Part III: Cooper Island here we come, and Rain Rain Go AWAY
Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 9:13 pm
Monday April 23rd
Woke up several times to pouring down rain. Wow - we have never had so much rain in paradise. Ended up eating a quick breakfast in their little kitchen area as it was pouring down rain outside. Paid our bill and took cab to ferry for West End Tortola. Got tix and waited a bit as it sprinkled on and off. We left a few mins late and got over to the West End of Tortola around 9:15. Took a cab to the Riteway in Pasea which is in Roadtown. The island we were going to has just one restaurant and no grocery. We wanted to have two dinners and two lunches in our room as well as we needed provisions for breakfast. And oh yeah Rum. The Riteway is the main grocery store there - groceries did not seem as expensive as they did to me in previous trips to Starfish - gathered up our groceries and lo and behold a very nice cab driver came up to us in the grocery store and offered to wait for us. Took his cab to the dock for the Cooper Island Beach Club. Unloaded bags and groceries and met the boat driver and Chris - the GM. They were supposed to leave at 11AM and we were told they were waiting for a group that was supposed to be flying into Beef Island airport which was about 15 mins away. Ended up waiting till about noon and they arrived. Meantime it is getting stormier, cloudier, and windier and the weather is really not looking good. To get to Cooper Island you take their supply boat which is a good sized boat over from their dock to Cooper Island. After a pretty rough rainy ride over we arrived about 12:30. We are immediately greeted at the dock with cold beverages - hmmmm.....I like this place! Some of the staff carried all of our groceries and our luggage to our room and we then headed to restaurant for lunch. Delicious lunch, weather is bad, we head to our room for a nap and to unpack. By dinner time it is practically cold out. You will never believe this but we wore pants, socks, sneakers, long sleeved shirts and jackets to dinner. It was that cold, rainy and windy!! We basically wore the clothes we had left home in originally because we had nothing else but shorts, tee shirts, and bathing suits!!
April 24th- April 30th
I won't bore you with the details of each of our days events EXCEPT ONE which will come later - basically I will give you the overview of our days events. Cooper Island Beach Club is on tiny Cooper Island - there are no roads, no phones, no tvs, no a/c. There are six buildings with 2 rooms in each. Ours had the highest elevation with a beautiful view. There was a double bed, a desk and chair, a kitchenette with table and chairs, a bathroom and a tiled outdoor shower. It had a lovely private balcony on the front. Because this is an island where there is no electricity they power everything with the sun, with generators or with propane. Our refrigerator ran on propane as did the stove and hot water. Your power came from a generator in the lower level of your building. Generally speaking the electricity was off during the day - and then turned on around 6PM. There was a ceiling fan for the nights but no A/C. There are the twelve rooms, one open-air restaurant, a gift shop, a dive shop, a bar that opens at 10AM, a beautiful beach, some nice snorkeling spots, a main dock and 40 or so moorings for overnight visitors. It is not a place for people who need to be entertained would like. On vacation we love to swim, snorkel, read, nap, relax, REPEAT! We don't need much in the line of other attractions. For us this place was absolutely perfect. We really didn't know when we booked this vacation how we would feel about not being on St John the whole time or how we would like this "isolation". To sum it up we LOVED it - absolutely loved it. The staff was friendly, accommodating, and very efficient. The food was absolutely excellent - every meal. Everything was also very reasonably priced. They had different specials every night - yummy desserts, excellent drinks - all the things you need!
For us our days developed into a wonderfully relaxing rhythm. There weren't decisions to be made about which beach, which snorkel spot, which hike, which restaurant, etc. etc. Your decisions were made. THE beach was twenty five steps from our room. THE restaurant was down the beach a little bit. THE bar was there too. If you felt really adventurous THE gift shop was past the restaurant a little bit. It was just incredibly relaxing.
Woke up several times to pouring down rain. Wow - we have never had so much rain in paradise. Ended up eating a quick breakfast in their little kitchen area as it was pouring down rain outside. Paid our bill and took cab to ferry for West End Tortola. Got tix and waited a bit as it sprinkled on and off. We left a few mins late and got over to the West End of Tortola around 9:15. Took a cab to the Riteway in Pasea which is in Roadtown. The island we were going to has just one restaurant and no grocery. We wanted to have two dinners and two lunches in our room as well as we needed provisions for breakfast. And oh yeah Rum. The Riteway is the main grocery store there - groceries did not seem as expensive as they did to me in previous trips to Starfish - gathered up our groceries and lo and behold a very nice cab driver came up to us in the grocery store and offered to wait for us. Took his cab to the dock for the Cooper Island Beach Club. Unloaded bags and groceries and met the boat driver and Chris - the GM. They were supposed to leave at 11AM and we were told they were waiting for a group that was supposed to be flying into Beef Island airport which was about 15 mins away. Ended up waiting till about noon and they arrived. Meantime it is getting stormier, cloudier, and windier and the weather is really not looking good. To get to Cooper Island you take their supply boat which is a good sized boat over from their dock to Cooper Island. After a pretty rough rainy ride over we arrived about 12:30. We are immediately greeted at the dock with cold beverages - hmmmm.....I like this place! Some of the staff carried all of our groceries and our luggage to our room and we then headed to restaurant for lunch. Delicious lunch, weather is bad, we head to our room for a nap and to unpack. By dinner time it is practically cold out. You will never believe this but we wore pants, socks, sneakers, long sleeved shirts and jackets to dinner. It was that cold, rainy and windy!! We basically wore the clothes we had left home in originally because we had nothing else but shorts, tee shirts, and bathing suits!!
April 24th- April 30th
I won't bore you with the details of each of our days events EXCEPT ONE which will come later - basically I will give you the overview of our days events. Cooper Island Beach Club is on tiny Cooper Island - there are no roads, no phones, no tvs, no a/c. There are six buildings with 2 rooms in each. Ours had the highest elevation with a beautiful view. There was a double bed, a desk and chair, a kitchenette with table and chairs, a bathroom and a tiled outdoor shower. It had a lovely private balcony on the front. Because this is an island where there is no electricity they power everything with the sun, with generators or with propane. Our refrigerator ran on propane as did the stove and hot water. Your power came from a generator in the lower level of your building. Generally speaking the electricity was off during the day - and then turned on around 6PM. There was a ceiling fan for the nights but no A/C. There are the twelve rooms, one open-air restaurant, a gift shop, a dive shop, a bar that opens at 10AM, a beautiful beach, some nice snorkeling spots, a main dock and 40 or so moorings for overnight visitors. It is not a place for people who need to be entertained would like. On vacation we love to swim, snorkel, read, nap, relax, REPEAT! We don't need much in the line of other attractions. For us this place was absolutely perfect. We really didn't know when we booked this vacation how we would feel about not being on St John the whole time or how we would like this "isolation". To sum it up we LOVED it - absolutely loved it. The staff was friendly, accommodating, and very efficient. The food was absolutely excellent - every meal. Everything was also very reasonably priced. They had different specials every night - yummy desserts, excellent drinks - all the things you need!
For us our days developed into a wonderfully relaxing rhythm. There weren't decisions to be made about which beach, which snorkel spot, which hike, which restaurant, etc. etc. Your decisions were made. THE beach was twenty five steps from our room. THE restaurant was down the beach a little bit. THE bar was there too. If you felt really adventurous THE gift shop was past the restaurant a little bit. It was just incredibly relaxing.
