British Virgin Islands

This is a picture of me in the British virgin Islands the summer of 2008. I went to this beautiful place with my Mom , Dad, My Dad's best friend from law school Jeff, his wife Suzie and their children KC and Camry. For eight days we live of a four bedroom luxury power catamaran. Jeff was the captain and we were all his "mateys" as he liked to say. We slept, ate and entertained ourselves on this huge boat. Every day we would pick a random island on the map and power to it to swim, lounge and snorkel. It was paradise and one of the most beautiful places I have every been but it was also very shocking.
We saw our boat as our safe haven. We Americans had our own little floating paradise but we also liked to go onto land to shop and have dinner. It was interesting because despite the fact the various island are all considered the British Virgin Islands each one was starkly different. Some were very inhabited with large towns while other had unpaved roads and only little shack stores. At the stores we would barter for t-shirts, necklaces and various souvenirs to show off to our friends when we got home. The dinner were amazing. We had eel, crab, lobster, clams, grouper and any crustacean you could think of. I would go back for dinner alone!
The one moment that made very aware of the fact we were no longer in the United States was when one of the girls got hurt. We were snorkeling near a world famous shipwreck. During our time in the BVI there were record breaking amounts of jelly fish. While we were swimming back to the boat after dodging and weaving through the poisonous animals Camry screamed out in pain. Once we reached the boat there was a five inch diameter welt on her leg that was evident it was a box jellyfish, the worst kind. We immediately turned in towards the most populated island and brought her to the closest urgent care center. It was nothing like any of the ERs around me. There was flimsy organization and it was very casual. Although it seemed as if we would never be helped they noticed the severity of her pain, she was starting to go into shock, they came right to us and gave her treatment equal to any provider. Due to these peoples knowledge and kindness we were able to get back on the boat in a matter of hours and be on our way for the rest of an amazing boat trip.