Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Virgin Gorda's Divine “Caribbaths”


Onboard Companions
Friends travel between Road Town, Tortola Island and Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda Island.
Divine Coast
Panoramic view of the coastline of Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park.
an almost fossil
Dry coral in the vicinity of Devil's Bay.
Devil's Bay I
Bathers on Devil's Bay.
The Bath
Bather in one of The Baths' formations, Virgin Gorda.
Sauce conviviality
Family and friends mingle in one of The Baths' granite galleries.
A (Little) Diabolical Cove
Devil's Bay, one of the stunning coves of Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park.
Opposite Destinations
Bright indications from Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park.
Devils Bay II
Wave spreads gently over the Devil's Bay beach.
from pond to pond
Bather walks through one of the Baths' granite galleries.
photography in the clouds
A photograph of one of the granite boulders that make up Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park.
Waiting Silhouette
Silhouette of a bather in a shadowy corner of The Baths.
3 & BVI
Friends pose on a ONE BVI sign just off Spring Bay.
an amphibian figure
Silhouette in one of the sea-invaded galleries of The Baths.
the spring bay
View of Spring Bay, one of the two most popular coves in Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park.
The Poor Man?
Moses Carrier at the counter of "The Poor Man's Bar" on Spring Bay.
Of departure
Passengers board a Sensation Ferry at the Spanish Town dock.
Discovering the Virgin Islands, we disembark on a tropical and seductive seaside dotted with huge granite boulders. The Baths seem straight out of the Seychelles but they are one of the most exuberant marine scenery in the Caribbean.

After a Sunday landing in which we despaired with the establishments of the capital Road Town closed, towards the end of the afternoon, we found that Monday would be the same or worse.

It remains for history that, when faced with these places at the beginning of his second incursion into the Americas (1493), the fleet of seventeen ships and more than a thousand men of Christopher Columbus was surprised by a profusion of small islands that they could not see. end. To the devout Christian Columbus, the archipelago recalled the medieval legend of Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins.

According to this legend, Ursula and her companions were supposed to travel to Ursula's future husband, the pagan governor of Armorica.

But the travelers decided to postpone the meeting and inaugurated a long European pilgrimage that included a visit to the Pope in Rome. The religious deviation cost them dearly. Ursula and the virgins ended up being slaughtered in Cologne by the Huns who were then surrounding the city.

There wouldn't be eleven thousand islands that we had around there, or anything like that. Of the several that make up the Virgin Islands today – both the American and British neighbors, two or three stood out from the rest.

A Almost-Forced Retreat at The Baths of Virgin Gorda

Faced with the inertia of Road Town, we simply stopped wanting to know. We are dedicating the holiday, Santa Ursula's Day, to the second island of the BVI (British Virgin Islands), which, according to their imagination and the soon-mapped profile of a paunchy woman, Columbus will have named Virgen Gorda.

Sensation Ferry Passengers-British Virgin Islands

Friends travel between Road Town on the island of Tortola and Spanish Town on the island of Virgen Gorda.

Having managed to wake up early in the morning, at eight o'clock in the morning we boarded the ferry that connects Road Town (the territory's capital and the only city on the island of Tortola) to Spanish Town, the city of Virgin Gorda.

The ferry bears the name “Sensation”. Shortly after we set sail, the windy seat of its upper deck captivates us with successive sensory rewards: the massage of the trade winds on our faces. The swaying in the serene Caribbean Sea.

The jagged and verdant coastline highlighted by the navy teal blue. The frigates that fluttered against the sky above. And the lively conversation of a group of Tortola friends spiced up by a strong Caribbean accent.

Landing in the British City of Spanish Town

After three quarters of an hour of navigation, we dock at the port of destination. In Spanish Town, as we had seen in different areas of Tortola, we found a new large cemetery of yachts, catamarans and other vessels caught by hurricanes Irma and Maria that, between August 30th and October 2nd, 2017, devastated the Virgin Islands, Porto rich, the Dominican Republic and several of the surrounding Lesser Antilles.

