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About Living in the Virgin Islands

If you’re adventurous, you might have dreamed about living in the Virgin Islands, enjoying the lifestyle, the weather, and the idea of a carefree existence. In theory, it sounds like an idyllic departure from the rat race and an escape for free-spirited adventurists. It sort of is, but for me, it became much more.

I lived in the British Virgin Islands for close to 15 years. I managed a small team and built many websites for Caribbean companies from a small digital marketing office in Road Town. I got many questions comments from tourists and, family members, and friends back home while living in the Virgin Islands. I was asked some of these questions so many times it began to wear on me psychologically. So much, I started making shit up. I thought I would share some of the questions I was asked and how I would answer them now after two years removed.

It’s not all sunshine and sea breeze. If you are curious about the working conditions in the BVI, check out my article, Working As A Web Designer in the Virgin Islands.

Some seemed silly and cliche then, but now, looking back, they stir up more prominent memories and emotions than I would have imagined while living there.

Did you eat a lot of seafood living in the Virgin Islands?

No. There is seafood, but it’s not the selection you’d expect, especially if you want to eat locally caught fish. Also, the prices are high compared to those in the USA. Believe it or not, most seafood you are accustomed to eating doesn’t come from the Caribbean.

There are some species of fish you don’t eat because they contain high amounts of mercury or ciguatera, a toxin that causes a food-borne illness. I know people who have it. Once you have it, it’s yours for life. Also, certain regions only have certain marine life, and in those areas, there are seasons for different varieties of fish. I stayed away from large local reef fish but had my share of local lobster and conch.

Anegada lobster is big and quite tough, it also has no claws. If you love Maine Lobster, you might not like its spiny warm water cousin. But, if you’re lucky enough to snare one (illegal for tourists) while camping on the beach with some of the best people you know, and it finds its way to a campfire, you’ll eat it.

I would rarely eat trophy fish, like marlin or sailfish. I am not a biologist, but I understand that warm-water fish higher up in the food chain tend to contain more mercury than one should eat regularly.

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Most of the fish I ate in the BVI was imported except for wahoo and mahi-mahi, which I love. Snapper, seabass, sole, salmon, tuna, and even crab were all imported, thus it cost way more than it should have after shipping and duty were added.  Curried conch at Big Bamboo in Anegada was my favorite dish in the BVI. Next, wahoo would be smoked at friends’ houses or at anchors in the Bight on Norman Island, but it was scarce.

What are the “Natives” like while living in the Virgin Islands?

This question was always made me laugh. It just sounded silly to refer to a BVIslander as a “Native,” like some South Pacific tribesman. I usually avoided it because I disagreed with the nomenclature, but I always put it when I answered. There are good and bad things about everyone, everywhere. I would usually start my answer by clarifying their question and identifying their curiosity’s intent. If a 20-something shirtless bachelor asked, I would assume he would be referring to local Caribbean women. To this, I would say, “Ask them yourself,” and watch him get a drink dumped on his head.

If they were talking about BVI islanders, I would keep it short and do my best to dispel whatever preconceived myths they may have already heard. For the most part, people there are like anywhere else. They care about their family, religion, and community. Everyone in the BVI, regardless of whether they were born there, has a lot of love for their home and the people who live there. I have a lot of love for my “island brethren.”

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There’s a lot of diversity and ethnicities there, especially among BVI Islanders. None of which I would say is more native than another. Afro-Caribbean British Virgin Islanders are the most prominent, and many are highly educated, well-traveled, and super-fun to hang out with. Then there are the BVI Islanders who have parents from overseas who moved to the territory in the 70s and 80s, some earlier who are caucasian, Hispanic, or West Indian. This is a smaller percentage of the population, but it has the same traits as the former.

Of course, some less hospitable groups are threatened by outside influence, immigrants, and cultures and are quite outspoken about it. To me, it’s no different than it is in the USA, but as a Caucasian living in the BVI, I recognized fewer people didn’t want me there than those who did. I gravitated toward those who represented the more “open to diversity” and “one love” mindset.

