mytropicalescape.com

British Virgin Islands
Part three of our Four Islands In Ten Years tour has us leaving American Samoa in August of 2003 when Terrie was offered a teaching job on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands and I was offered a job with the BVI government doing more Geographic Information System development work. Having been to the BVI on our honeymoon in 1995, and due to the fact that all of our family is located on the east coast of the US, it was a pretty easy decision (although monetarily we faced a huge decrease in pay) to leave American Samoa. In August of 2003 we boarded a plane once again and made the move to Tortola, British Virgin Islands where we have been for the past four years.

The BVI are a very popular tourist destination and the island that we live on, Tortola, is relatively small at 12 miles long and 3 miles wide (24 square miles). We seem to be shrinking in population with every move and the BVI is no exception with approximately 25,000 residents spread out on four islands. The standard of living in the BVI is very high (thanks to the financial services industry and tourism) and is so far beyond the Papua New Guinea norm (i.e. no electricity, no running water, lots of cerebral malaria, etc) that we think it is quite hilarious when people here complain that they can’t get the proper biscuits at the grocery store. The tourism office slogan for a long time has been “Nature’s Little Secrets” and while I am not sure the BVI is still that much of a secret (considering the rapid rate of hotel and apartment development), we have had a really great time living here and probably would have stayed for a lot longer. Unfortunately, the government recently changed the immigration policy requirements whereby you must live here for TWENTY years before you can apply to be a resident.

For further information stay tuned for a full post on what it has been like working and living in the BVI. But, for now you can check out the Conservation & Fisheries Department website where I have been working, or have a look at Ultimate BVI for great tourist info, and BVI News online for the latest news.