The Rant

[NikLR 13,227]

Steve, it sure looks interesting and not as bad of a trip as you made it sound like.

Maybe a radical idea, but why not just stop doing the immigration stuff and see if he does it?

I plan on sending my stuff and letting him send his. His path and my path must meet for this to work.

[NikLR 13,227]

Had a chat about it. Feel better.

[Calypso 464]

St. Croix has the Cane Bay Wall and it is accessable from shore. No boat necessary. This diving spot is so good that it is a favorite with the live aboard dive boats. There is also the waterfront area (boardwalk) that is unique and really prettty cool. St. Croix is also affordable. All and all a pretty good spot for vacation. However, Steer clear of Fredriksted after dark.. Stay on the east end unless you are at Carambola Resort. Oh.. 2 18 hole golf courses here too.. One at Carambola, one at Buccaneer. Buccaneer resort is in my opinion the best family resort in the Caribbean, but pretty pricey. Beaches here are really not that great. They are here, but there are a lot of better ones on other islands. Quiet here too.

Providenciales TCI. Really pricey here but without a doubt, the best beaches in the Caribbean. Grace bay is 2 1/.2 miles of white sugar sand beach. A hamburger here will cost you $15.00 or more. Beer in a bar is $7.00. Diving on Provo is good too. Off West Caicos is a wall dive that has a "Chimney" that you enter at 50' and exit @ 90'. pretty cool. Best dive in Provo is off the caicos banks called French Cay. It's a wall dive on steroids. Everything is huge. I saw a spotted eagle ray that spanned at lease 12' across. Not much to do on Provo outside of the water. One more unique thing. On the Caicos Banks, there is the "Emrald Cloud" phenomenon where the sun shines into the water and bounces the color of the water to the clouds. I've never seen this anywhere else. I met my wife while working here.

St. Thomas.. I call this place St. Toilet... Another nickname is St Trauma. It sucks.

St. John.. Its a wonderful Island and in the off season is affordable. Very small, but lots to do there. 2/3 of the island is national park. Lots of really good beaches, hiking, and OK diving, but nothing spectacular unless you like catching lobster. Lot's of them here. Caneel Bay is here. #2 in resorts in the Caribbean. The outer cays are what I classify as OK diving spots. Fishing off the famed north drop is excellent. #1 for Blue Marlin in the world. Lot's of Wahoo, Dorado, ect. My home anchorage is here. ( I wish I was there more).

BVI. Not bad diving off Virgin Gorda, and a good bit of wreck diving off of Cooper Island, and Norman Island. Norman also has "The famous Willie T" You'ld have to see it to believe it. Beaches are ok.. but again it's expensive here. NOTE: All BVI activities are accessable from St. John. Best diving in BVI is Anagada. It's an atol with more shipwrecks then the rest of the VI put together. Not deep dives either.

My favorites for last. Cullebra & Vieques. The Spanish Virgins.. Cullebra is very laid back. Great beaches, lots of reef, good diving, affordable, but if your into nightlife, it's not here. Theres a lady who owns a tourist shop. Her sign reads; "Open some days, others not".. this tells all about Cullebra. They take siesta and the island (with exception of one store/deli) shts down from 2:00-5:00. I love this. Ferry goes to Puerto Rico every day and costs $4.00 each round trip. (May be $5.00 now). From Fajardo PR, you can go to the El Yunque Rainforrest. This place is wonderful.

Vieques has Bioluminecent Bay. (www.biobay.com) Check out the link. UNBELIEVABLE.. One last thing. For a fantastic dive, you can book a dive from Puerto Rico to Mona Island. This is a great dive.

Theres a lot of other Islands here.. I don't much care for St. Maartin (french or dutch side) but Anguilla is excellent as is Dominica. If you're into eco tours, Dominica is it. Small Island, great people, full of fruit trees, and a river for every day of the year. Many eco hikes.

I travel and work on most of the islands in the Caribbean, and if you want to know about any of them, just ask..

Thanks a lot for the detailed response. I'll bookmark this. It will still be a few months until we finally make a decision because I don't wanna travel outside the contiguous US while my N-400 is pending.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

If my husband were on this site he would be ranting about the fact I refuse to drive the car because it is a manual and I am making him stop at the Ikea museum and headquarters on the way back.

[NikLR 13,227]

Hahaha <3 you Nola.

[TBoneTX 44,805]

If you've never experienced any of those other things, you must have 1. Never left Cuenca, easily the cleanest/most modern city in the country, or 2. Kept your eyes shut the entire visit. We live in the Manabi province, in Bahia de Caraquez, but those things are everywhere on the western coast. I hear stories on a weekly basis of dumb foreign girls who meet the typical gringa hunting locals at the beach, get ridiculously trashed with them, and wake up (if they're lucky) without pants or money. The streets are filthy always, but it depends on the time of year - during the summer it's dusty, during the winter it's muddy. Plantations are omniscent, along with shrimp pools, and if you say you ate food here and didn't get sick at least once, you're either RIDICULOUSLY lucky, or lying.

You have an honest face -- I trust you, si man. Have been to Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca, Loja, Salinas, Gualaquiza, and several other burgs in Morona Santiago province. Over half a dozen or so visits, saw only a few dusty/muddy streets anywhere, see man.

