Land’s End…
Self-repudiation is the starting theme for this week. I doubt I have the focus to sustain it throughout this (hopefully short) entry, but let’s see. What I’m getting at is this: I was probably far too hard on my fellow gringos in my last entry. You may recall my blasting banal conversations regarding auto insurance and refrigerator models. I continue to feel the same way about these sorts of topics…but having heard from my old friend and loyal reader Johann, I now recognize that my data is probably skewed. The folks I meet on the road aren’t likely to be concerned with the vagaries of life, beyond procuring sufficient stores of toilet paper and bottled water (two topics I’m happy to hold forth on for hours on end – touché). So when I come across affluent yet self-torturing hoi polloi in places like Newton, Mass., I have little sympathy or time for their woes. And I may strike the next person I overhear complaining about garbage pickup times – no promises from these lips.
OK, enough self-flagellation – that wasn’t much, but I’m ready to move on. This posting is coming to ya a week late, thanks to my spending a week on a Caribbean cruise with my family. The cruise was good – the ostensible purpose was my father’s 65th birthday, and 15 family members came along. Only a few flesh wounds were sustained. I won’t get into the minutiae…but will mention a few details. First, the route was Puerto Rico-St. Thomas/St. John-St. Kitts-Grenada-Bonaire-Aruba-Puerto Rico. Pretty good pathway to follow – and all the islands were worth a peek. I continue to be fascinated by the ethnic/racial mix of locals – and to be concerned at the same time about how the wealth does (or doesn’t) get spread around. A few other remarks:
• We went biking with a local tour company on St. Kitts. Was a very good way to get acquainted with the island – the guide was knowledgeable and kept us interested. But the highlight was a brutal deathclimb up a long, steep hill – the grade was probably 20% and it was at least a mile long. I came in second out of 6-7 of us – most of the riders opted, sensibly, to ride up the hill in pickup trucks. I’m not much of a biker, but my recent fitness push prepared me well for this one.
• Buffets are way too dangerous for me to be around. And on cruises they give you massive plates to fill up – and most Americans fill ‘em right up, often several times. The hitch was that the food in the regular, semi-plush dining room (the Botticelli Room – uh huh) was not good…so we went to the buffet on 3 nights out of 7. It took some serious biking, running, and yoga practice to maintain my girlish figure.
• Most locals on these islands are impressively multi-lingual – like the Swiss are over in Europe. We took a taxi to the dive shop in Bonaire and conversed with the driver in English, Spanish, and French – and she spoke all of them better than we did. So no more aspersions should be cast on the ‘poor/uneducated islanders,’ most of who are intelligent and resourceful despite lacking many amenities that we consider indispensable to modern life.
• The diving in Bonaire was superb. You can fall right off the dock behind Bonaire Adventure & Diving, into their ‘House Reef,’ and immediately be amongst beautiful coral reefs and fish so friendly they come right up to you. Thank God I wasn’t under the influence of any powerful narcotics (besides compressed oxygen). Had a fun time diving with Aaron and Amanda, two of my step-siblings. We also went out on a boat dive and had an excellent time then. I think this year I’ll go for my Advanced Open Water certificate and also pick up a dive watch…
• Most these islands are now independent, at least in name. And you can walk right up to the Parliament and other government buildings. That’s kind of refreshing…it creates a feeling of openness and calm that’s missing from most big city capitals. Imagine getting anywhere near the White House, particularly in a car or with a phat backpack, these days. Darwin, Oz was another city with easy access to the hot spots – you can sit in a café/bar right across the street and self-medicate as the sun goes down. Having lots of cops and barbed wire/fencing around doesn’t put me at ease – must take that into account when I finally decide where to put down some roots…
• The flight home, from San Juan to Boston, was another fine piece of work from our loser airlines. This time we were on American Airlines – an outfit which is certainly not adding any luster to our already tarnished national brand. We were supposed to depart around 3:30 p.m. Got on the plane, and the attendants made my sister move her baby around twice, making him, and her, highly pissed-off. Then the captain got on the horn and announced the failure of a piece of equipment for which there was no replacement piece in Puerto Rico. We got off…they brought in a piece from another island. We got on…then there was another equipment problem, and they couldn’t fix it before 7:10 p.m., which was the cutoff point for the crew – they were illegal to fly after that point. We got off again. They found us another plane…then another crew…we got on that plane (after I had run into my Spanish buddy Manuel Lopez de Miguel, from Madrid, in the hallway of the airport – he was en route to the Dominican Republic and Cuba – random). We finally took off around 9:30 p.m. – only 6 hours after the original plan. Whatever. I didn’t really care, as I had little to do the next day besides watch the Patriots kick San Diego’s ass. But my nephew was not happy about the turmoil – although he was remarkably good-spirited about it all. We landed around midnight and everyone got home just fine.
• In the midst of the craziness, one passenger went haywire and was yelling at the gate staff. Not pretty. And she wanted the rest of us to ‘get angry and raise our voices too,’ otherwise we’d get treated like dirt. I think she had it backwards. And you can bet she wasn’t Puerto Rican…no, she was an uptight white American. It’s just not an attractive sight to see someone lose their cool. Don’t ever lose your cool, people. You can almost always catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And you thought I didn’t know any folksy Southern expressions, huh?
• The day after I landed, my right eye was killing me. It was bothering me a bit the day before, during the flight mayhem, but I didn’t attend to it and left my contacts in. Now it was red and light-sensitive, so went to my Optometrist and he prescribed a couple meds to deal with the problem, a slight abrasion. Got the meds at the pharmacy and now the eye’s better. I’m wondering, though, whether to keep the meds in my dop kit. I’ve got so many one-off meds in there, I do check from time to time to see if they’ve passed their expiry date, but at times it feels like I’ve got a huge armamentarium in there and when I keep a med, I almost never re-use it. Is that the converse of Murphy’s Law, or what?
What else…went out a few nights back with an old buddy from high school whom I haven’t seen in 15 or so years. Was good to catch up with him, we’ve both grown up a lot and can relate in a semi-mature manner these days (as opposed to breaking things and giggling drunkenly). He’s done well over the years, and we’ll try to get a reunion with some of the rest of the old posse one of these days, if not at our next class reunion. I was annoyed to have attended the last reunion, in 2005, when I flew in from Tokyo, and most of my favorite people weren’t there. Go to your reunions, people.
Went to REI to shop for my upcoming round-the-world – known as RTW 2007. REI is Disneyland for adults, at least adults like me. I bought some new sahara pants (you know – they are two-in-one shorts and long pants), some super-comfortable/breathable underwear from Ex Officio, and a few other things. Noticed that REI’s selling mosquito nets – good idea. One brand is called ‘Mombasa’ – after the second city of Kenya. A South African friend of mine called Mombasa the anus of the planet – not too sure what the mossie net’s like, though.
I think I’ll end here, before I get into further minutiae. Stay tuned – in the next week or two I plan to either switch blogsites, or to upgrade my Boots ‘n’ All account so that I can again post some pics (I’m at the limit now for my free account). And on Feb. 5 I head to Manila, and will be on the road for the balance of ’07. Many more adventures planned – so keep your couches open, amigos.
Tags: Travel
mbsloney
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