality!

Talk at you soon!