One special day

Some of you may have already heard about our special day, El Dia De Coconut. This day was made the most special day in our lives. In a moment of petrifying fear and excitement Kellie said yes as I was down on one knee begging her to marry me. The place was some old armory ruins overlooking Watermelon Kay on St John. Kellie was so surprised that she thought I was joking. We do not have any plans for the wedding yet but we will keep you posted. After we hiked back down we went to an amazing dinner at Tapa, thank you for such an amazing meal, and then made it back to our campsite on Cinnamon bay. Great night camping and then headed back the next day.
On a more sour note, the car is broken. She finally gave out and just won't quite start, but we have hope she will run once again. Supposed to give a guy a call who is going to give another guy a call today to come over to the house to take a look at it. I know, sounds really promising. This morning has also not been so shiny. We've been up since before 7 because the power once again went out, which means roaring generators and the lack of a fan. There are also six yapping rottweiler puppies upstairs, crowing roosters and weed whackers. Crossing our fingers for a nap before work later today.

Jost Van Dyke

Nestled among the USVI is the BVI, British Virgin Islands. We and some friends chartered a boat to take us to the BVIs yesterday, and let me say the Brits do it right. The boat that we were on was amazing. Big spacious and leather everything. It had two bedrooms, a tv, and a rocking stereo. the best part of the boat for me was I got to drive it back, of course he did not let me park it. The first sighn that we had picked the right boat was it's oregin, Portland OR. We had a great sail over to Jost Van Dyke and after a long customs experience, one of the people with us was Columbian, we mored of the beach and swam ashore.

The Soggy Dollar was the first stop, named because you have to swim to get there and your money is all wet, where they had this great ring toss game that I scored in only three trys. After a long nap in the hot sun we went on to Love and peace, or some thing like that, where we had this wonderfull treat, The Rotti. This is some chicken and potato curry something wrapped up in a tortilla, amazing! We then had to swim back to the boat because one of our friends had to be back to work by Six. As we motered back on one scew, to save gas, it takes almost $1000 to fill the boat up, the sun began to fade behind the horizon and people bagan to doze off. What a great day. Thankyou Kenny for puting the trip together, and a special thanks to Captin Adrian.

I want to remind everyone that the 12th of febuary is El Dia De Coconut. This is a holiday that me and Kellie came up with last year in Nicaragua. We were sipping out of coconuts and decided to make it a holiday. So no matter how rainy or snowy it is were you are drink a beverage, of you choice, out of a coconut and dream of sunny weather.

Wild Asses!

This weekend we were able to get a campsite over on St. John and were able to do a lot of hiking at Watermelon Cay and up to the old sugar plantation ruins. Pretty cool. On St. John the wildlife consists of mongoose, goats, and wild donkeys! The donkeys have no fear of humans as you can see from the photos, the only fear is the fear we have of them kicking us. It has been raining a lot and very hard the past couple days here, but at least we don't have to shovel it, and it is still 85 degrees. Car is still running, but we worry about its timeline every single day. Not really much to report. Oh, the sink is broken and spews water everywhere. Enjoy the photos, and we love you all!

The Bug

What bug did you find today? Everyday I get to ask Kellie that very question. Our little friend seen above found its way into the house, not sure how I have not seen any holes big enough for him, the other night. He began flying around in a frenzy. For all of you who have not encountered a R.O.U.S. roach of unusual size, it is frightning. They make a loud clicking sound as they fly irratacally, banging into everything, all you can do is duck and wave a shoe in the air hoping to kill it with luck. What I really needed in this situation was a karate kid with some chopsticks.

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner on St John at ZOZO's. Food was great, veiw was great, but the company was the best, Kellie. Thanks for all the love you have all sent us over the holidays. For all of you that believe in a higher power, pray for our jeep. We take it in tomorrow and it is going to need all of you prayers. While she is in the shop we are heading back to St John to do some hiking. I will try to get some good photos for you all. Till next time.

