Friday, 12th February 2016
 
This holiday has been utterly fantastic and insanely manic at times. The logistics of packing for the various trips we've done within the whole holiday has at times been a complete nightmare and as it always has been, the one item that I didn't know where it was, that either Peter or I desperately needed when every bag had been closed and locked ready for an onward move.
We get back to Hodges Creek the main boat mooring for charters by 11.30am Peter took the helm of our lovely Catamaran Spyglass for the last sail of our British Virgin Islands adventure. After we moor up there are big hugs all round as everyone says a final farewell to our Skipper and the rest of our group. Most get a taxi back to Roadtown, but Rachel and Bryan our Canadian couple are off to the airport to meet up with Bryan's parents on another island so they join our cab ride. Emily also comes in our taxi as she's going to Beef Island guest house restaurant to spend time until her evening flight to Central America to continue her travelling. Peter and I enter reception at the guest house which is literally 5 minutes walk to the airport. It's also on a beach with a decent bar/restaurant. So when we booked it through Expedia just a week ago, we thought what can go wrong? Haha!!!!! Famous last words!!!
Expedia know this guest house has just 4 rooms, so it books 6!!!! The poor lass on reception, Irene must hear irate travellers many times, because she looks at us with a totally hopeless face, her large brown Caribbean eyes are sad. But the truth of the matter is, there's no room at the Inn! Expedia have overbooked us and some other poor unsuspecting couple who will arrive God knows when and put the beleaguered girl through the same. Very, very unfair and totally disgusting of Expedia who have lost a customer for good. After a half hour of anger, frustration and confusion we manage to talk to a lovely lady Peta, over the phone which Irene has provided to try and ease our troubles. Peta runs the reception at Lambert beach resort, Turtle bay. She has a room available and so a taxi gets us there within 20 minutes. Luckily we can afford to pay for it, since we will have to argue with Expedia for our refund later next week for the room that didn't exist. But imagine the folks who can't. Disgusting practice by a worldwide firm, who will hear more from us!
Turtle bay is beautiful. The beach resort is a little faded, but it has a huge pool, a very smart open air restaurant on the beach and our bedroom is large and spotless. We are so grateful things have worked out so well considering the problems we had had.
We have a wonderful afternoon using the pool, walking the length of the beach and then have a lovely meal in the restaurant. We needed to be close to the airport because we are flying to Antigua tomorrow at 7.30a.m. We go to reception to discuss our 6 a.m. taxi with the security man who changes into a cab driver by day. We then try to spend 10 minutes peacefully in the open air lobby using the wifi. There are a family of 5 with their bags evidently about to leave but an argument starts between a very irate Father and his daughter in her twenties, watched over by the rest, things deteriorate and when Father hits daughter all hell breaks loose. Chairs spill, fists fly, I'm terrified. We are yards away and even though two hunking great male members of the family group try to restrain him - albeit unsuccessfully - I'm sure they are frightened of the Father. Peter is ready to help protect the girl, as the others are happy to watch the screaming, yelling and fighting. But there is no way I'm letting Peter get any nearer this horrible situation. When we dissect the situation later we both agree we were wisest walking away. There were 3 or 4 reception/security staff ignoring the ruckus. As we tried to sleep later all I could think about with such an unstable angry man in a culture of guns and knives, who can tell what we might have got into. You can imagine dreadful headlines in newspapers, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thankfully we head to the airport and our onward flight to Antigua with only thoughts of what might have been.