British Virgin Islands--Tortola & Virgin Gorda

We've spent the last ten days here in the British Virgin Islands helping a branch. We were trying to set up an apartment for a senior couple to live in Tortola. We went by ferry over to Virgin Gorda three days and tried to meet the members there and went with the Branch President to have sacrament both Sundays in the afternoon. The weather has been delightful. The people are very friendly. They speak English and of course drive on the "wrong" side of the street according to us. It is very hilly with steep, winding, narrow roads. It really takes the 4wheel drive to get into the apartment. Turning around is quite a chore These pictures show the view coming into Tortola Harbor. The only level space seems to be by the harbor and the short airstrip.

Virgin Gorda view.

We had lunch in Virgin Gorda and you can see Tortola in the background.

These two pictures are from our apartment. You can see a cruise ship in port.

Puerto Rico and Vieques

Chucho and his turkey.

The winner--Chucho (Jorge)

The turkey race begins. Chucho was upset to miss a day of school because he had been practicing for weeks to win the turkey race at his school. Most of the schools have turkey races the Friday before Thanksgiving and the winners get big turkeys. So we had our own turkey race and would you believe Chucho beat everyone. His small turkey was cooked along with the large one. Sister Alvarado's dad cooked the turkey and it was delicious. Our Thanksgiving dinner was a very tasty one at the Mission Home.

Our Mission President's family----Kelli, Jorge, and Cari Anne at the pool in Vieques.

The Alvarados on our porch in Vieques.

View from our porch.

We actually took a couple days off and enjoyed visiting Vieques, a nearby island to Puerto Rico. We went with the Alvarado family and two other senior couples. The first night we rented individual kayaks to go out on Mosquito Bay and see the Bioluminescent effect. Unfortunately there was too much moonlight, but we could still see the flashy effects of thousands of little microorganisms that soak up the sunlight one day and during the night give off light if they are disturbed--the paddle moving, swimming, fish. They only live for 24 hours. We toured the island the next day and had a delightful swim in the Caribbean.

When it rains, it can really come down hard in a short period of time. One afternoon at the office in less than an hour there was a river in the street. Luckily after the downpour the street was passable fairly soon.

We had a special 3 day conference for all the senior couples from the islands and from Puerto Rico. We had great training and then one day we enjoyed a tasty Puerto Rican dinner at a restaurant in Old San Juan after hiking around El Moro--an old fort.

El Moro