Yes that is a photo of my future boat.

The end of the taxi cab era (hopefully...)

I will never again complain about going to the DMV stateside ever again. Not after yesterday's nonsense. It started about 8 AM with a phone call from a guy who is selling his car because he is desperate to get off island TODAY. In the past 2 months he had been stabbed, broken his back, and been almost killed by a hitchhiker he had picked up. He needed out of here so we knew we could get a deal. He came right over in a beat up 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee, but for $1150 we decided the price was right. Immediately we had to get the title transfered and registered, insured, etc. Step one, find a notary which seems entirely pointless. Then we have to walk to the insurance agency and set all that up. Had to pay up front for a full year and then we'll supposedly get a prorated refund when we leave. Then the DMV, actually the BMV here. I now hail stateside DMVs as beacons of efficiency and speed. Start off in super long line and make it to window one, where of course the woman behind the window is out to lunch so we just have to wait it out because she has to check records for tickets. Next up, window 2 to fill out applications for registration. Take a number. Number is finally called and we pay someone some money. Back to window 2. Given some papers. Now is time for car inspection. What you are about to read is totally illegal but accepted, if not encouraged. There is a guy right at the DMV who you can pay to "get your inspection done". This entails no one actually ever looking at the vehicle because few of them would pass on this island, ours included. He runs around for an hour or more between who knows how many windows but we are finally presented with our registration stickers, and now I'm almost late to work. It was quite the ordeal.

This day of hell will be worth it because it means no more taxi cabs! Allowing that the car holds up. The motor, engine, all that are good apparently (this is Kellie writing this, so all technicalities regarding car troubles are according to Mat), but there is a crazy clicking noise, needs some breaks, and you have to touch wires together to roll the windows up or down. And sometimes you have to wiggle the battery bolt things in order to start the car. But it runs, it runs, and we figure we can get through the next 4 months with it, put a little money into it, and maybe even sell it for a small profit when we leave.

Happy New Years to all of you! Hope eveyone will be safe tonight and have a good time. I will be working from 3 pm to 3 am, so my holiday is pretty much shot. Mat is also working. But we both have the next 2 days off and are going to St. Johns tomorrow to get massages, hang out at the beach, and have a nice dinner. Belated christmas presents to eachother. We love you all!

Wrong Side of the Bed

Yesterday we woke up and walked to the beach. On our way back a bee flew under the brim of my my hat and stung me on my head next to my eye. After pulling out the bee gut ridden stinger the burning began. I suffered only for a short time then went off to work. The Safari driver, the bus system here, tried to charge me a white man fee. For those who do not know he tried to rip me off of a dollar. I refused, he yelled, and drove off. After finally making it to work, I stepped in the back to change my shirt and stepped on two sticky rat traps. Now I have two rat traps stuck to my feet, and they do not come off. After that mess I had a nice family at my table and as was dropping off their beers, I dropped one on the nice lady. A few moments later I was taking them another round and the ice covered beer slipped out of my hand and fell on the same lady. The only good thing about that table was, there was six of them, AUTOGRAT! I hope today is better.

Merry Christmas

Just a quick note. I am going to quit one of my jobs today. The job that I have to wear that awful shirt at. Kellie and I decided that we needed time together and three jobs just did not allow for that. Kellie is still doing fine at her job despite the slow season and the Green House is working well for me. The big Christmas celebration for the island was Saturday which included a Christmas boat parade. For all of you that have seen Portland's your expectations are too high. There was only a handful of ships, but it was a nice addition to the party.

I wish that there were more stories to tell you but nothing realy hapens here. I have a hour comute to work on a thirteen mile long island, kellie has a thirty dollar comute by taxy, and everyone tries to rip you off because the think your a tourist. I hope to get some good dives in this week, if I ever make some money I will buy a underwater camera to show you all how great it is out here.

I got to go some guy is offering to buy us breakfast if we let him get on facebook.

Merry Christmas,
We love you all,

Mat and Kellie