Don’t get me wrong, some people reside there, much like anywhere you’d prefer not to mix with. They can be from anywhere. You’ll never know their story and be glad.

Another exciting thing about a small community like the BVI is that people know everything about one another. The coconut telegraph is a real thing. You’d often hear rumors about Government officials, preachers, prominent members of the community, and some very scandalous dealings. Some of it is true, some isn’t. Almost all of the scandals I’ve heard involve greed or corruption at some level.

Do you eat a lot of local fruit while living in the Virgin Islands?

When fruit is in season, I try everything and like most of it. Some of the more exotic fruits I came across I had never heard of before I moved to the Caribbean, only to find them growing wild in my backyard. The first time I saw a dragon fruit vine on the road up to my apartment, I was super excited. I had never had it before. Then I tasted it and realized it tasted like sweet dirt.

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Not all fruit is in season at the same time. Weirdly, some varieties of mango would fruit in the summer, and others would do so in the winter. It also seemed like certain areas of the island would affect when fruit trees blossomed.

Top 10 Exotic Fruits I liked while living in the Virgin Islands

1: Fig Bananas, are small and turn bright red when ripe. They were quite rare to get a hold of and seemed to be really seasonal. To me, they actually tasted more like a strawberry than a store-bought banana.

2: Soursop, they don’t look edible, spiny green and the size of a large grapefruit, soft white flesh that’s sweet and sour. The texture is unlike any fruit I can compare them to. Makes awesome Ice cream.

3: Pineapple, local pineapple is usually a third to half the size of a storebought pineapple. When they are ripe they are bright yellow-gold. They are less tart and often have a tinge of sweet coconut already present. Don’t ask me how.

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4: Mango: There are a ton of varieties of mango. Some are hairy, some are fleshy, some have thick skin, and others have peach skin. Living in the BVI for 14 years, I learned which trees had the fruit I liked. A lot of friends and co-workers had them on their properties. My best mangos were smaller, yellow, and pink and had fragile skin so that you could eat them like a peach with no peeling. Once you have a mango that has fully ripened on a tree, buying an imported one from a grocery store is hard.

5: Sugar Apple is weird but possibly the sweetest thing I have ever tasted. It’s like soursop and artichoke had drunken sex on a beach, and this little thing was the offspring. They were pretty scarce, but they were a treat when you could find them.

6: Coconuts- everyone has had coconuts in some form. Coconut water, coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut oil, coconut meat, Coco Lopez, etc. But, not everyone has had a sprouted sapling coconut, aka “Bushman delight.” When a coconut falls from the tree and sprouts, it grows into the ground. When that happens, there is a period when the white meat inside that nut transforms into a foam-like ball. If you crack open the nut and eat this thing, you will love coconut and crave this little meringue au coconut for the rest of your life.

7: Passion fruit, good fruit if you know what to do with it. I would always juice it and strain it, then add a little sugar kind of like lemonade. The vines are really pretty and have beautiful flowers. They do attract some pretty terrifying creatures though. Hornets, Jack-Sparrows, and wasps love these fruits with a passion.

8: Star fruit, meh. They’re a big fancy grape. I never ate them much because they are supposedly bad for your kidneys, but I liked other stuff better. They are good, though.

9: Guava, meh. The ones I had were tasteless. Crandall’s guava tarts are good, though.

10: Papaya: Papaya is a fruit that grows all over the islands. It’s like a weed that turns into a tall, palm-like tree. It is a tender tropical plant and cannot take cold weather. I have had it green or orange, I have even juiced the leaves. The juice was the most bitter thing I had ever tasted but I had heard, it was good for dengue and chikungunya, which I thought I had at one point. I was not too fond of the ripe papaya; it smells like feet. However, I used green papaya in a Thai salad, julienned like noodles.