Since then, the BVI, in particular, have done everything to recover, to live up to the scenarios and reception that had made them famous and desired, in a long era of pre-hecatomb.

Dodo, the driver of an open-box taxi cab adapted to transport a few good visitors at a time, did his bidding. "Are you going to the Baths?” he asks us with an accent even thicker than the ones on board the “Sensation".

We replied that yes, we had already come with this little trip purchased from Road Town. "OK, I could take you there.” The parole he employs leaves us behind. More talk, less talk we realized that this was just another of the countless grammatical “modes” of the Caribbean.

Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park, Virgen Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Panoramic view of the coastline of Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park.

That the man, in addition to being slow to our reticence, was in good faith and more than willing for us to confirm his service.

On the way to Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park

We confirm that we are the only passengers aboard the van. Certainly still as a consequence of the Irmaria, this is how the natives treat the pair of hurricanes that coexisted in time and that, for a substantial part of their lives, shared the same Caribbean trajectory of devastation.

Dodo drops us off at The Baths National Park ticket office. On tiptoe, hesitating for fear of tripping and falling into the cactus forest that flanks the path, elderly people coming from the cruises that anchor in Road Town were delaying their scheduled visits in touch mode and fleeing Virgin Gorda.

Even masters of our day, we feel the same eagerness to exchange that labyrinth of piercing vegetation for the mysterious inlets and trails of the Baths.

Bathers, Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park, Virgen Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Bathers on Devil's Bay.

The Caribbean Dazzle of Devil's Bay

After completing a final sandy meander, we enter a Devil's Bay and, at least in our imagination, an extension of the western hemisphere of the Seychellois island of La Digue.

A gentle sea somewhere between emerald and turquoise erupts in curved lines through huge granite boulders, polished and yellowed with age. Moved by the trades, a caravan of nebulous sculptures flies over them and – it amuses us to think so – renew in the captive stones a millenary envy.

From there, we can only see a tiny part of the colony of related rocks that, by geological whim, occupied the west coast of Virgin Gorda.

Devil's Bay, Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park, Virgen Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Wave spreads gently over the Devil's Bay beach.

Attentive to the movements of one of the local cruise guides, we learned how to climb one of the rocks. From the top, in panoramic format, we can see better how two peninsulas closer to pebbles closed the inlet against an abundant coral sand.

We soon noticed that one element was missing from the typical Caribbean ensemble: once upon a time, secular coconut trees projected from the middle of the cliffs to the sky.

These impressive plant extras were also ripped off by the destructive power of the hurricanes, in the chaos generated by low record pressures, few natives will know whether by Irma or by Maria.

A line of buoys sets a prohibitive threshold for sailing owners from the surrounding Virgin Islands. Unhurriedly, we appreciate your careful transfers. From small boats to tiny dinghies that tie to buoys to complete the ultimate aquatic swimming route, with backpacks and waterproof bags on their backs.

Bather-The Baths-Virgen Gorda-British Virgin Islands

Bather in one of The Baths' formations, Virgin Gorda.

The Baths Time

We descended back to the beach, installed our own gear, safe from the waves, and underwent the first salty and sacred thalassotherapy of that marine sanctuary. When we feel re-energized, we dry up. We then pointed north and the amphibious trail leading to The Baths itself.

We snake between rocks planted over the sea and the vegetation that accompanies them, always within reach of the waves cushioned by the succession of stones.

Wooden stairs and rope handrails give us access to real tunnels, antechambers and granite chambers where we unveil natural pools that are permanently replenished.

We came across Spanish Town and Road Town natives delighted with those immaculate moments of evasion.

Silhouette, the Baths, Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park, Virgen Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Silhouette in one of the sea-invaded galleries of The Baths.

Walk through Successive Bathing Galleries

We descend a new staircase, enter a large chamber and listen to the echo of different voices. In the middle of the bathing-granitic heart of The Baths, lying in the turquoise water that the oscillating solar beams seemed to radiate, women and children of one family chattered and played in absolute rejoicing.

