Now the next carrier has to pick it up in PR, taking it to the BVI (finally!). According to their schedule, they’ll be there on Thursday, arriving in Road Town on Sunday. Finally some progress, but unfortunately we’re flying back to Curacao on that specific Friday.. Oh well. I’m sure we’ll figure it out :)

Charlotte is basically jammed with jewelers, about 200-300, all down town. Very cool to have a look around, and I even bought Soosh some gifts! We were lucky, since two cruise ships docked, and everybody thought we were tourists (and thus had tons of money to spend, resulting in free drinks \o/)

Anyhow, we had a very nice lunch at the Royal Dane Mall, and around 4 we took the ferry back to Tortola. Customs and immigration went smooth, unlike the US ones. Since my passport is still broken, they kindly requested me to “not travel to the United States again with this document”. But for just one day, they didn’t care ;)

The work itself is not quite what I had expected, nor are some of the colleagues, unfortunately. But, I’m sure it’ll change pretty soon (one way or the other), until then I’ll just do the best I can :)

The appartment is great though, with beautiful postcard-style views over the Sir Francis Drake channel, Norman Island, Peter Island, and on clear days like today, even St John..

The wait on SXM was pretty boring though, but we made it. They really should fix that terminal lounge, so there’s a decent place to sit. Anyway, as usual, LIAT departed late. At Beef Island, we grabbed a taxi to the hotel, and I swear my arms just got longer from dragging all that crap up the stairs. Luckily we’re on the first floor, everything has to go down tomorrow again. Too bad I’ve already killed 3 roaches so far, but hey..
Tomorrow, we’ll first get a car, to take everything up to the appartment. And we might even get some work done in the afternoon :)

First, I went to pick up the laundry, then delivered it at the moving company.
Then, I had a meeting with the landlady, to transfer the utilities back to her account. Took quite some time, since they needed to have some info we didn’t bring (which meters were installed), as we figured they’d be able to look it up. Either they couldn’t or just were too lazy, so I had to go back home and check it myself. Some minutes later, everything was done!

The last bits of cleaning and shopping, amongst other things, filled the rest of the day.
At night, we went for dinner at De Tropen, together with some friends. Tomorrow we’ll fly to SXM at 9:00, arriving in Tortola at 5. On paper, of course :)

We’re in a (simple) hotel for a few nights, the same one in which “it” started some months ago.. Our tickets out of Curacao are booked on the 15th, with a return date of 5/9, since our permits aren’t finished yet. Tomorrow will be the last ‘real’ day, although it feels as if we’ve already left, since the house is empty, and everything that made it ours is gone.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get an earlier flight, so I’ve just arrived in Curacao. Just in time to start preparing for everything, although supposedly the movers will be doing all the work..

The 17:00 left, so I waited patiently for the next flight. Which, of course, did not arrive on time. Or actually, at all.. WinAir just cancelled the 18:00, putting everyone on the last flight for today: the 19:20. Which left at around 19:50, but who’s counting. Worse thing is, Soosh checked with the airline in SXM for a seat, they had plenty available. But, after arriving in SXM, I found all the check-in desks abandoned (apart from the cleaners). The plane was still on the ground, actually -right next- to the one I just got out of. No way to get on tho :/

So, now I’m sitting in the hotel (Maho Beach). Pretty nice, and not too expensive (yay showing papers and getting the local-rate \o/).. I might be able to get on the morning flight tomorrow ;)

Driving around was pretty fun, we found the mall (eventually), and had some lunch. At that point I got reminded again how horrible US water (and thus, sodas) taste. But anyway. We shopped and got a lot of stuff (towels, plates, knives, forks, other basics). A little searching later, we found the Cost-U-Less, where we got some bean bags and chairs. Since the car was filled to the top (literally), we decided to head for the dock, and catch the 3pm ferry back to West End. Returned the car, and loaded our stuff on the boat..

At first, I thought we brought a lot on board, but in the end, there was a shitload more from other people. Seems like this is the normal way to go shopping ;) A speedy trip later, we got back to Tortola, cleared customs (paid $40 or so for the whole bunch), we were ready to grab a taxi to the appartment. Turned out noone could actually take us up the hill. No one from the office was available to give us a ride either, so we took a taxi to town, to get a company car there.

In the end, we got everything where it needed to be, and at night we had a perfect dinner at Spaghetti Junction ;)

This one was fun.. Since Soosh is already there, and picked up the keys to the appartment, I already packed some stuff for The Move ™. The company booked me on a very tight connection. Normally, there are a few options on a Wednesday. You take the 9:00 flight to SXM, then the afternoon Liat or WinAir flight to EIS. However, lately I realized everytime I was in SXM, there was another, earlier WinAir flight to EIS.

This time, ofcourse, my first flight was delayed (ie not arriving early..). At customs at 10:50, while my next flight was leaving at 11:15. But, I still had to wait for my bag, check in for the 11:15, pass customs / security again, and get in the plane. Luckily these small airlines are “always” late, so it wasn’t an issue when I checked in 15 minutes before departure. Even my checked bag wasn’t an issue, the pilots needed to do some testing for their first flight of the day anyway.

The flights were pretty ok. The WinAir flight was quite fun, very small plane (seats ~16).. And I got half a day extra!