Is it hard to make a living on the islands?

If you move to the islands, you will make some tradeoffs. I don’t think making a living in the Islands is easy. I think it is much harder to have a balanced life. Getting a job and a salary to live off of is one thing. Finding healthy ways to spend your off time was more of a challenge. The BVI economy was driven by rum and BVI financial services. Depending on what you do, there may or may not be opportunities to live on an island. You have a great chance of finding work if you are a tradesperson with a particular skill set and education. Remember that you might not get paid what you’re worth in the Islands because of the “Sunshine Tax.”

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Also, things are expensive and scarce on the islands. It was scarce that I would go to the grocery store and find everything on my shopping list. 99% of the items sitting on shelves arrived by boat. So milk, fruit, meat, and veggies sit on a cargo ship and in port for days before they hit the shelves. These items are about double what you’d pay in the USA and will spoil much faster. You get used to it, but it can be super annoying to buy a pack of spaghetti only to realize something else has already been eating it by the time you open it.

While living in the Virgin Islands, did you go to the beach every day?

Yes and no. I went to a beach bar, which was near a beach. I hated getting sand in my car, so I rarely walked to shore. If I ever went to a beach for a “beach day,” it was usually by boat to Jost van Dyke for a few hours. I would only get in the water on and off the boat. I don’t know why; I didn’t like saltwater either. It doesn’t matter where you live, over time the novelty wears off and you care about the people you’re with more than where you are.

There are some really pretty secluded beaches in Virgin Gorda, Anegada, and Tortola, which I would go to for “quiet reflection,” but I would rarely get in the water.

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When I did go to the beach for “beach life”, it was usually with a group of great friends and we’d bring food, booze, and games. It was rare, but that made it special and worth going to. Occasionally, we’d pack up a boat and head to a neighboring deserted island for a night or two. We’d bring tents, grills, and packed coolers, then fish from the shore in the morning and evening. We’d find conch, reef fish, whelk, and lobster for a fireside feast. This was a once-a-year thing because the weather window and work schedules were a challenge to work around for a group of 10 – 20 people.

What did you miss the most while living in the Virgin Islands?

At first, everything was new and wonderful. Little things wore me down over time. By the time I was about to leave, I knew it was time. Living in the Virgin Islands is not a convenient lifestyle. You have to accept things are what they are and aren’t going to change. It sounds depressing now because I often tried to enact change but never made the impact I hoped for.

Without getting too philosophical, I missed my family, movie theaters, baseball, safe roads, stable electricity, running water, cheap gasoline, and decent variety at the local grocery stores.

I missed the way people treated animals with love and compassion. My uncle is a cattle farmer in Odessa, Missouri. These are animals being bred for food, and he treats them like family, even naming them.

I was constantly disappointed by the way the BVI Government allowed animals to be treated. It was, and still is, incredibly sad and shocking. Several of my friends and neighbors have watched their pets suffer and die in agony after some twisted individual planted poison in a “dog-friendly” area. I won’t get into it any more than that.

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An extremely small group of people find this acceptable, and they most certainly fall into the category of “people I do not mix with.” As long as I lived there, no one was ever caught or brought to justice, even though people knew who was doing it.

Is it safe to live in the Virgin Islands?

There are three real dangers of living on an island.

  1. Hurricanes
  2. Crime
  3. Automobile accidents.

Hurricanes

I’ve been in 3 minor hurricanes and one major. On the spectrum, the major hurricane was life-altering. Hurricane Irma was a category 5 storm and I witnessed the eye firsthand. It’s a series of blog posts all its own.

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Smaller storms are like party storms. They are a spectacle and can be fun. A day off work to watch Mother Nature sneeze. These storms are rare but are getting bigger and more frequent, but would not sway my decision to live in the Virgin Islands.

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What about crime while living in the Virgin Islands?