We asked two men who, outside and in the dry, were sharing another conversation and a bottle of whiskey to store our backpacks. We returned to the dark interior and sunk in the water, delighted with the spiritual richness of both the cave-lagoon and the affectionate fraternization that took place in it.

Convivium-The Baths-Virgen Gorda-British Virgin Islands

Family and friends mingle in one of The Baths' granite galleries.

Returning to the tongue of sand where we had left our backpacks, we thank the two men. We had already noticed that, like them, one of the women inside the pond had Indian features. Curious about a likely relationship, we got into conversation.

Vicky's and Roj's answers clarify our suspicion. “We were born in Guyana but we moved here to Tortola about eighteen years ago. Inside, they're all our family. Why did we move?? the things there in Guyana they went from bad to worse.

The economy, security… We took advantage of an opportunity to come here to work and it was confirmed that we were earning much more and having a quieter life. We stayed and opened our own business. Now we are really better.

Anyway, when we miss the good, Guyana is not that far away. We just take a plane and go there.”

Imminent Photograph, Spring Bay, The Baths-Virgen Gorda, British Virgin Islands

A photograph of one of the granite boulders that make up Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park.

On the Antipodes of Devi's Bay: Spring Bay's busiest

We say goodbye. We took up the trail that continued to wind from the Baths towards the relief of a Spring Bay, comparable to Devil's Bay but, at the foot of the main trail in the park, much more frequented and welcoming.

Stuck in its picturesque "The Poor Man's Bar”, Moses Carrier and his family serve rum punch after rum punch to a group of customers sitting at a table in the shade.

Moses Carrier, "The Poor Man's Bar", Spring Bay, Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park, Virgen Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Moses Carrier at the counter of “The Poor Man's Bar” in Spring Bay.

In Caribbean manner, these guests chatter at such a high volume and in such serious tones that they seem almost ready to inaugurate a drunken brawl.

When we walked between the bar and the sea, over almost embers, well sorry that we started it barefoot, we flattened the noisy group's table.

We scrutinized them with the attention they deserved and found that they are the same ones with whom we had shared the upper deck of the “Sensation”, that the rum and the excess of testosterone tempered by the sun and the absence of mates had made them shrill and triple, just as unconcerned with the discomfort their argument was causing.

Spring Bay, Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park, Virgen Gorda, British Virgin Islands

View of Spring Bay, one of the two most popular coves in Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park.

Spring Bay in Exclusive Mode

The park closed at four in the afternoon. An hour later, the ferry set sail for the last trip of the day to Road Town. That apparently pre-rumpus group has already disbanded half of these. We let ourselves stay a little longer.

We climb a new scenic cliff and swim between adjoining boulders. Then, we walked halfway up the park trail in search of views of other coves.

On the same route, we passed a set of blue letters placed at the base of a boulder that read “One BVI”. There we ended up photographing three friends delighted with the unexpected role of models.

Friends in Signboard ONE BVI, A photograph on one of the granite boulders that endow Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park, Virgen Gorda, Devil's Bay (The Baths) National Park, Virgen Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Friends pose on a ONE BVI sign just off Spring Bay.

The Unexpected Metamorphosis “ONE BVI – BOVINE”

We descend back to the cove for one last dip. When we resumed the ascending path, possibly already late for the reunion with Dodo and for boarding the “Sensation”, we found that the park's happy visitors had stopped and entertained with a malicious game of Scrabble. Instead of “One BVI”, the lyrics were now “Bovine”.

The "Sensation” sailed forty minutes late, in full twilight. We disembarked in Road Town late and in a bad time but with the absolute certainty that we had spent one of the best bathing days of our lives.

Spanish Town Dock, Virgen Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Passengers board a Sensation Ferry at the Spanish Town dock.

