Is this paradise?

Today we sailed to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda Island. Along the way, we got to participate more with the sailing and I finally got to help work sails as we completed tacks. When we got to Spanish Town a taxi driver with his canopied truck was waiting to take us to a British National Park called the Baths, a jumble of granite boulders met by the gorgeous blue-green water of the ocean, forming colorful, shallow pools and coves for endless hours of playing. We hopped into the back of his truck and off we went. The climate on land is very different than we have ever seen, really dry, with a mixture of both tropical and desert plants. When we got to the Baths we hiked through a dry forest with cactus as big as trees amongst huge granite boulders down to the water's edge. We wandered through magical places, contourting our bodies to slip into caves and slots between boulders, with light filtering down to beautiful little pools where aquamarine water quietly lapped at the white, sandy edges of the shore, and down to spectacular Devil's Bay. If this isn't paradise, I don't know what is. I had a really hard time believing that we were really here seeing all of these amazing things. The little bay was knock-your-socks off gorgeous and the water is 80 degrees. All of us, including Aaron put on snorkeling masks and waded in. Jason and Isaac immediately took off to explore through the nooks and crannies of the boulders finding a narrow pathway where the bottom dropped out from underneath them to a depth of about fifty feet, feeling as if they had swam off of a cliff, very vertigo-y. Meanwhile, Aaron and I took our time and inched in a little at a time, coming back to shore, checking Aaron's mask, swimming out a little further each time and loving seeing all of the fish and coral that lived among the boulders. This cove was perfect for Aaron snorkeling. Wading into the water was an awesome change from dropping into the abyss off of the boat. Aaron now, officially, loves snorkeling, off of land. After about two hours of snorkeling, we were all ready to get out and I, the cold wimp, was freezing. We dried off and set off to explore the highest boulders. At this point we basically had the bay to ourselves as we sat up on a high boulder enjoying the spectacular view while we dried and soaked up the sun. We all could have spent days playing here but it was time to catch our taxi for a ride up over the top of Virgin Gorda for Aaron's high-up, panoramic view requirements, overlooking the ocean and island chains, dropping down the other side to Leverick Bay where Captain Bob and Debbie had motored around to meet us. They had big plans for us tonight starting with Pirate Bean's Happy Aaaar show with plenty of silly pirate songs, where we kept the pirate beat with homemade pirate shakers, and lots of getting to yell aaaaar! The boys loved it. After the show, we enjoyed a nice, open-air dinner at Leverick Bay Restaurant watching the sun set. When we returned to the boat, Jason hunkered down to pass his second written test. Two tests down, one to go before he is certified to do a bare boat charter.

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