Could there be less local crime? Yes, I think so. Does corporate crime take place? Not as often as corporate greed.

As far as violent crimes, like muggings, shootings, and armed robberies, are rare. If you have common sense, you’ll be just fine. In the BVI, there is far less crime than in the USVI. While I lived in Tortola, my car got broken into once, and it was unlocked outside a restaurant. They stole my laptop, and I felt like an idiot who bought a car without door locks. Other people had their houses broken into by a local thief called “Lightning.” He’s a career criminal who sits at bars wearing elaborate clothing and usually a fedora hat, waiting for his mark to get drunk. He usually targets residents, who he then follows home and waits for them to pass out before sneaking in and robbing the household. He gets the name Lightning from those who have caught him in the act.

“Lighting’s” preference for remaining stealthy is nothing more than nature’s camouflage and coating his naked body with petroleum jelly. In the worst-case scenario, if someone were to wake from their drunken slumber and catch him in the act, he can slip away into the night, leaving only a trail of greasy footprints. He gets caught often.

There have been crime sprees, armed robberies, muggings, and murders, but they are infrequent and usually occur in places you should not be anywhere near in the first place. When I lived there, we’d hear about restaurants being held up, homicides outside of strip clubs, and drug dealers getting capped in their cars.  Unfortunately, due to the nature of these crimes, there were rarely any suspects or witnesses willing to offer information to the police. 

The police are pretty relaxed, but when they want to arrest you for something or just ruin your day for no reason, they will. Or, if you’re in a car wreck, expect the next 2 hours of your life to be ruined. The way the police “investigate” auto collisions will raise some eyebrows. The police get a lot of flack, and I don’t envy their job and what they have to deal with daily.

Also, people drive like maniacs. Do NOT buy a nice car and expect it to stay nice. A ding a day is almost guaranteed. When you see how people park, you’ll think they are nuts until you have a car and see how many times it gets dinged in the first week of owning it.

My run-in with an RBVIPF Forensic Investigator living in the Virgin Islands

One Sunday at 6:30 am, there was a knock on my apartment door. I was hungover. The policeman asked me to look at my neighbor’s car outside. A neighbor said that when I parked my car the previous night, I somehow backed into his car. The area I lived in was pretty run down and low rent, and this neighbor was not someone I had been very neighborly in the first place. I came outside and said, “When I park my car, I don’t need to back up. I drive into my parking spot in the future.”

It’s a tight spot, but I’ve done it every day for a year, so I knew the angle, and it was not a big deal. 

On the bumper of my car, there was a spot where there was a minor collision, but I didn’t know where it came from. And, on my neighbor’s car, there was a corresponding dent on his car. So, he decided to call the Police and say I backed into his car.

I said, “No, would you like me to show you how I park my car?

“Yes,” replied the man and the police officer.

I backed out, drove down the road, and parked my car exactly where it was without incident or hesitation. I got out of the car and immediately heard.

“Noooooo! That’s not how you park, from the neighbor.

By this point, a forensic investigator arrives at the scene and tells me he will take paint samples to the crime lab. Again, I want to emphasize that it’s 6:45 am, and I am hungover, maybe even still drunk. I know I smell like Mount Gay and Coke. The police just asked me to get in my 1996 Suzuki Vitara with a rusted-out floor and demonstrate how I park my car every night, which I did barefooted and half-drunk, in my boxer shorts.

I then told the paint sample man, “If that paint sample matches his car, it’s because he hit me before he backed into his parking spot.” I had never seen someone’s mind being blown until this moment, at roughly 6:46 a.m. on a Sunday, when I was stinking of rum and bed sweat because I was too cheap to buy an AC unit for my apartment bedroom. I caved in when I got a girlfriend, now my wife.

Officer “CSI” tells me he needs me to take my car to Road Town, 30 minutes away, and leave it there for them to test the samples.