La Digue, Seychelles

Monumental Tropical Granite

Beaches hidden by lush jungle, made of coral sand washed by a turquoise-emerald sea are anything but rare in the Indian Ocean. La Digue recreated itself. Around its coastline, massive boulders sprout that erosion has carved as an eccentric and solid tribute of time to the Nature.
savuti, botswana, elephant-eating lions
Safari
Savuti, Botswana

Savuti's Elephant-Eating Lions

A patch of the Kalahari Desert dries up or is irrigated depending on the region's tectonic whims. In Savuti, lions have become used to depending on themselves and prey on the largest animals in the savannah.
Prayer flags in Ghyaru, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 4th – Upper Banana to Ngawal, Nepal

From Nightmare to Dazzle

Unbeknownst to us, we are faced with an ascent that leads us to despair. We pulled our strength as far as possible and reached Ghyaru where we felt closer than ever to the Annapurnas. The rest of the way to Ngawal felt like a kind of extension of the reward.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Architecture & Design
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
Totems, Botko Village, Malekula, Vanuatu
Adventure
Malekula, Vanuatu

Meat and Bone Cannibalism

Until the early XNUMXth century, man-eaters still feasted on the Vanuatu archipelago. In the village of Botko we find out why European settlers were so afraid of the island of Malekula.
Dragon Dance, Moon Festival, Chinatown-San Francisco-United States of America
Ceremonies and Festivities
San Francisco, USA

with the head on the moon

September comes and Chinese people around the world celebrate harvests, abundance and unity. San Francisco's enormous Sino-Community gives itself body and soul to California's biggest Moon Festival.
Chania Crete Greece, Venetian Port
Cities
Chania, Crete, Greece

Chania: In the West of Crete's History

Chania was Minoan, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Venetian and Ottoman. It got to the present Hellenic nation as the most seductive city in Crete.
young saleswoman, nation, bread, uzbekistan
Meal
Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, The Nation That Does Not Lack Bread

Few countries employ cereals like Uzbekistan. In this republic of Central Asia, bread plays a vital and social role. The Uzbeks produce it and consume it with devotion and in abundance.
Native Americans Parade, Pow Pow, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Culture
Albuquerque, USA

When the Drums Sound, the Indians Resist

With more than 500 tribes present, the pow wow "Gathering of the Nations" celebrates the sacred remnants of Native American cultures. But it also reveals the damage inflicted by colonizing civilization.
combat arbiter, cockfighting, philippines
Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

Banned in much of the First World, cockfighting thrives in the Philippines where they move millions of people and pesos. Despite its eternal problems, it is the sabong that most stimulates the nation.
Herd in Manang, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Traveling
Annapurna Circuit: 8th Manang, Nepal

Manang: the Last Acclimatization in Civilization

Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
Aswan, Egypt, Nile River meets Black Africa, Elephantine Island
Ethnic
Aswan, Egypt

Where the Nile Welcomes the Black Africa

1200km upstream of its delta, the Nile is no longer navigable. The last of the great Egyptian cities marks the fusion between Arab and Nubian territory. Since its origins in Lake Victoria, the river has given life to countless African peoples with dark complexions.
Portfolio, Got2Globe, Best Images, Photography, Images, Cleopatra, Dioscorides, Delos, Greece
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

The Earthly and the Celestial

improvised bank
History
Ibo Island, Mozambique

Island of a Gone Mozambique

It was fortified in 1791 by the Portuguese who expelled the Arabs from the Quirimbas and seized their trade routes. It became the 2nd Portuguese outpost on the east coast of Africa and later the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. With the end of the slave trade at the turn of the XNUMXth century and the passage from the capital to Porto Amélia, Ibo Island found itself in the fascinating backwater in which it is located.
Travel Sao Tome, Ecuador, Sao Tome and Principe, Pico Cão Grande
Islands
São Tomé, São Tomé and Príncipe

Journey to where São Tomé points the Equator

We go along the road that connects the homonymous capital to the sharp end of the island. When we arrived in Roça Porto Alegre, with the islet of Rolas and Ecuador in front of us, we had lost ourselves time and time again in the historical and tropical drama of São Tomé.
Horses under a snow, Iceland Never Ending Snow Island Fire
Winter White
Husavik a Myvatn, Iceland

Endless Snow on the Island of Fire

When, in mid-May, Iceland already enjoys some sun warmth but the cold and snow persist, the inhabitants give in to an intriguing summer anxiety.
Kukenam reward
Literature
Mount Roraima, Venezuela