And I've NEVER gotten sick on the food*, no man, except sick of the lack of flavor. Next trip, I'm bringing a full can of ground black pepper that I can whip out to give their bland stuff some taste, slurp man.

*Note: I will NOT eat cuy or any seafood, no man.

Edited March 21, 2013 by TBoneTX

[JstaRebel 48]

Thanks a lot for the detailed response. I'll bookmark this. It will still be a few months until we finally make a decision because I don't wanna travel outside the contiguous US while my N-400 is pending.

With the exception of Providenciales and BVI, the rest IS the USA, and no passports are required. Travel between the Islands is very unrestrictive.

[Caryh 5,206]

I'm looking at Turks and Caicos, Grand Cayman, or Bonaire. I've read that Bonaire has fantastic shore diving. Yet, I can't quite make up my mind because major airlines don't seem to fly directly to Bonaire. My husband will always prefer to go to SE Asia but since he accepted a new job offer recently, he decided to not take more than one week of vacation at a time. The Caribbean is close enough for a seven-day trip.

I almost said diving in SE Asia is so so much better than the Caribbean. But you dive where you can. Personally I got so bored of the Caribean for diving, there's just not enough species diversity. If I'm going to spend the money and the work to drag gear, I'm diving where I see new species every dive. But you need more than a week to go to the best places in the world.

[Marilyn. 340]

GRRRRR

Saturday Morning: Applied for apartment and was told they would call us later in the day with the results of the Credit check

Sunday Afternoon: no call yet so I called them and they said they received it the day before but it was too late to call..( hello, this is Sunday afternoon.. ) We did pass the credit check but they still had to do the job verification and they should know by Tuesday at the latest..

Monday: didn't here anything all day

Tuesday Afternoon: No call from them so I called and they said there servers were down all day so she couldn't get the stuff she needed off her computer :S but not to worry they would call the next day, early afternoon at the latest..

Wednesday Afternoon: No Call all day.. We were in the area so we decided to drop by. They said they were still waiting on the job verification.. umm, there was no mention of this the day before :S The lady that was actually working on our file was out for lunch but they said they would get her to call us when she got back.. guess what? no call!

We are supposed to move in this weekend

Edited March 21, 2013 by Marilyn.

[Caryh 5,206]

This photo was taken for Cary "The Professor" H...

have you ever thought about the reason they're always red?

Great pictures. The old house reminds me of the house my wife grew up in. Only her family home was in a squatters area on a tidal flat. At high tide they were above water, at low tide they were above mud. During a typhoon, they were wet.

Glad to see you're getting better enough to get around a little bit

[Caryh 5,206]

GRRRRR

Saturday Morning: Applied for apartment and was told they would call us later in the day with the results of the Credit check

Sunday Afternoon: no call yet so I called them and they said they received it the day before but it was too late to call..( hello, this is Sunday afternoon.. ) We did pass the credit check but they still had to do the job verification and they should know by Tuesday at the latest..

Monday: didn't here anything all day

Tuesday Afternoon: No call from them so I called and they said there servers were down all day so she couldn't get the stuff she needed off her computer :S but not to worry they would call the next day, early afternoon at the latest..

Wednesday Afternoon: No Call all day.. We were in the area so we decided to drop by. They said they were still waiting on the job verification.. umm, there was no mention of this the day before :S The lady that was actually working on our file was out for lunch but they said they would get her to call us when she got back.. guess what? no call!

We are supposed to move in this weekend

oh this just sucks in so many ways. I feel for you

[Marilyn. 340]

we do have until the 31st to move out of our current place but we got a weeks free rent at the new place if we moved in this weekend.. it would be nice to know if we got the place or not cause if we didn't get it we need to start looking for another place ASAP..

[JstaRebel 48]

I almost said diving in SE Asia is so so much better than the Caribbean. But you dive where you can. Personally I got so bored of the Caribean for diving, there's just not enough species diversity. If I'm going to spend the money and the work to drag gear, I'm diving where I see new species every dive. But you need more than a week to go to the best places in the world.

One of my best dives was Okinawa's Sunabe Seawall while inspecting a seawater intake system and checking the effects of IDE's .

brine return on the reef system there. Lots of cool stuff. Midway Island was hands down the best dive I've ever done. WWll planes and boats. Lot's of them. The Caribbean is anything but "ho hum" though. Have you ever checked out the wreck of a spanish gallion?? Also the Caribbean does have the best snorkle spots. Have you ever dove Mona Island??? If not, check it out online..

Edited March 21, 2013 by JstaRebel

[Caryh 5,206]

we do have until the 31st to move out of our current place but we got a weeks free rent at the new place if we moved in this weekend.. it would be nice to know if we got the place or not cause if we didn't get it we need to start looking for another place ASAP..

I had a similar situation when buying a house, everything was marching down to the wire, but the final approval on the mortgage was not in weeks after it was supposed to be. I wasn't in a position where I had to move, but I did need to schedule closing day off work and I had a moving truck coming the day after closing. I finally got the confirmation the evening before closing day.

[Marilyn. 340]

I am hoping my husband talks to HR today to see if they got the job verification form or not..