Long story short, I sat on a curb in Road Town, Tortola for 4 hours on a Sunday, everything was closed, still hungover, and smelly, while paint chips from any car on the island were being tested. The result was negative, and I could go back to bed at 3 pm that afternoon.

To this day, the neighbor has never apologized.

Stay Left, Way Left

Is driving in the Virgin Islands dangerous?

Absolutely. Driving in the British Virgin Islands is not for the faint of heart. The roads are steep, winding, and often poorly maintained. Add to that that everyone drives on the left side, which takes some getting used to if you’re coming from a country where you drive on the right. Even after years of living there, I still gripped the steering wheel tighter on certain roads.

I’ve witnessed drivers overtaking around blind corners as if a higher power were steering the wheel. Speed limits often seem optional, with drivers weaving around bends and using their horns more to signal presence than to warn. Adding to the challenge, pedestrians, goats, and chickens frequently dart into the road at the worst possible moments. It didn’t take long for me to realize that defensive driving wasn’t just a skill but a necessity.

The vehicles themselves are a story of survival. Between the salt air, the narrow roads, and the occasional hurricane, cars age in dog years on the island. Most people drive around with dents, scratches, and broken side mirrors, a badge of honor if you will. My car looked like it had survived the apocalypse when I left. The truth is, I was always relieved when I got from point A to point B without adding another ding to my car.

So, if you’re planning on driving in the BVI, stay left, stay alert, and, for the love of all things holy, turn on your headlights at night. The lack of streetlights and the occasional random cow or horse standing in the middle of the road can turn a simple trip into an adventure you didn’t sign up for.

Is drunk driving a problem in the Virgin Islands?

Unfortunately, yes. While drunk driving is technically illegal in the British Virgin Islands, it’s often tolerated, with enforcement being sporadic at best. During my 15 years living there, I only knew of one person charged with drunk driving. They were an expat involved in a severe accident with a local, which likely made the situation impossible to overlook.

This casual attitude toward alcohol and driving has led to tragic consequences. Many of the deaths involving residents during my time there were road-related, alcohol-fueled, and entirely preventable. The combination of poorly maintained roads, cavalier drivers, a relaxed approach to drinking, and a lack of law enforcement creates a dangerous environment. It’s a harsh reality of island life that often gets downplayed, but it’s something everyone should be aware of, especially if they plan on driving.

What did you miss the most after leaving the Virgin Islands?

1. I will keep this brief. It was always the people. I met some amazing people and considered a lot of them family even after leaving. Campaign trips, regattas, and festivals were awesome, but it was always the people attending that made them special. Places like the Virgin Islands seem to attract a very unique breed. To survive or thrive there, you have to be a little crazy and willing to take risks. It’s not for everyone.

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2. I love sailing and racing. It’s like meditation, challenging both mentally and physically. But the biggest reason I love sailing has always been because of who I am sailing with. So, people again. Some of the best friendships I have made have been with people who share a passion for sailing or boating. It’s no wonder so many people choose to register a yacht in the BVI.

3. Hiking in the BVI is legendary.

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4. Camp Freddy. If you know, you know.

5. Full-moon nights and spontaneous Friday night boat trips to the Willy T.

 

The biggest takeaway from living in the Virgin Islands

Undoubtedly, the Virgin Islands are a tropical paradise with beautiful beaches and breathtaking views. There are pros and cons to moving anywhere. Do I regret moving and living in the BVI for nearly 15 years? Not! It was more than I could have hoped. 

Would I ever move back? Never say never! I wouldn’t expect to make it a permanent residence again, but I could see moving back for a year or two to get it out of my system. I have a lot of great friendships and family there.

Was moving there good for my career? Probably not at the time, but the perspective I gained helped me start something new, something I am passionate about and love today.

If you can cover the cost of living and terms of immigrant employment, you can have a happy life on an island. That’s living in the Virgin Islands, in a nutshell. I hope you learned a little bit more about what it is like living in the Virgin Islands.