Ten Things To Know about the BVIs

1) The British Virgin Islands were first settled in 600 B.C. by Amerindians from South America. 

2) Road (as in Road Town the BVI capital) is the nautical name for a protected anchorage. 

3) The official currency of the British Virgin Islands is the US dollar.

4) In Spanish, Tortola means “land of turtle doves”

5) The median age of BVI residents is 30.

6) After the first traffic lights were installed in 2001, the government had to hold seminar telling people how to use the lights.  .

7) William Thornton, the man who designed the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was born Jost Van Dyke in 1759. 

8) British pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, made his home in Soper's Hole on the island of Tortola  between 1715 and 1718.

9) The Painkiller is a favorite drink made with rum, pineapple and orange juices and cream of coconut.

10) You can own your own British Virgin Island like Virgin Airline founder Richard Branson, who owns all of Necker Island.

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