The British Virgin Islands (BVI), is a British overseas territory located in the
Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. It consists of the main islands of Tortola,
Virgin Gorda, Anegada, and Jost Van Dyke, along with over fifty other smaller
islands and cays.
The "twin pillars" of the economy are tourism and financial services. However, tourism is the more obvious of the two, as it employs a greater number of people within the territory. Nonetheless, financial services associated with the territory's status as an offshore financial centre are by far more important since the majority of the Government's revenue comes directly from licence fees for offshore companies. 
The most obvious evidence of the tourist industry is the multitude of sailboats. BVI is a favourite location for sailors. The many islands are characterized by an abundance of safe and sheltered coves and bays. Many of them are equipped with permanent moorings for the boats. Although many of the visiting sailors come on their own boats, there are also many charter operators that will rent either a bareboat or a boat with a Captain. 
The British Virgin Islands comprise around sixty tropical Caribbean islands, ranging in size from the largest, Tortola 20 km (12 mi) long and 5 km (3 mi) wide, to tiny uninhabited islets. Most of the islands are volcanic in origin and have a hilly, rugged terrain. Unlike the Cayman Islands, BVI has a distinct "island feel". It is more rustic and much less developed. This gave us a real "island experience". 
We left the Cayman Islands because living expenses were too high. However, we still wanted to continue our Caribbean adventure so we decided to try BVI since our research led us to believe that it was much more affordable. I (Gary) was hired by a dive operation called Baskin in the Sun and began work on a three month work permit. Ultimately, we found that even on BVI, we were unable to live within our means. Therefore, I declined the opportunity to extend the work permint. In total, we lived on BVI from July to October 1997. Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed our "island time" on BVI. Share our experience in the following pictures: We apologize for the quality of some of the photos and videos. They were taken in 1997. That means that the photos are film based and subsequently scanned. The videos were taken with a Standard Definition analogue camcorder. All this means that they are not the best quality. However, we did "cheat a little" by "borrowing" a few pictures from the internet. They show locations that we experienced but had neglected to photograph while we were there. Nonetheless, they still tell our story. |
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Below are thumbnails of each of the photos or videos. Click on any image to enlarge it. The enlarged image will open in a new window. From there, you can either close the window and choose another to enlarge or simply click the "Next" or "Previous" button to scan through all pictures. |
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© copyright Gary & Nancy