Time Travel to the Lost World of Mount Roraima

Persist on top of Mte. Roraima extraterrestrial scenarios that have withstood millions of years of erosion. Conan Doyle created, in "The Lost World", a fiction inspired by the place but never set foot on it.
Iguana in Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Nature
Yucatan, Mexico

The Sidereal Murphy's Law That Doomed the Dinosaurs

Scientists studying the crater caused by a meteorite impact 66 million years ago have come to a sweeping conclusion: it happened exactly over a section of the 13% of the Earth's surface susceptible to such devastation. It is a threshold zone on the Mexican Yucatan peninsula that a whim of the evolution of species allowed us to visit.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
PN Timanfaya, Mountains of Fire, Lanzarote, Caldera del Corazoncillo
Natural Parks
PN Timanfaya, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

PN Timanfaya and the Fire Mountains of Lanzarote

Between 1730 and 1736, out of nowhere, dozens of volcanoes in Lanzarote erupted successively. The massive amount of lava they released buried several villages and forced almost half of the inhabitants to emigrate. The legacy of this cataclysm is the current Martian setting of the exuberant PN Timanfaya.
Campeche, Mexico, Yucatan Peninsula, Can Pech, Pastéis in the air
UNESCO World Heritage
Campeche, Mexico

Campeche Upon Can Pech

As was the case throughout Mexico, the conquerors arrived, saw and won. Can Pech, the Mayan village, had almost 40 inhabitants, palaces, pyramids and an exuberant urban architecture, but in 1540 there were less than 6 natives. Over the ruins, the Spaniards built Campeche, one of the most imposing colonial cities in the Americas.
Era Susi towed by dog, Oulanka, Finland
Characters
PN Oulanka, Finland

A Slightly Lonesome Wolf

Jukka “Era-Susi” Nordman has created one of the largest packs of sled dogs in the world. He became one of Finland's most iconic characters but remains faithful to his nickname: Wilderness Wolf.
Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica, Caribbean, Punta Cahuita aerial view
Beaches
Cahuita, Costa Rica

Dreadlocked Costa Rica

Traveling through Central America, we explore a Costa Rican coastline as much as the Caribbean. In Cahuita, Pura Vida is inspired by an eccentric faith in Jah and a maddening devotion to cannabis.
Gangtok House, Sikkim, India
Religion
Gangtok, India

An Hillside Life

Gangtok it is the capital of Sikkim, an ancient kingdom in the Himalayas section of the Silk Road, which became an Indian province in 1975. The city is balanced on a slope, facing Kanchenjunga, the third highest elevation in the world that many natives believe shelters a paradise valley of Immortality. Their steep and strenuous Buddhist existence aims, there, or elsewhere, to achieve it.
End of the World Train, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
On Rails
Ushuaia, Argentina

Last Station: End of the World

Until 1947, the Tren del Fin del Mundo made countless trips for the inmates of the Ushuaia prison to cut firewood. Today, passengers are different, but no other train goes further south.
Buffaloes, Marajo Island, Brazil, Soure police buffaloes
Society
Marajó Island, Brazil

The Buffalo Island

A vessel that transported buffaloes from the India it will have sunk at the mouth of the Amazon River. Today, the island of Marajó that hosted them has one of the largest herds in the world and Brazil is no longer without these bovine animals.
Coin return
Daily life
Dawki, India

Dawki, Dawki, Bangladesh on sight

We descended from the high and mountainous lands of Meghalaya to the flats to the south and below. There, the translucent and green stream of the Dawki forms the border between India and Bangladesh. In a damp heat that we haven't felt for a long time, the river also attracts hundreds of Indians and Bangladeshis in a picturesque escape.
Meares glacier
Wildlife
Prince William Sound, Alaska

Journey through a Glacial Alaska

Nestled against the Chugach Mountains, Prince William Sound is home to some of Alaska's stunning scenery. Neither powerful earthquakes nor a devastating oil spill affected its natural splendor.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.
PT EN ES FR DE IT