Thursday, April 1, 2021

Nearing the Quarantine Finish Line

This morning we were picked up at 8:10 by Erik, our government approved taxi, bound for the the hospital in Road Town for our 4th day PCR test.  I am normally a pretty good planner and we had been understanding, but frustrated that all these required taxi rides come with fees that were not communicated until yesterday.  Day one was $86 from the airport.  Today was $96 round trip to the hospital.  Erik informed us the rides were complimentary for a while, but the government realized they could no longer subsidize and started charging only recently.  Understandable, but they need to get this info on their websites' updated.  And thankfully for us Erik was super friendly and actually lives just above us on the hill and let us ask him TONs of questions.  Tomorrow we will need our taxi driver (may just call Erik) to stop at an ATM on the way to the police station to turn in our GPS tracker and to cut off our quarantine bracelets because we are nearly out of cash.  And then we pick-up our rental car, so we will be in the clear.

NOTE: On COVID Day 4 testing...either go for the early morning pick-up, 8AM (testing opens at 9AM) or wait until after 10AM.  We were Taxi #3 in line, but before we left there were probably 20+ taxis lined up with people not only from Tortola, but all the other islands and charter boats had to come in this morning to get tested.  You stay in your car and your taxi driver goes and waits in line for you outside the large white tent in the hospital's parking lot.  Once it opened though...WOW a well-oiled machine.  It flew! - We were back on the road by 9:11.

But seriously...this quarantine thing has not been bad at all.  Our home is located right on the ocean, so we have snorkeled each day, do tide pooling, and tried our SUPs and kayaks...albeit the wind has been a bit much for the later.  Right next door to our house there is a resort which Erik told us has recently sold.  Very pretty.  Their dock however was destroyed in the hurricane and is now teaming with lots of little fish and the coral is starting to come back.  The only caution is we have to wear our snorkel booties or Teva/Keen like shoes because the entry is covered with tiny sea urchins tucked down in the rocks.


I stocked the house like I stocked the RV in New Zealand with a delivery from RiteWay Food Market with lots of items to be flexible in their use.  Eggs have been used for omelets, French toast, scrambled, and even a egg custard for dessert one evening.  Pasta has been used for dinner as well as cold pasta salad.  Lettuce has been used for salad, burgers, etc..  And lots of fruit juices have been used for the well-known Painkiller adult beverage and smoothies for the kids.  We did get delivery one evening from D'coalPot...conch fritters, coconut shrimp, and the local burrito, Roti...filled with veggies and seafood and flavored with curry.  Delish!  The delivery girl was so incredibly grateful for our order.  Definitely a place on our list to visit when we are released.

All those water toys by the way were rented from Island Surf and Sail where we also secured a Fender guitar.  Ally got one for Christmas and it has been a welcome distraction for her, Alec, and Andy during the sunset hours.  Also similar to our RV trip we packed some portable games...cards and travel Scrabble which are used every night at Happy Hour and after dinner.  Rummy, BS, Village Idiot, and Solitaire have dominated the games.  And our Midwest friends will be sad to learn we tried to teach the kids Euchre, but they grew frustrated very quickly.  Maybe we will try again.  Sunbathing and playing in the sand round out our fun daily activities.  Yes, there are "not so fun" activities which include a little work for Mom and Dad, school work for both kids (since we extended to a second week), and almost fun for Ally...lots of college research.  Inquiring minds and family will be happy to know UC Davis is still tops on her list and she is still leaning towards Marine Science or Biology, but wants to continue to compete in skiing at the college level, so several schools out here have USCSA.

A lot of people have commented they are so sorry about our quarantine, but we have been totally fine with it.  Great family time, kids (especially Ally) catching up on sleep that has been missing with the insanity of ski season, school, work, and having had COVID, and it's allowed us to do tons of research and plan our time out of captivity.  We are excited once out we are allowed to move about the BVIs and have planned trips to Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda, and Cooper Island.

Another 24 hours and we should be good to go!

1 comment:

Barbara said...

Are you renting a sailboat from the Moorings?